WriteSTL

Description¶

An [(file format)|STL file]]([wikipedia:STL) describes a triangulated three-dimensional surface by the unit normal and vertices (ordered by the right-hand rule) of the triangles. This example saves a 3D geometric data stored in a {{class vtkPolyData}} to an STL file using {{class vtkSTLWriter}}.

Other Languages

See (Python)

Code¶

WriteSTL.cxx

#include <vtkPolyData.h>
#include <vtkSTLWriter.h>
#include <vtkSTLReader.h>
#include <vtkSphereSource.h>
#include <vtkSmartPointer.h>
#include <vtkPolyDataMapper.h>
#include <vtkActor.h>
#include <vtkRenderWindow.h>
#include <vtkRenderer.h>
#include <vtkRenderWindowInteractor.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  if(argc != 2)
  {
    std::cout << "Required parameters: filename.stl" << std::endl;
    return EXIT_FAILURE;
  }

  std::string filename = argv[1];

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkSphereSource> sphereSource =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkSphereSource>::New();
  sphereSource->Update();

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkSTLWriter> stlWriter =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkSTLWriter>::New();
  stlWriter->SetFileName(filename.c_str());
  stlWriter->SetInputConnection(sphereSource->GetOutputPort());
  stlWriter->Write();

  // Read and display for verification
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkSTLReader> reader =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkSTLReader>::New();
  reader->SetFileName(filename.c_str());
  reader->Update();

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyDataMapper> mapper =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyDataMapper>::New();
  mapper->SetInputConnection(sphereSource->GetOutputPort());

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkActor> actor =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkActor>::New();
  actor->SetMapper(mapper);

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderer> renderer =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderer>::New();
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindow> renderWindow =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindow>::New();
  renderWindow->AddRenderer(renderer);
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindowInteractor> renderWindowInteractor =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindowInteractor>::New();
  renderWindowInteractor->SetRenderWindow(renderWindow);

  renderer->AddActor(actor);
  renderer->SetBackground(.3, .6, .3); // Background color green

  renderWindow->Render();
  renderWindowInteractor->Start();

  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

CMakeLists.txt¶

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.3 FATAL_ERROR)

project(WriteSTL)

find_package(VTK COMPONENTS 
  vtkCommonCore
  vtkCommonDataModel
  vtkFiltersSources
  vtkIOGeometry
  vtkInteractionStyle
  vtkRenderingCore
  vtkRenderingFreeType
  vtkRenderingOpenGL2 QUIET)
if (NOT VTK_FOUND)
  message("Skipping WriteSTL: ${VTK_NOT_FOUND_MESSAGE}")
  return ()
endif()
message (STATUS "VTK_VERSION: ${VTK_VERSION}")
if (VTK_VERSION VERSION_LESS "8.90.0")
  # old system
  include(${VTK_USE_FILE})
  add_executable(WriteSTL MACOSX_BUNDLE WriteSTL.cxx )
  target_link_libraries(WriteSTL PRIVATE ${VTK_LIBRARIES})
else ()
  # include all components
  add_executable(WriteSTL MACOSX_BUNDLE WriteSTL.cxx )
  target_link_libraries(WriteSTL PRIVATE ${VTK_LIBRARIES})
  # vtk_module_autoinit is needed
  vtk_module_autoinit(
    TARGETS WriteSTL
    MODULES ${VTK_LIBRARIES}
    )
endif ()

Download and Build WriteSTL¶

Click here to download WriteSTL and its CMakeLists.txt file. Once the tarball WriteSTL.tar has been downloaded and extracted,

cd WriteSTL/build

If VTK is installed:

cmake ..

If VTK is not installed but compiled on your system, you will need to specify the path to your VTK build:

cmake -DVTK_DIR:PATH=/home/me/vtk_build ..

Build the project:

make

and run it:

./WriteSTL

WINDOWS USERS

Be sure to add the VTK bin directory to your path. This will resolve the VTK dll's at run time.