cone.py

a very goog book

#!/usr/bin/env python
#
# This example creates a polygonal model of a cone, and then renders it to
# the screen. It will rotate the cone 360 degrees and then exit. The basic
# setup of source -> mapper -> actor -> renderer -> renderwindow is 
# typical of most VTK programs.
#

#
# First we include the VTK Python packages that will make available 
# all of the VTK commands to Python.
#
import vtk
import time

# 
# Next we create an instance of vtkConeSource and set some of its
# properties. The instance of vtkConeSource "cone" is part of a visualization
# pipeline (it is a source process object); it produces data (output type is
# vtkPolyData) which other filters may process.
#
cone = vtk.vtkConeSource()
cone.SetHeight( 3.0 )
cone.SetRadius( 1.0 )
cone.SetResolution( 10 )
  
# 
# In this example we terminate the pipeline with a mapper process object.
# (Intermediate filters such as vtkShrinkPolyData could be inserted in
# between the source and the mapper.)  We create an instance of
# vtkPolyDataMapper to map the polygonal data into graphics primitives. We
# connect the output of the cone souece to the input of this mapper.
#
coneMapper = vtk.vtkPolyDataMapper()
coneMapper.SetInput( cone.GetOutput() )

# 
# Create an actor to represent the cone. The actor orchestrates rendering of
# the mapper's graphics primitives. An actor also refers to properties via a
# vtkProperty instance, and includes an internal transformation matrix. We
# set this actor's mapper to be coneMapper which we created above.
#
coneActor = vtk.vtkActor()
coneActor.SetMapper( coneMapper )

#
# Create the Renderer and assign actors to it. A renderer is like a
# viewport. It is part or all of a window on the screen and it is
# responsible for drawing the actors it has.  We also set the background
# color here
#
ren1= vtk.vtkRenderer()
ren1.AddActor( coneActor )
ren1.SetBackground( 0.1, 0.2, 0.4 )

#
# Finally we create the render window which will show up on the screen
# We put our renderer into the render window using AddRenderer. We also
# set the size to be 300 pixels by 300
#
renWin = vtk.vtkRenderWindow()
renWin.AddRenderer( ren1 )
renWin.SetSize( 300, 300 )

#
# now we loop over 360 degreeees and render the cone each time
#
for i in range(0,360):
    time.sleep(0.03)

    renWin.Render()
    ren1.GetActiveCamera().Azimuth( 1 )