Skip to content

TriangleColoredPoints

vtk-examples/Cxx/PolyData/TriangleColoredPoints


Description

This example shows how by adding a color to each vertex of a triangle, the triangle's color will be smoothly varying between the colors of the vertices.

Other languages

See (Python), (Java)

Question

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

Code

TriangleColoredPoints.cxx

#include <vtkActor.h>
#include <vtkCellArray.h>
#include <vtkNamedColors.h>
#include <vtkNew.h>
#include <vtkPointData.h>
#include <vtkPoints.h>
#include <vtkPolyData.h>
#include <vtkPolyDataMapper.h>
#include <vtkRenderWindow.h>
#include <vtkRenderWindowInteractor.h>
#include <vtkRenderer.h>
#include <vtkTriangle.h>
#include <vtkUnsignedCharArray.h>

// For compatibility with new VTK generic data arrays.
#ifdef vtkGenericDataArray_h
#define InsertNextTupleValue InsertNextTypedTuple
#endif

int main(int, char*[])
{
  vtkNew<vtkNamedColors> nc;

  // Setup points.
  vtkNew<vtkPoints> points;
  points->InsertNextPoint(1.0, 0.0, 0.0);
  points->InsertNextPoint(0.0, 0.0, 0.0);
  points->InsertNextPoint(0.0, 1.0, 0.0);

  // Define some colors.
  unsigned char red[3] = {255, 0, 0};
  unsigned char green[3] = {0, 255, 0};
  unsigned char blue[3] = {0, 0, 255};

  // Setup the colors array.
  vtkNew<vtkUnsignedCharArray> colors;
  colors->SetNumberOfComponents(3);
  colors->SetName("Colors");

  // Add the three colors we have created to the array.
  colors->InsertNextTupleValue(red);
  colors->InsertNextTupleValue(green);
  colors->InsertNextTupleValue(blue);

  // Create a triangle.
  vtkNew<vtkCellArray> triangles;
  vtkNew<vtkTriangle> triangle;
  triangle->GetPointIds()->SetId(0, 0);
  triangle->GetPointIds()->SetId(1, 1);
  triangle->GetPointIds()->SetId(2, 2);
  triangles->InsertNextCell(triangle);

  // Create a polydata object and add everything to it.
  vtkNew<vtkPolyData> polydata;
  polydata->SetPoints(points);
  polydata->SetPolys(triangles);
  polydata->GetPointData()->SetScalars(colors);

  // Visualize
  vtkNew<vtkPolyDataMapper> mapper;
  mapper->SetInputData(polydata);

  vtkNew<vtkActor> actor;
  actor->SetMapper(mapper);

  vtkNew<vtkRenderer> renderer;
  vtkNew<vtkRenderWindow> renderWindow;
  renderWindow->AddRenderer(renderer);
  renderWindow->SetWindowName("TriangleColoredPoints");

  vtkNew<vtkRenderWindowInteractor> renderWindowInteractor;
  renderWindowInteractor->SetRenderWindow(renderWindow);

  renderer->AddActor(actor);
  renderer->SetBackground(nc->GetColor3d("SlateGray").GetData());

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

  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

CMakeLists.txt

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.12 FATAL_ERROR)

project(TriangleColoredPoints)

find_package(VTK COMPONENTS 
  CommonColor
  CommonCore
  CommonDataModel
  InteractionStyle
  RenderingContextOpenGL2
  RenderingCore
  RenderingFreeType
  RenderingGL2PSOpenGL2
  RenderingOpenGL2
)

if (NOT VTK_FOUND)
  message(FATAL_ERROR "TriangleColoredPoints: 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(TriangleColoredPoints MACOSX_BUNDLE TriangleColoredPoints.cxx )
  target_link_libraries(TriangleColoredPoints PRIVATE ${VTK_LIBRARIES}
)
# vtk_module_autoinit is needed
vtk_module_autoinit(
  TARGETS TriangleColoredPoints
  MODULES ${VTK_LIBRARIES}
)

Download and Build TriangleColoredPoints

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

cd TriangleColoredPoints/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:

./TriangleColoredPoints

WINDOWS USERS

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