VTK on OSX with Mayavi (was: Re: [vtkusers] new user attempting install on mac OSX)

[Prabhu Ramachandran]

>>>>> "AU" == Adrian Umpleby <a.umpleby at imperial.ac.uk> writes:

    >> I am attempting an install of VTK with the goal of then
    >> installing mayavi.

    AU> While this subject is around on-list, I thought it would be
    AU> worth recounting my own experiences with VTK on OSX.

I have no clue about Mac's but do have some idea about MayaVi.

[snip]

    AU> 'iterators' in my VTK which will fail when something tries to
    AU> use them? (Does Mayavi make any use of these at any point? How
    AU> can I test this?)

No, MayaVi does not use the ImageIterators.

    AU> 3) Running Mayavi has to be done interactively through the
    AU> python command-line - the "open" dialog box does not
    AU> work. (That's not a VTK issue, though, so I'll say no more -
    AU> files can be opened using "m=mayavi.mayavi()" to get the
    AU> mayavi window, followed by "f=m.open_vtk('/path/to/file',0)".)

Ugh, how come?  This looks like Tkinter is broken.  Can you run this:

 python /usr/lib/python2.1/lib-tk/tkFileDialog.py

i.e. find the appropriate tkFileDialog and try to run the script.  You
should get a file open and file save dialog.  Does that work?  If not
then Tkinter is somehow badly broken.

    AU> 4) Once a file has opened, Mayavi crashes in
    AU> vtkOpenGLRenderer::ClearLights (well, when that calls
    AU> glLightModeli, anyway). I guess this is a VTK problem...?
    AU> Commenting out the gl calls there allows it to work. Any ideas
    AU> what's going on here? (Had this problem back in July, too...)

A traceback or more info would help.  Of course, if this is not
important (since everything works under X11) don't bother.

    AU> 5) There are numerous issues which I presume are to do with tk
    AU> (or python?), such as errors trying to view the pipeline,
    AU> problems with titlebar-less windows (such as the streamline
    AU> controls window, which I presume is 'cos it's kind of 'modal'
    AU> under X11 - but having no titlebar causes problems once the
    AU> 'staggering' makes it open partly below the screen level since
    AU> it can't be moved fully onscreen!), errors trying to configure
    AU> integration parameters for streamlines/tubes (the configure
    AU> window fails to appear), etc., etc. I expect these are not to
    AU> do with VTK at all, but I throw them out in case anyone here
    AU> has any thoughts...

This all looks like some serious problems with Tkinter under Aqua and
I can't help you there since I dont have any Macs I can play with
around here.

cheers,
prabhu