Development environment to use/learn VTK with C++

Question

Hi,

I am a newbie with VTK and C++ (but am well versed in the concepts/Java etc). I will eventually need to use both QT and VTK for my project.

(1) I would like to know if there is a "development environment"/"editor" for VTK (using C++) ? (2) Something similar to VTK Designer (http://www.vcreatelogic.com/products/vtkd/) ? With VTK Designer, I am very disappointed that there is no feature to convert the VTK output into C++ code.

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

I've been working with VTK/Qt for a while, and I doubt there is something like VTK Designer that will convert a pipeline to C++ code.

Everything will need to be hand coded in - and its fairly simple. If you are not sure about the exact C++ implementation of your pipeline, I recommend looking at the VTK samples / tests at http://www.vtk.org/doc/nightly/html/classes.html

For example, if you would like to implement the vtkStreamLine filter for streamlines, go to the Doxygen page for the class ( http://www.vtk.org/doc/nightly/html/classvtkStreamLine.html ) and click on the "Tests" link to look at existing implementations of the class that has examples of how to setup the pipeline.

Answer 2

You might want to check out the VTK examples as they provide numerous examples (largely in C++). You can also look at the Doxygen pages, tests and examples for the classes you are interested in.

ParaView uses VTK, and you can trace what you do in ParaView to get Python code out (Tools->Python Shell->Trace). I think ParaView with its trace functionality may get you close to what you want. There are of course other resources such as the VTK books, wiki, mailing lists, etc.