VTK/Examples/Cxx/Widgets/BoxWidget

This example uses a vtkBoxWidget to manipulate an actor. The class includes geometry to draw a box around the object, which is bound to it via SetProp3D. The box is dimensioned using the SetPlaceFactor method, and positioned with the PlaceWidget method. After the initial setup, synchronizing the box with the object is done through a custom callback class, which is passed to the box widget through the AddObserver method.

For a widget that isn't tied to a specific vtkProp3D and has its geometric representation separate from the interaction logic, see the vtkBoxWidget2 example.

BoxWidget.cxx

#include <vtkSmartPointer.h>
// For the rendering pipeline setup:
#include <vtkConeSource.h>
#include <vtkPolyDataMapper.h>
#include <vtkActor.h>
#include <vtkRenderer.h>
#include <vtkRenderWindow.h>
#include <vtkRenderWindowInteractor.h>
#include <vtkInteractorStyleTrackballCamera.h>
// For vtkBoxWidget:
#include <vtkBoxWidget.h>
#include <vtkCommand.h>
#include <vtkTransform.h>

class vtkMyCallback : public vtkCommand
{
public:
  static vtkMyCallback *New()
  {
    return new vtkMyCallback;
  }
  virtual void Execute( vtkObject *caller, unsigned long, void* )
  {
    // Here we use the vtkBoxWidget to transform the underlying coneActor
    // (by manipulating its transformation matrix).
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkTransform> t =
      vtkSmartPointer<vtkTransform>::New();
    vtkBoxWidget *widget = reinterpret_cast<vtkBoxWidget*>(caller);
    widget->GetTransform( t );
    widget->GetProp3D()->SetUserTransform( t );
  }
};

int main( int vtkNotUsed( argc ), char* vtkNotUsed( argv )[] )
{
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkConeSource> cone =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkConeSource>::New();

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyDataMapper> coneMapper =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyDataMapper>::New();
  coneMapper->SetInputConnection( cone->GetOutputPort() );

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkActor> coneActor =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkActor>::New();
  coneActor->SetMapper( coneMapper );

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderer> renderer =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderer>::New();
  renderer->AddActor( coneActor );
  renderer->SetBackground( 0.1, 0.2, 0.4 );

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindow> window =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindow>::New();
  window->AddRenderer( renderer );
  window->SetSize( 300, 300 );

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindowInteractor> interactor =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindowInteractor>::New();
  interactor->SetRenderWindow( window );

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkInteractorStyleTrackballCamera> style =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkInteractorStyleTrackballCamera>::New();
  interactor->SetInteractorStyle( style );

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkBoxWidget> boxWidget =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkBoxWidget>::New();
  boxWidget->SetInteractor( interactor );

  boxWidget->SetProp3D( coneActor );
  boxWidget->SetPlaceFactor( 1.25 ); // Make the box 1.25x larger than the actor
  boxWidget->PlaceWidget();

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkMyCallback> callback =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkMyCallback>::New();
  boxWidget->AddObserver( vtkCommand::InteractionEvent, callback );

  boxWidget->On();

  interactor->Start();

  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Please try the new VTKExamples website.

CMakeLists.txt

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8)

PROJECT(BoxWidget)

find_package(VTK REQUIRED)
include(${VTK_USE_FILE})

add_executable(BoxWidget MACOSX_BUNDLE BoxWidget.cxx)

if(VTK_LIBRARIES)
  target_link_libraries(BoxWidget ${VTK_LIBRARIES})
else()
  target_link_libraries(BoxWidget vtkHybrid vtkWidgets)
endif()

Download and Build BoxWidget

Click here to download BoxWidget. and its CMakeLists.txt file.

Once the tarball BoxWidget.tar has been downloaded and extracted,

cd BoxWidget/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:

./BoxWidget

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