[vtkusers] VTK startup problems

[Prabhu Ramachandran]

>>>>> "BvB" == Bertwim van Beest <bwvb at xs4all.nl> writes:

    BvB> In order to discover the vtk, I downloaded the VTK and
    BvB> VTKData modules, using the CVS checkout.  To install, I
    BvB> followed the instructions as given in VTK/README.html.  Prior
    BvB> to that, I installed CMake.  Everything went fine so far. I
    BvB> do have a few questions though. In addition, and related, I
    BvB> encountered a few problems when I want to run some test
    BvB> examples.

[snip]

    BvB> QUESTION: I can find the missing files, but they reside in
    BvB> different directories. Am I missing an installation step
    BvB> here?  I tried 'make install', but that gave lots of error
    BvB> messages, and didn't resolve the problem.

Umm, did you build VTK first after setting up your options via
Cmake/CMakeSetup/ and then running make?  If so what was the error
message that you got when you did 'make install'?

    BvB> 2) when I run a .tcl-example, e.g. 'vtk
    BvB> /usr/local/cvs/VTK/Examples/Modelling/Tcl/expCos.tcl'
    BvB> everything goes fine: a window pops up with the 3D display
    BvB> visible, and I rotate, scale etc. the 3D display.  However,
    BvB> the C++ pendant, /usr/local/cvs/VTK/bin/expCos, only pops up
    BvB> for a short moment, after which the program terminates:

    BvB> Same flashing behaviour with TestRenderWindow, Mace,
    BvB> BoxWidget, ...

    BvB> QUESTION: Is this normal behaviour?

Try running them with a -I cmd line argument.  If these are test
programs I believe adding a -I flag will let you interact with it.
however, I have never run these myself so YMMV.

    BvB> 4) Where should the VTKData directory be located? For
    BvB> instance, executing 'volProt' gives a long list of errors
    BvB> like:

    BvB> ERROR: In /usr/local/cvs/VTK/IO/vtkDataReader.cxx, line 380
    BvB> vtkStructuredPointsReader (0x805dfd8): Unable to open file:
    BvB> ../../../../VTKData/Data/ironProt.vtk

You could put it where you want and export an environment variable
called VTK_DATA_ROOT that points to this directory.

Hope this helps.
prabhu