Sphere

vtk-examples/Cxx/GeometricObjects/Sphere

Description¶

vtkSphereSource object creates a sphere (represented by polygons) of specified radius centered at the origin.

The resolution (polygonal discretization) in both the latitude (phi) and longitude (theta) directions can be specified.

It also is possible to create partial spheres by specifying maximum phi and theta angles. By default, the surface tessellation of the sphere uses triangles; however you can set LatLongTessellation to produce a tessellation using quadrilaterals.

Other languages

See (Python), (CSharp)

Question

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

Code¶

Sphere.cxx

#include <vtkActor.h>
#include <vtkNamedColors.h>
#include <vtkPolyData.h>
#include <vtkPolyDataMapper.h>
#include <vtkProperty.h>
#include <vtkRenderWindow.h>
#include <vtkRenderWindowInteractor.h>
#include <vtkRenderer.h>
#include <vtkSmartPointer.h>
#include <vtkSphereSource.h>

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

  // Create a sphere
  vtkNew<vtkSphereSource> sphereSource;
  sphereSource->SetCenter(0.0, 0.0, 0.0);
  sphereSource->SetRadius(5.0);
  // Make the surface smooth.
  sphereSource->SetPhiResolution(100);
  sphereSource->SetThetaResolution(100);

  vtkNew<vtkPolyDataMapper> mapper;
  mapper->SetInputConnection(sphereSource->GetOutputPort());

  vtkNew<vtkActor> actor;
  actor->SetMapper(mapper);
  actor->GetProperty()->SetColor(colors->GetColor3d("Cornsilk").GetData());

  vtkNew<vtkRenderer> renderer;
  vtkNew<vtkRenderWindow> renderWindow;
  renderWindow->SetWindowName("Sphere");
  renderWindow->AddRenderer(renderer);
  vtkNew<vtkRenderWindowInteractor> renderWindowInteractor;
  renderWindowInteractor->SetRenderWindow(renderWindow);

  renderer->AddActor(actor);
  renderer->SetBackground(colors->GetColor3d("DarkGreen").GetData());

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

  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

CMakeLists.txt¶

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.12 FATAL_ERROR)

project(Sphere)

find_package(VTK COMPONENTS 
)

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

Download and Build Sphere¶

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

cd Sphere/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:

./Sphere

WINDOWS USERS

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