VTK/Examples/Cxx/IO/SimplePointsReader

A file of XYZ coordinates is a very easy format that can be used for simple storage from many applications. This example demonstrates how to read this type of file into a polydata object. An example file of three points would look like this:

0.0 0.0 0.0
1.0 0.0 0.0
0.0 1.0 0.0

As a demo, save the above three lines to a file called simple.xyz and call the executable resulting from the code below with

./SimplePointsReader simple.xyz

from the build directory.

SimplePointsReader.cxx

#include <vtkSmartPointer.h>
#include <vtkPolyDataMapper.h>
#include <vtkActor.h>
#include <vtkSimplePointsReader.h>
#include <vtkRenderWindow.h>
#include <vtkRenderWindowInteractor.h>
#include <vtkRenderer.h>
#include <vtkProperty.h>

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
  // Verify input arguments
  if ( argc != 2 )
    {
    std::cout << "Usage: " << argv[0]
              << " Filename(.xyz)" << std::endl;
    return EXIT_FAILURE;
    }

  // Read the file
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkSimplePointsReader> reader =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkSimplePointsReader>::New();
  reader->SetFileName ( argv[1] );
  reader->Update();

  // Visualize
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyDataMapper> mapper =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyDataMapper>::New();
  mapper->SetInputConnection(reader->GetOutputPort());

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkActor> actor =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkActor>::New();
  actor->SetMapper(mapper);
  actor->GetProperty()->SetPointSize(4);

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderer> renderer =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderer>::New();
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindow> renderWindow =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindow>::New();
  renderWindow->AddRenderer(renderer);
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindowInteractor> renderWindowInteractor =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindowInteractor>::New();
  renderWindowInteractor->SetRenderWindow(renderWindow);

  renderer->AddActor(actor);
  renderer->SetBackground(.3, .6, .3); // Background color green

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

  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Please try the new VTKExamples website.

CMakeLists.txt

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 2.8)

PROJECT(SimplePointsReader)

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

add_executable(SimplePointsReader MACOSX_BUNDLE SimplePointsReader.cxx)

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

Download and Build SimplePointsReader

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

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

cd SimplePointsReader/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:

./SimplePointsReader

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.