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TrackballActor

vtk-examples/Cxx/Interaction/TrackballActor

Description

This example shows how to visualize data in "trackball" mode. That is, click and drag actors is the way to interact.

Contrast this with TrackballCamera.

Other languages

See (Java)

Question

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

Code

TrackballActor.cxx

#include <vtkActor.h>
#include <vtkConeSource.h>
#include <vtkInteractorStyleTrackballActor.h>
#include <vtkNamedColors.h>
#include <vtkNew.h>
#include <vtkPolyDataMapper.h>
#include <vtkProperty.h>
#include <vtkRenderWindow.h>
#include <vtkRenderWindowInteractor.h>
#include <vtkRenderer.h>
#include <vtkSphereSource.h>

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

  // Create a sphere.
  vtkNew<vtkSphereSource> sphereSource;
  sphereSource->SetCenter(1.0, 0.0, 0.0);
  sphereSource->Update();

  // Create a mapper and actor.
  vtkNew<vtkPolyDataMapper> sphereMapper;
  sphereMapper->SetInputConnection(sphereSource->GetOutputPort());

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

  // Create a cone
  vtkNew<vtkConeSource> coneSource;

  // Create a mapper and actor.
  vtkNew<vtkPolyDataMapper> coneMapper;
  coneMapper->SetInputConnection(coneSource->GetOutputPort());

  vtkNew<vtkActor> coneActor;
  coneActor->SetMapper(coneMapper);
  coneActor->GetProperty()->SetColor(
      colors->GetColor3d("LightGoldenrodYellow").GetData());

  // A renderer and render window.
  vtkNew<vtkRenderer> renderer;
  vtkNew<vtkRenderWindow> renderWindow;
  renderWindow->AddRenderer(renderer);
  renderWindow->SetWindowName("TrackballActor");

  // An interactor.
  vtkNew<vtkRenderWindowInteractor> renderWindowInteractor;
  renderWindowInteractor->SetRenderWindow(renderWindow);

  // Add the actors to the scene.
  renderer->AddActor(sphereActor);
  renderer->AddActor(coneActor);
  renderer->SetBackground(colors->GetColor3d("SlateGray").GetData());

  // Render
  renderWindow->Render();

  vtkNew<vtkInteractorStyleTrackballActor> style;

  renderWindowInteractor->SetInteractorStyle(style);

  // Begin mouse interaction.
  renderWindowInteractor->Start();

  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

CMakeLists.txt

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.12 FATAL_ERROR)

project(TrackballActor)

find_package(VTK COMPONENTS 
)

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

Download and Build TrackballActor

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

cd TrackballActor/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:

./TrackballActor

WINDOWS USERS

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