[Paraview] Exposing Timesteps in a Custom File Format

[Mike Jackson]

Thanks for the info.. I managed to get parts of my reader working but I am
having trouble getting some others working.

The Range for Timesteps that show up in ParaView is always 0 to 100. I have
500 in my file. I have the public set/get methods for TimeStepRange. Is
there somewhere else that I should have some accessors? Looking through the
Exodus Reader is not really yielding anything.

I can post my xml files if needed.. I am sure I am just missing something
simple.

Also, when I get a pointer to the vtkUnstructuredGrid from the OUtputVector
in RequestData method there seems to be something fishy about using that
Object as it causes an EXEC_BAD_ACCESS when trying to add a new cell to it.
Is there some sort of initialization that I need to be doing? I do create my
own vtkPoints object and set that into the vtkUnstructuredGrid? Is that a
problem? Should I be using the vtkPOints from the grid?

Thanks for the help.
Mike Jackson


On 11/8/06 2:16 PM, "Berk Geveci" <berk.geveci at kitware.com> wrote:

> Hi Mike,
> 
> First a disclaimer: the time support in VTK and ParaView is evolving.
> 
> Currently, the only way to set the time on a reader in ParaView is
> though a set/get method pair on the public API. Exodus does this by
> providing SetTimeStep and GetTimeStep methods. To add the time
> support on the GUI, readers.xml and Readers.xml files have to updated.
> 
> In VTK, a time aware pipeline can send UPDATE_TIME_INDEX() to request
> a specific time step instead of using the public methods. This is not
> yet supported in paraview. It is however on our roadmap.
> 
> A reader tells the pipeline (and paraview) which time steps are
> available by setting TIME_STEPS() key on the output information during
> RequestInformation(). This is also what is used to automatically display
> the current time value as annotation.
> 
> Also, there has been some recent changes to the time support in VTK.
> UPDATE_TIME_INDEX() is no longer used. UPDATE_TIME_STEPS() is used
> instead. This is not index based. It contains the time values that the
> pipeline is requesting. It is up to the reader to find the closest time
> step or even interpolate if desired. For more information, look here:
> http://www.vtk.org/Wiki/VTK/Time_Support
> 
> I hope that there will be an article on this in the next Kitware Source.
> 
> -berk
> 
> On 11/8/06, Mike Jackson <mike.jackson at imts.us> wrote:
>> I am developing a ParaView reader for my custom file format. Inside our
> data
>> we have the data laid by timesteps. I was wanting to use this information
>> inside of ParaView so I am basically copying the Exodus Reader (at least
> the
>> timestep portion). So far everything is ok except that the following line
> of
>> code comes back false:
>> 
>>   if(outInfo->Has(vtkStreamingDemandDrivenPipeline::UPDATE_TIME_INDEX()))
>> 
>> It is with in this block that the time value and the index get updated but
>> for some reason when run in my code this comes back false. I am currently
>> running the reader using a command line "test" program and have not
> actually
>> tried it in ParaView for some other reasons. Is there a special type of
>> pipeline I need to instantiate in a non-ParaView setting? Is there
> something
>> is the xml files that needs to be set so the UPDATE_TIME_INDEX key is
>> present? How about in the header file for my class? Maybe some
> undocumented
>> accessor method?
>> 
>> Any help would be appreciated.
>> 
>> --
>> Mike Jackson   Senior Research Engineer
>> Innovative Management & Technology Services
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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>> 
> 

-- 
Mike Jackson   Senior Research Engineer
Innovative Management & Technology Services