[Paraview] CoProcessing/Client-Server Paraview

[pat marion]

The paraview coprocessor allows a code developer to embed paraview services
(pipelines & visualizations) into their program.  It is a different concept
that controlling a paraview gui from a command port.

If you want a way to control paraview from a command port, you'd have two
options:

* paraview waits for a command to arrive on the command port.  The paraview
gui is frozen while it waits
* write a paraview qt plugin that introduces a command port thread.  Use
qt's thread-safe signal slot connections to signal the paraview gui when a
new command arrives on the command port.

Both of these options requires that somebody writes new code, these options
are not currently available in paraview.  For the first option, someone
could implement it quite trivially using just a python script and the
python's socket support.  The commands that an external program sends to
paraview command port could be python strings that paraview executes in the
python console.

Pat


On Fri, Mar 4, 2011 at 9:38 AM, Olumide <50295 at web.de> wrote:

> This email was originally sent as a reply to a thread
> http://markmail.org/message/t22jsckztvnoyafz?q=Paraview started by
> Alexander. For some reason no one responded to my comments. Nevertheless the
> important question Andy Bauer raised is if Paraview is used for tasks that
> do not require the VTK pipeline (paraphrasing). To this I can reply and
> emphatic yes. I use Paraview for visualization because the VTK format is the
> only graphics file format the supports points, line, and surfaces and as a
> ready-made viewer (Paraview). Therefore my programs (I'm doing geometry
> processing) save point, line and surface data as VTK files and no pipeline
> is required -- just a viewer. What would be nice would be a *simple*
> communication mechanism with which my program can instruct Paraview to just
> load processed data as soon as they become available.
>
> --------------------------------------------------------
>
> I'd like to know the difference between CoProcessing and the following
> feature that is currently being implemented:
>
>
> http://paraview.uservoice.com/forums/11350-general/suggestions/456005-writing-to-paraview-from-an-external-program?ref=title
> (an ETA on this feature would be nice)
>
> From a cursory glance and my experience with other 3d apps (namely AutoDesk
> Maya) I find the current CoProcessing(?) implementation a bit too
> complicated.
>
> AutoDesk Maya, a highend 3d animation program, has a commandPort feature
> that very simple to use. All it requires is a single command that creates a
> socket and binds a specified port number to it. Thereafter any external app
> can send commands to Maya in its primary scripting language (MEL) and I
> suspect now also python. For example, I've configured my toolchain/IDE
> (Visual Studio) to send Maya a command, via the commandPort channel, to
> unload plugins before attempting to rebuild them. After building the
> toolchain/IDE sends another command to Maya asking it to reload the plugin.
> Basically, any scripting command that Maya accepts can be sent by and
> external app via the commandPort.
>
>
> http://download.autodesk.com/us/maya/2011help/CommandsPython/commandPort.html
>
> Can communication between Paraview and external apps be made this simple?
>
>
>
> - Olumide
>
>
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