Skip to content

GetMiscCellData

vtk-examples/Cxx/PolyData/GetMiscCellData

Question

If you have a question about this example, please use the VTK Discourse Forum

Code

GetMiscCellData.cxx

#include <vtkCellData.h>
#include <vtkFloatArray.h>
#include <vtkNew.h>
#include <vtkPolyData.h>
#include <vtkXMLPolyDataReader.h>

#include <iostream>
#include <string>

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
  // Parse command line arguments.
  if (argc != 3)
  {
    std::cout << "Required arguments: Filename ArrayName e.g. SuperQuadric.vtp "
                 "Normals"
              << std::endl;
    return EXIT_FAILURE;
  }

  // Get filename from command line.
  std::string filename = argv[1]; // First command line argument.

  // Get array name
  std::string arrayName = argv[2]; // Second command line argument.

  // Read the file.
  vtkNew<vtkXMLPolyDataReader> reader;
  reader->SetFileName(filename.c_str());
  reader->Update();

  auto polydata = reader->GetOutput();

  // Get the number of cells in the polydata.
  vtkIdType idNumCellsInFile = polydata->GetNumberOfCells();

  auto array = dynamic_cast<vtkFloatArray*>(
      polydata->GetCellData()->GetArray(arrayName.c_str()));

  if (array)
  {
    std::cout << "Got array " << arrayName << " with " << idNumCellsInFile
              << " values" << std::endl;
    for (int i = 0; i < idNumCellsInFile; i++)
    {
      // Since there could be a lot of cells just print the first 10
      if (i < 10 || i == idNumCellsInFile - 1)
      {
        double value;
        value = array->GetValue(i);
        std::cout << i << ": " << value << std::endl;
      }
      else
      {
        if (i == 10)
          std::cout << "..." << std::endl;
      }
    }
  }
  else
  {
    std::cout << "The file " << filename
              << " does not have a CellData array named " << arrayName
              << std::endl;
  }

  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

CMakeLists.txt

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.12 FATAL_ERROR)

project(GetMiscCellData)

find_package(VTK COMPONENTS 
  CommonCore
  CommonDataModel
  IOXML
)

if (NOT VTK_FOUND)
  message(FATAL_ERROR "GetMiscCellData: Unable to find the VTK build folder.")
endif()

# Prevent a "command line is too long" failure in Windows.
set(CMAKE_NINJA_FORCE_RESPONSE_FILE "ON" CACHE BOOL "Force Ninja to use response files.")
add_executable(GetMiscCellData MACOSX_BUNDLE GetMiscCellData.cxx )
  target_link_libraries(GetMiscCellData PRIVATE ${VTK_LIBRARIES}
)
# vtk_module_autoinit is needed
vtk_module_autoinit(
  TARGETS GetMiscCellData
  MODULES ${VTK_LIBRARIES}
)

Download and Build GetMiscCellData

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

cd GetMiscCellData/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:

./GetMiscCellData

WINDOWS USERS

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