VTK

The Visualization ToolKit (VTK) is an open source, freely available software system for 3D computer graphics, image processing, and visualization used by thousands of researchers and developers around the world. VTK consists of a C++ class library, and several interpreted interface layers including Tcl/Tk, Java, and Python. Professional support and products for VTK are provided by Kitware, Inc. (www.kitware.com) VTK supports a wide variety of visualization algorithms including scalar, vector, tensor, texture, and volumetric methods; and advanced modeling techniques such as implicit modelling, polygon reduction, mesh smoothing, cutting, contouring, and Delaunay triangulation. In addition, dozens of imaging algorithms have been directly integrated to allow the user to mix 2D imaging / 3D graphics algorithms and data.

Administrative Topics

• Where can I find more information about VTK?

• VTK 5.4 Release Planning

• Where can I download VTK?

• Where can I download a tarball of the nightly HTML documentation?

• Where can I get VTK Datasets?

• Extending VTK

• VTK Coding Standards

• Using Git for VTK development

• VTK cvs commit Guidelines

• VTK Patch Procedure -- merge requests for the current release branch

• Extending VTK with Scripts

• VTK-Based Tools and Applications

• What are some projects using VTK?

• Proposed Changes to VTK

• Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

• Common OpenGL troubles

• VTK Related Job Opportunities

• Writing VTK files using python

• Geometric mesh quality

• VTK XML Format Details

• VTK 3rd Party Library Patrol

• Python Wrapping FAQ

• VTK executives

• Streaming data in VTK

• Meeting Minutes

• VTK Information Keys and their significance

• Build parameters

Projects

Please give these unsorted projects a home in one of the VTK releases listed below.

• VTK Graph Layout
• VTK Java Wrapping
• Composite Data Redesign
• VTK Widget Redesign
• Shaders in VTK
• VTK with Matlab
• VTK Time support
• VTK Depth Peeling
• VTK Multi-Pass Rendering
• Using VTK with JRuby
• Painters
• Cray XT3 Compilation
• Statistics
• Array Refactoring
• Multicore and Streaming
• Geospatial and vision visualization support

For inclusion in VTK 5.6

• 3DConnexion Devices Support
• New Charts API
• New Cell Picker and Volume Picking (start Nov 2010, finish Feb 2010)

For inclusion in VTK 6.0

• Polyhedron cells and MVC Interpolation
• Clipping of closed surfaces (start Mar 26, 2010, finish Apr 22, 2010)
• Wrapping special types (start Apr 28, 2010, finish Jun 18, 2010)
• WrapHierarchy class type check tool (start May 29, 2010)

External Links

• IMTEK Mathematica Supplement (IMS), the Open Source IMTEK Mathematica Supplement (IMS) interfaces VTK and generates ParaView batch scripts
• [1], VTK examples in C# (Visual Studio 5.0 and .NET 2.0)

Development Process

The VTK Community is upgrading its development process. We are doing this in response to the continuing and rapid growth of the toolkit. A VTK Architecture Review Board VTK ARB is being put in place to provide strategic guidance to the community, and individuals are being identified as leaders in various VTK subsystems.

Have a question or topic for the ARB to discuss about the future of VTK? First, please bring the topic to the VTK developers mailing list. If the issue is not resolved there or needs further planning or direction, you may enter a suggested topic for discussion.

Learning VTK

• Examples - Short code examples demonstrating basic functionalities of VTK.
• Tutorials - Slightly longer than the examples, these tutorials explain concepts and demonstrate more complicated tasks in VTK.

Wrapping

• Java
  • Java code samples
• Python

Developers Corner

Developers Corner

Things that are ready to add to VTK

• Collision detection (vtkCollisionDetectionFilter) for computing the intersection of 2 polydata's - http://www.bioengineering-research.com/vtk/vtkCollisionDetectionFilter.htm
• vtkBezierSurfaceWidget from VTK Designer (http://sourceforge.net/projects/vtkdesigner/) to fit bezier surfaces from a point set
• Point set processing classes - http://www.insight-journal.org/browse/publication/708

Things that VTK is missing

• Approximate nearest neighbors algorithm
• Stratified sampling or similar mesh sampling (http://www.tecgraf.puc-rio.br/~diego/academic/phd/597d/sample/)

Wiki Sandbox

Ranking test

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