VTK/3DConnexion Devices Support

Support for 3DConnexion Devices (SpaceNavigator, SpacePilot) inside VTK

THIS IS EXPERIMENTAL WORK

Naming convention

We pick the name TDx to refer to classes or types to support 3DConnexion Devices. "T" stands for "Three", "x" stands for "connexion". Why? because 3DConnexion calls its software 3DxWare but we cannot have types and classes starting with a number in C++, so we chose "T" instead of "3".

Supported Platform

Linux and Windows only so far. No Mac yet. Tested with Ubuntu GNU/Linux 9.04 x86_64 and Windows Vista SP1 64-bit with a 3DConnexion SpaceNavigator.

How to use it

Install the 3DConnexion Device driver

Windows

Easy. Nothing to add about it.

Install the 3DConnexion SDK

Windows

Easy. There is nothing to install

Configure VTK

Launch cmake and set VTK_USE_TDx to TRUE

Linux

Set the advanced variables:

• VTK_TDX_INCLUDE_PATH to point to the path of xdrvlib.h (without mentioning xdrvlib.h)
• VTK_TDX_OBJECT_PATH to the full path to xdrvlib.a (mentioning xdrvlib.a)

Windows

Easy. There is nothing else to set.

Build VTK

Just build vtk.

Test it

Launch TestTDx in interactive mode 1. Get the full command line of the test with:

$ ctest -R TestTDx -V -N

2. Copy the full command line in the prompt and add -I at the end, to run the test in interactive mode

3. Enjoy

Mac

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