[Paraview] Import a four-dimensional array and "slice" one dimension to plot in 3D

[Cory Quammen]

Fred,

A reader plugin would be perfectly reasonable. Distributing a plugin
may not be easier than distributing the programmable source file,
though, because it needs to be built with the same tools as the
ParaView binary. We don't have a ParaView SDK to build against, so you
would have to build and distribute both ParaView and your plugin to
other folks. It's possible, but a fair amount of work.

> - I seem unable to import a few python packages that I know I can
> import in a usual python command.

More of the standard python packages will be included in 5.3.0, due
out early March 2017. A number were not included in 5.2.0. The
Programmable Source also provides a way to add to the PYTHONPATH
variable if you need to point to other Python modules. Compatibility
caveats apply, though.

Another option to consider: make an XML plugin out of your
Programmable Source. See
https://blog.kitware.com/easy-customization-of-the-paraview-python-programmable-filter-property-panel/
for details. With this approach, you could distribute an XML file that
others load through the Plugin Manager. Any recent version of ParaView
would be able to load it - you wouldn't need to build your own
ParaView to distribute with it.

HTH,
Cory

On Fri, Feb 17, 2017 at 12:31 PM, Frederic Perez
<fredericperez1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Thank you for this suggestion.
>
> I have been looking at programmable sources, and although they are new
> to me, I think I have found a few issues for my objective:
> - I seem unable to import a few python packages that I know I can
> import in a usual python command.
> - I can't find a way to have this programmable source saved as a file,
> so that other people can use it.
> - If people want to have more flexibility using my programmable
> source, they need to get their hands in the code, which is precisely
> what I am trying to avoid.
>
> Are there solutions to these issues? Or should I simply go make a
> plugin, instead of a programmable source?
>
> Cheers
> Fred
>
>
>
> 2017-02-16 15:09 GMT+01:00 Cory Quammen <cory.quammen at kitware.com>:
>> Hi Fred,
>>
>> Nothing built-in comes to mind to handle 4D data this way, but you
>> could potentially write a Programmable Source to read the file and do
>> the slicing. This would be similar to writing an external program to
>> extract a 3D hyperplane, but you could at least refine the hyperplane
>> definition within the Programmable Source and update the results
>> "live" in ParaView.
>>
>> HTH,
>> Cory
>>
>> On Wed, Feb 15, 2017 at 5:10 PM, Frederic Perez
>> <fredericperez1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> Is there a way to import (any format) a 4D array in paraview, then to
>>> slice one of the dimensions (i.e. use only one 3D hyperplane), and
>>> plot the remaining 3D array with paraview's volume rendering?
>>>
>>> I know I could manipulate the data to make it 3D before using it in
>>> Paraview, but I was looking for a way to do this directly.
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>> Fred
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>>
>>
>> --
>> Cory Quammen
>> Staff R&D Engineer
>> Kitware, Inc.



-- 
Cory Quammen
Staff R&D Engineer
Kitware, Inc.