VTK on OSX with Mayavi (was: Re: [vtkusers] new user attempting install on mac OSX)

[Adrian Umpleby]

Hi everyone,

> I am attempting an install of VTK with the goal of then installing 
> mayavi.

While this subject is around on-list, I thought it would be worth 
recounting my own experiences with VTK on OSX.

I've been using Mayavi under OSX for a while now, both under X11 and 
Aqua (by starting from the appropriate python installation, I can 
actually have both versions running at once, which is quite neat :-)

The X11 version compiles and runs without a problem under XDarwin 
(XFree86 4.1 through latest 4.3) and Apple's X11, once I had compiled 
and installed tcltk and python (for use with X11, rather than the 
'OSX-standard' framework versions). [Except for a weird several minute 
'CPU-heavy' problem with Mayavi's VelocityVectors module with hardware 
GL, which I suspect is actually a bug in Apple's GL implementation in 
OSX10.2 -it only takes a few seconds with software GL, or OSX10.1 - the 
problem is also apparent in the 'Aqua' compiled version under OSX10.2.]

However, getting the 'Aqua' version of Mayavi running was a totally 
different matter...

I first compiled VTK on OSX nearly a year ago, under OSX 10.1(.3?).
There were numerous issues to get it roughly going, not least of which 
was an Aqua Tkinter.

There are still some issues with Tkinter, but they are not serious, and 
I've largely worked around the more 'annoying' ones.

However, there are several problems I found when compiling VTK and using 
it via Mayavi, so I'll go through those here...

1) Using gcc3.1 (on OSX10.2 -I have 10.2.3 on my Quicksilver G4) appears 
to compile VTK fine. But the  problems appear when actually trying to 
use VTK.
As soon as I try to 'import libvtkCommonPython' in python it hangs. 
Using gdb, it appears to be getting into some sort of mutex lock whilst 
loading the dylib. I see the same with 'package require vtk' in tcl. 
Just running vtk (i.e. simply type 'vtk' in Terminal) also has the same 
behaviour (i.e. it hangs, and gdb reports it is stuck in a mutex lock 
during dylib loading).

2) Switching to gcc2.95.2 (using 'gcc_select 2' on OSX10.2, or compiling 
under OSX10.1 -I have OSX10.1.3 on my TiBook) causes major problems with 
undefined symbols. Removing all those '#ifdef __APPLE_CC__' sections in 
the VTK code, and the '-init...' option in the Makefiles, gets further, 
but there are still many undefined symbols when creating some of the 
dylibs (libvtkImaging.dylib being the first). I think they are related 
to the c++ name mangling, and occur from vtkImageIterator and 
vtkImageProgressIterator. Adding '-undefined suppress' to the 
appropriate Makefiles allows VTK compilation to successfully finish. 
This is all with VTK 4.2, and it's probably worth noting that I didn't 
have any of these issues when I first compiled it for aqua nearly a year 
ago under OSX10.1 - that was taken from CVS early July last year. Since 
those symbols are effectively still undefined, does this mean there are 
some things related to these 'iterators' in my VTK which will fail when 
something tries to use them? (Does Mayavi make any use of these at any 
point? How can I test this?)

3) Running Mayavi has to be done interactively through the python 
command-line - the "open" dialog box does not work. (That's not a VTK 
issue, though, so I'll say no more - files can be opened using 
"m=mayavi.mayavi()" to get the mayavi window, followed by 
"f=m.open_vtk('/path/to/file',0)".)

4) Once a file has opened, Mayavi crashes in 
vtkOpenGLRenderer::ClearLights (well, when that calls glLightModeli, 
anyway). I guess this is a VTK problem...? Commenting out the gl calls 
there allows it to work. Any ideas what's going on here? (Had this 
problem back in July, too...)

5) There are numerous issues which I presume are to do with tk (or 
python?), such as errors trying to view the pipeline, problems with 
titlebar-less windows (such as the streamline controls window, which I 
presume is 'cos it's kind of 'modal' under X11 - but having no titlebar 
causes problems once the 'staggering' makes it open partly below the 
screen level since it can't be moved fully onscreen!), errors trying to 
configure integration parameters for streamlines/tubes (the configure 
window fails to appear), etc., etc. I expect these are not to do with 
VTK at all, but I throw them out in case anyone here has any thoughts...

Does anyone else have experience using VTK from Mayavi with Aqua Tkinter 
under OSX?

If you got this far, thanks for your patience!

Adrian