I've been looking for a decent 3D plotting library with support for user selection that works under OpenGl, preferable with wxPython.
For this first project I need to do a 3D scatter plot with different colors and glyphs (spheres, crosses, etc.) for the points. The axes will be labeled and I would like both mouseover and mouse click selection. There will be at most 2,000 points.
I've found several for making graphs, like DISLIN, but most
don't offer interactivity. I spent many hours trying to get
VTK working on my Mac under both native and X GUI toolkits,
without success.
Here are the instructions that I posted to the PythonMac mailing list a while ago:
Download VTK 4.4 from http://public.kitware.com/VTK/get-software.php
Download CMake binary installer from http://www.cmake.org/HTML/Download.html
Attach the CMake disk image and install the package. You will now have, among other things, programs cmake and ccmake in /usr/local/bin . Make sure /usr/local/bin is in your PATH.
Unpack the VTK source somewhere.
$ cd ~/src
$ tar zxf ~/downloads/VTK-4.4-LatestRelease.tar.gz
$ cd VTKMake a subdirectory named "build".
$ mkdir build
$ cd buildRun ccmake with the main VTK directory as its argument.
$ ccmake ..
You should now be in a curses-based text interface. With my Terminal color settings, I can't see if the options are highlighted as one moves the cursor, so just look at the bar near the bottom to see which option is currently highlighted.
Press [c] to start configuring.
Toggle BUILD_SHARED_LIBS on.
Keep VTK_USE_CARBON on. Do not use VTK_USE_COCOA (The Cocoa implementation is not compatible with Python, yet).
Toggle VTK_USE_HYBRID on (Mayavi uses the vtkHybrid kit).
Toggle VTK_USE_GL2PS on (useful for printing).
Toggle VTK_WRAP_PYTHON on.
Toggle VTK_WRAP_TCL on (Mayavi needs it).
Press [c] to configure. It should have found your framework Python. If you have installed TclTkAqua, it should also have found the appropriate frameworks.
If there are no errors, press [g] to generate the makefiles and exit. If nothing happens press [c] again and try pressing [g] once more. You may have to go back and forth pressing [c] and [g] until all information is found.
Execute make and wait until it finishes. This takes a long time. Make some coffee. In fact, go to Colombia, harvest the beans, roast them, grind them, and brew your cup of coffee. When you get back, the build might be finished.
"make install" will install VTK into /usr/local (or whatever directory you told it to install to).
Change to the Python wrapper directory and install the Python wrappers.
$ cd Wrapping/Python
$ sudo python setup.py installAdd /usr/local/lib/vtk to your DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH. You will almost certainly want to do this in your ~/.bashrc as well.
$ export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=$DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH:/usr/local/lib/vtk
You're done!
>SciGraphica seems close, but it has the Gtk requirement.
I'm yet unsure about if SciPy fits my needs.
Not for 3D.
What I was hoping for was a toolkit that worked cross-platform and assumed OpenGL is available, leaving me to pass it the OpenGL context and a few other essentials, or something that made a scene graph that I could render as I wish.
Any pointers, ideas, or suggestions?
OpenGLContext might be your cup of tea. Or Zoe. I don't have much experience with them, though.
-- Robert Kern [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"In the fields of hell where the grass grows high Are the graves of dreams allowed to die." -- Richard Harter -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
