[Paraview] Accessing GetAnimationScene() from the ProgrammableSource

[Utkarsh Ayachit]

Following may help:

- Create a mapper for your polydata.
- Set that mapper to a vtkFollower.
- Pass camera to vtkFollower (view.GetActiveCamera())
- Add vtkFolllower to view (view.GetRenderer2D().AddActor(follower)

You'll have to figure out what Python modules to import to get the
vtkFollower/vtkPolyDataMapper, if needed. If all goes well, that may
work.

Utkarsh


On Thu, Apr 25, 2013 at 12:16 AM, William Sherman <shermanw at indiana.edu> wrote:
> 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
>>>
>>>
>>>
>