[Paraview] paraview3 wiki

[Olesen, Mark]

Hi Berk,

In this case I am using the ParaView reader module included as part of
the OpenFOAM distribution. The GUI has a number of provisions
(checkboxes) for altering the reader's behaviour that should ideally be
modifiable without requiring the reader to re-execute.

These are the switches
1. Include Sets 
2. Include Zones
These two include cell/face/point sets/zones in the list of mesh parts
that can be selected. Once the OpenFOAM mesh is loaded, the zones
information is available and can be included in the list, depending on
whether the user considers it useful or just clutter. Displaying these
on the mesh-parts list leaves the reader output unaltered until the user
explicitly selects a particular set or zone.

3. Show Patch Names
Adds or removes a bunch of vtkTextActors to label the patch (boundary)
region. This can be useful for finding which boundary is where, but
otherwise clutters up the display. Does not affect the reader output. 

4. Cache Mesh
Select if the OpenFOAM mesh information should be cached between
time-steps. This skips reading from disk for the geometry, but
unfortunately until the VTK time handling improves, we cannot exploit
this as much as desired. Does not affect the reader output.


Perhaps rather than a simple 'immediate' property, the checkboxes should
receive even more attributes. AFAIK it is currently not possible for the
reader to change the GUI defaults or values. With vtkDataArray, it is
possible to add a listener, but that causes the GUI state to change and
'Apply' lights up green.

A simple example of wishing to push integer information to the GUI:
In the EnSight reader, the modified version has the default ByteOrder as
"auto detect" (UNKNOWN byte-order). After the Ensight binary files have
been read, the byte-order is known and it could be nice to change the
GUI display to reflect this information.
However, the main motivation is the desire to add a local configuration
file that the reader could parse and dynamically set particular reader
defaults.

I added Utkarsh's suggestions as a note on issue 7314.

/mark

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Berk Geveci [mailto:berk.geveci at kitware.com]
> Sent: Friday, August 08, 2008 11:01 PM
> To: Olesen, Mark
> Cc: Utkarsh Ayachit; paraview at paraview.org
> Subject: Re: [Paraview] paraview3 wiki
> 
> What is the use case if I may ask?
> 
> -berk
> 
> On Mon, Aug 4, 2008 at 9:34 AM, Olesen, Mark
> <Mark.Olesen at emcontechnologies.com> wrote:
> > Hi Utkarsh,
> >
> >> In the XML you can add a <Hints /> element as follows:
> > ...
> >> Then the GUI will not create a widget for it when generating a
> panel.
> >> The changes to that property should not result in Apply button
> >> becoming green.
> >
> > But I'd actually like exactly the opposite - to have a widget shown
> on
> > the GUI that I can interactively change without the rest of the GUI
> > noticing the change (and affecting the Apply button).
> >
> > The hand-waving settings:
> >
> >   <Hints>
> >     <Property name="MyProperty" show="1" GUImodificationTime="0"/>
> >   </Hints>
> >
> > I also thought that is_internal="1" on an IntProperty might have
> done
> > the trick, but the also suppresses creation of the widget.
> >
> >> For Rescan, you can always call
> >> "vtkSMSourceProxy::UpdatePipelineInformation()" which should result
> in
> >> a call to RequestInformation() on the algorithm.
> >
> > Okay, that answers that 'callback' part of the question ... I just
> need
> > the other bits of magic.
> >
> > /mark
This e-mail message and any attachments may contain 
legally privileged, confidential or proprietary Information, 
or information otherwise protected by law of EMCON 
Technologies, its affiliates, or third parties. This notice 
serves as marking of its "Confidential" status as defined 
in any confidentiality agreements concerning the sender 
and recipient. If you are not the intended recipient(s), 
or the employee or agent responsible for delivery of this 
message to the intended recipient(s), you are hereby 
notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying 
of this e-mail message is strictly prohibited. 
If you have received this message in error, please 
immediately notify the sender and delete this e-mail 
message from your computer.