[Paraview] Programmable filter from external python program

[Simon Couture]

If I leave the filter's PythonPath property empty and put import sys and print
sys.path, the filter gives "ImportError: No module named paraview" before
getting a chance to execute the filter's script. So here's what I get if I
instead set the filter's python path property to what allowed me to make it
work:

Filter's PythonPath is set to:
ProgrammableFilter1.PythonPath = "
'/raid/usr/local/lib/paraview-3.98/site-packages';
'/raid/usr/local/lib/paraview-3.98';
'/raid/usr/local/lib/paraview-3.98/lib/python2.7';
'/raid/usr/local/lib/paraview-3.98/lib/python2.7/plat-linux2';
'/raid/usr/local/lib/paraview-3.98/lib/python2.7/lib-tk';
'/raid/usr/local/lib/paraview-3.98/lib/python2.7/lib-old';
'/raid/usr/local/lib/paraview-3.98/lib/python2.7/lib-dynload';
'/raid/usr/local/lib/paraview-3.98/lib/python2.7/site-packages'"

The output of the filter's script "print sys.path":
'/raid/usr/local/lib/paraview-3.98/lib/python2.7/site-packages',
'/raid/usr/local/lib/paraview-3.98/lib/python2.7/lib-dynload',
'/raid/usr/local/lib/paraview-3.98/lib/python2.7/lib-old',
'/raid/usr/local/lib/paraview-3.98/lib/python2.7/lib-tk',
'/raid/usr/local/lib/paraview-3.98/lib/python2.7/plat-linux2',
'/raid/usr/local/lib/paraview-3.98/lib/python2.7',
'/raid/usr/local/lib/paraview-3.98',
'/raid/usr/local/lib/paraview-3.98/site-packages',
'/home/utkarsh/Dashboards/MyTests/NightlyMaster/ParaViewSuperbuild-Release/paraview/src/paraview-build/lib',
'/home/utkarsh/Dashboards/MyTests/NightlyMaster/ParaViewSuperbuild-Release/paraview/src/paraview-build/lib/site-packages',
'/usr/bin', '/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/PyOpenGL-3.0.2-py2.6.egg',
'/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/virtualenv-1.10.1-py2.6.egg',
'/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/setuptools-1.1.6-py2.6.egg',
'/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/ipython-1.2.0-py2.6.egg',
'/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/pyzmq-14.0.1-py2.6-linux-x86_64.egg',
'/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/Jinja2-2.7.2-py2.6.egg',
'/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/Pygments-1.6-py2.6.egg',
'/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/Sphinx-1.2.1-py2.6.egg',
'/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/MarkupSafe-0.18-py2.6-linux-x86_64.egg',
'/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/docutils-0.11-py2.6.egg',
'/cm/local/apps/cuda/libs/current/pynvml',
'/raid/home/simon/code/fm/fm_libs',
'/usr/lib64/python26.zip',
'/usr/lib64/python2.6',
'/usr/lib64/python2.6/plat-linux2',
'/usr/lib64/python2.6/lib-tk',
'/usr/lib64/python2.6/lib-old',
'/usr/lib64/python2.6/lib-dynload',
'/usr/lib64/python2.6/site-packages',
'/usr/lib64/python2.6/site-packages/PIL',
'/usr/lib64/python2.6/site-packages/gtk-2.0',
'/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages'

You see that the first paths output by the filter are the paths corresponding to
the filter's PythonPath in reverse order. The rest is probably what you get if
you leave PythonPath empty which do not include the directories related to
paraview's python.

Simon

Quoting Utkarsh Ayachit <utkarsh.ayachit at kitware.com>:

> Just saw reset of thread -- mind putting
> "import sys
> print sys.path"
>
> in your ProgrammableFilter script and seeing what is the default path
> it is ending up picking?
>
> On Sun, Mar 9, 2014 at 3:02 PM, Utkarsh Ayachit
> <utkarsh.ayachit at kitware.com> wrote:
> > Did you call an UpdatePipeline before checking for point-data arrays?
> > e.g.
> >
> > ProgrammableFilter1.UpdatePipeline()
> > print ProgrammableFilter1.PointData.GetNumberOfArrays()
> >
> >
> > Utkarsh
> >
> > On Wed, Mar 5, 2014 at 8:31 PM, Simon Couture
> > <simon-2.couture at polymtl.ca> wrote:
> >> Hi everyone,
> >>
> >> I am trying to use paraview from an external python program where I import
> >> paraview.simple and mostly use python code generated by Paraview's trace
> tool
> >> to accomplish what I want. In general it works well, but in one instance I
> need
> >> to generate a new data array from my source/reader, and as far as I know,
> the
> >> programmable filter is the only way to do this (the actual PointData
> arrays of
> >> the sources are not directly visible/editable through the python shell).
> Now
> >> when I try to execute the python code that I get from trace to insert a
> >> programmable filter with a given script, the PointData array that the
> >> programmable filter's script is supposed to create is not created (and it
> does
> >> work when I create the programmable filter using the Paraview GUI).
> >>
> >> To be more clear, here is the python code that I run (cutting out camera
> and
> >> rendering commands):
> >>
> >> mysource = AVSUCDReader( FileNames=['/home/myfile.inp'] )
> >>
> >> mysource.PointArrayStatus = []
> >> mysource.CellArrayStatus = []
> >>
> >> RenderView1 = GetRenderView()
> >> DataRepresentation3 = Show()
> >> ProgrammableFilter1 = ProgrammableFilter()
> >> DataRepresentation4 = Show()
> >> ProgrammableFilter1.RequestUpdateExtentScript = ''
> >> ProgrammableFilter1.PythonPath = ''
> >> ProgrammableFilter1.RequestInformationScript = ''
> >> ProgrammableFilter1.Script = "pdi = self.GetInput()\nnbpoints =
> >> pdi.GetNumberOfPoints()\ninput_pointdata =
> pdi.GetPointData().GetArray('data')
> >> [... the rest of my script here]"
> >>
> >> After running this in either the paraview python shell or from an external
> >> python program, if I do for instance:
> >>
> >> ProgrammableFilter1.PointData.GetNumberOfArrays()
> >>
> >> I get 0 meaning that no PointData array was created, whereas if the same
> >> programmable filter is created in the paraview GUI, I would get 1. Please
> note
> >> that I am not using the Copy Arrays option of the programmable filter.
> >>
> >> Has anyone successfully used the programmable filter from a python script?
> >>
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