[Paraview] Accessing GetAnimationScene() from the ProgrammableSource

[William Sherman]

On 4/24/13 11:09 PM, Utkarsh Ayachit wrote:
> I'm am little confused, what is that you exactly want to see? I can
> figure out how to show that.

Nothing visually complicated.  In my animation sequence I have data
time repeat over and over again as I represent it using different
methods.  I currently show that time value using the "AnnotateTime"
source, but I feel that that number gets lost in the shuffle, so I
want to have something that looks like a progress bar that is tied
to data-time and grows as we progress in the simulation.  And when
the simulation time resets to 0, the bar goes back to the beginning.

Like I said, very simple, yet very difficult.

I did more exploration with creating a string that I might use
instead of a polygonal object, but then I was foiled when I
realized that even though I can put a string into a Table output,
the "Manage Links" tool doesn't have an option to link data output
to a source/filter parameter.  Only parameter to parameter!

So I'm back to the polygonal object.

> Utkarsh

	Thanks,
	Bill

>
> On Wed, Apr 24, 2013 at 5:54 PM, Bill Sherman<shermanw at indiana.edu>  wrote:
>> Hello again Utkarsh, ParaView list people,
>>
>>
>>> You cannot access animation scene from ProgrammableSource. Anything
>>> from simple.py/servermanager.py cannot be accessed in
>>> ProgrammableSource/Filter. You can add Python scripts as an animation
>>> track, however. In the animation view, choose "Python" in the first
>>> combo-box next to the "+" button.
>>
>>
>> Thanks again for this, this is a great tool to know about -- I was
>> doing animations stuff all day yesterday and didn't notice it.
>>
>> I have a couple of updates:
>>
>> First, with the Animation Python script, I'm not sure how the
>> geometry I generate can be placed into the scene.
>>
>> Second, I managed to figure out a way to use a Programmable Filter
>> fed by an "AnnotateTime" source to make a geometry that is based on
>> time!  So that's the good news -- example Python script below.
>>
>> The bad news is that I didn't quite think this through.  What I want
>> is basically a time/progress bar at the top, and I can do that now,
>> but what I forgot is that the camera moves in the animation, and I
>> don't want my progress bar to move!  I should have thought of that
>> from the outset!
>>
>> I've been doing some research and experimenting with vanilla VTK, and
>> it doesn't seem to be the case that I can have a 2D geometric object
>> that is immune to the camera's movements.  (And if anyone knows anything
>> different than that, I'd love to hear about it.)
>>
>> So, I decided to just try something simple for now, but of course nothing
>> is simple.  I was thinking that I'd just create a text representation of
>> time -- ie a bunch of ohs in a string ("oooooo..."), but now I don't
>> know if I can produce a Text object other than from a source -- ie. can
>> I programatically create a text object that will be immune to camera
>> moves (ie. using a vtkActor2D underneath the hood).
>>
>> Thoughts? ...  Hang on, I just discovered that links can do more than
>> link cameras!  So any thoughts on how I might take advantage of a link
>> to create a text string in a programmable filter and pipe that into a
>> Text object?
>>
>>
>> As always when working with ParaView, even after I feel like I've learned
>> a lot, the amount of knowledge of what I don't know about it seems
>> to have expanded even more!
>>
>> For example: the programmable filter has three places for scripts:
>>          - Script
>>          - RequestInformation Script
>>          - RequestUpdateExtent Script
>> Each have popups, but the message is self referential -- I have to
>> know what the RequestInformation pass or the RequestUpdateExtent pipeline
>> pass means to know how these work.
>>
>>
>> Okay, as promised, thanks to some code from Utkarsh, and a lot of
>> trial an error, I present a programmable filter script that modifies
>> the shape of this triangle based on animation time:
>>
>> -----------------------------------------------------------
>> time = self.GetInput().GetValue(0,0).ToFloat();
>> #print time;
>>
>>
>> # Create a poly-data instance
>> #pd = vtk.vtkPolyData()
>>
>> # Instead link to the poly-data created for the output
>> pd = self.GetPolyDataOutput();
>>
>>
>> # Set up the containter to save the
>> # point locations (geometry)
>> points = vtk.vtkPoints()
>> pd.SetPoints(points)
>>
>> # Add the point coordinates
>> points.SetNumberOfPoints(3)
>> points.SetPoint(0, 0, 0, 0)
>> points.SetPoint(1, 2, time, 0)
>>
>> points.SetPoint(2, 3, 0, 0)
>>
>> # We are adding a single triangle with
>> # 3 points. Create a id-list to refer to
>> # the point ids that form the triangle.
>> ids = vtk.vtkIdList()
>> ids.SetNumberOfIds(3)
>> ids.SetId(0, 0)
>> ids.SetId(1, 1)
>> ids.SetId(2, 2)
>>
>> # Since this polydata has only 1 cell,
>> # allocate it.
>> pd.Allocate(1, 1)
>>
>> # Insert the cell giving its type and
>> # the point ids that form the cell.
>> pd.InsertNextCell(vtk.VTK_POLYGON, ids)
>> -----------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> So, in order to get time, the Programmable Filter must have as its
>> input an "AnnotateTime" module that just outputs a numeric value for
>> time.  And then the output type for the filter must be set to "vtkPolyData".
>>
>>> Utkarsh
>>
>>
>>          more to learn, more to learn ... thanks!
>>          Bill
>>
>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, Apr 24, 2013 at 10:02 AM, Bill Sherman<shermanw at indiana.edu>
>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hello,
>>>>
>>>> I have a question about how to access internal ParaView data from the
>>>> Programmable Source source.
>>>>
>>>> Specifically, I want to have a source that changes based on the animation
>>>> time, and so I would like to know how to get the current data-time
>>>> from within the python code of a Programmable Source.
>>>>
>>>> So, using the Python_Scripting wiki entry on paraview.org, I have
>>>> found that from the Python Shell I can get information about the
>>>> current time of the animation using the GetAnimationScene() method,
>>>> so I'm hoping that there is a quick trick to accessing this data
>>>> from the ProgrammableSource python code.
>>>>
>>>> Eg.
>>>>           >>>   scene=GetAnimationScene()
>>>>           >>>   print scene.AnimationTime
>>>>           30.0466
>>>>
>>>> I think from there I can do some interesting stuff.
>>>>
>>>>           Thanks in advance,
>>>>           Bill
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Bill Sherman
>>>> Sr. Technology Advisor
>>>> Advanced Visualization Lab
>>>> Pervasive Technology Inst
>>>> Indiana University
>>>> shermanw at indiana.edu
>>
>>