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Points to Tube

Info

This example will demonstrate how to to build a tube from a set of points in vtkPolyData.

Overview

Takes points from a vtkPolyData object and constructs a line of those points then builds a polygonal tube around that line with some specified radius and number of sides.

ParaView Example

First, lets generate some data on the ParaView pipeline. For this example, we want to generated a series of scattered points that might make up a path using a Programmable Source. Select Sources->Alphabetical->Programmable Source then paste the following script in the source’s Script field:

import numpy as np
from PVGeo import pointsToPolyData

def path1(y):
    """Equation: x = a(y-h)^2 + k"""
    a = - 110.0 / 160.0**2
    x = a*y**2 + 110.0
    idxs = np.argwhere(x>0)
    return x[idxs][:,0], y[idxs][:,0]

x, y = path1(np.arange(0.0, 200.0, 25.0))
zo = np.linspace(9.0, 11.0, num=len(y))
coords = np.vstack((x,y,zo)).T
# Shuffle points to demonstrate value of Nearest Neighbor
np.random.shuffle(coords)

pdo = self.GetOutput()
pdo.ShallowCopy(pointsToPolyData(coords))

Note

These points are similar to the points used in the file given with the Many Slices Along Points Example except we shuffle them to make use of the nearest neighbor approximation.

Apply the Filter

Now that you have the points generated on the pipeline, lets go ahead and apply the Points to Tube filter from Filters->PVGeo: General Filters->Points to Tube. Change the radius to 3 and go ahead and click Apply. The output data should look really wacky and incorrectly built like the image below; this is good.

Bad Tube

Remember that in the script given above we shuffle the points to demonstrate that the points make a useable line but we need to reconstruct the order of the points. We do this by selecting the Use Nearest Nbr Approx checkbox; this will ensure that a useable path is generate from the points. Go ahead and select the check box then reapply the filter. Now it looks good (see image below)!

Good Tube

Python Example

Take a look at PointsToTube‘s code docs here

import numpy as np
from PVGeo import pointsToPolyData, PointsToTube


############################################
######### GENERATE SOME POINT DATA #########

def path1(y):
    """Equation: x = a(y-h)^2 + k"""
    a = - 110.0 / 160.0**2
    x = a*y**2 + 110.0
    idxs = np.argwhere(x>0)
    return x[idxs][:,0], y[idxs][:,0]

x, y = path1(np.arange(0.0, 200.0, 25.0))
zo = np.linspace(9.0, 11.0, num=len(y))
coords = np.vstack((x,y,zo)).T
# Shuffle points to demonstrate value of Nearest Neighbor
np.random.shuffle(coords)

# Make a VTK data object for the filter to use
vtkPoints = pointsToPolyData(coords)

############################################

# Use the filter: here is vtkPolyData containing the connected line
tube = PointsToTube(nearestNbr=True).Apply(vtkPoints)

print(tube)

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