WritePLY

Description¶

Note

Unlike vtkPolyDataXMLWriter and most other VTK writers, to write colors to the .ply file you must specify to the vtkPLYWriter:

plyWriter->SetArrayName("Colors");

where your color array was created/named like this:

vtkNew<vtkUnsignedCharArray> colors; colors->SetNumberOfComponents(3); colors->SetName("Colors");

(This was found in response to a user question on StackOverflow: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17783612/save-mesh-with-rgb-in-vtk/19525938)

Other languages

See (Python), (Java)

Question

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

Code¶

WritePLY.cxx

#include <vtkActor.h>
#include <vtkNamedColors.h>
#include <vtkNew.h>
#include <vtkPLYReader.h>
#include <vtkPLYWriter.h>
#include <vtkPolyDataMapper.h>
#include <vtkProperty.h>
#include <vtkRenderWindow.h>
#include <vtkRenderWindowInteractor.h>
#include <vtkRenderer.h>
#include <vtkSphereSource.h>

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

  if (argc != 2)
  {
    std::cout << "Required parameters: filename.ply" << std::endl;
    return EXIT_FAILURE;
  }

  std::string filename = argv[1];

  vtkNew<vtkSphereSource> sphereSource;
  sphereSource->Update();

  vtkNew<vtkPLYWriter> plyWriter;
  plyWriter->SetFileName(filename.c_str());
  plyWriter->SetInputConnection(sphereSource->GetOutputPort());
  plyWriter->Write();

  // Read and display for verification
  vtkNew<vtkPLYReader> reader;
  reader->SetFileName(filename.c_str());
  reader->Update();

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

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

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

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

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

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

  return EXIT_SUCCESS;

  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

CMakeLists.txt¶

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.12 FATAL_ERROR)

project(WritePLY)

find_package(VTK COMPONENTS 
)

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

Download and Build WritePLY¶

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

cd WritePLY/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:

./WritePLY

WINDOWS USERS

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