[Fwd: Re: [vtkusers] LabView and VTK?]

[Karl Garsha]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Re: [vtkusers] LabView and VTK?
Date: 	Fri, 07 Nov 2003 11:34:52 -0600
From: 	Karl Garsha <garsha at itg.uiuc.edu>
To: 	John Eschelbach <jwe at unc.edu>
References: 	<200311062330.hA6NU76l026511 at smtp.unc.edu>



Hi John,
I'm not much of a Windows guru, and I'm not sure about the details of 
the LabView environment, but my guess is that you could access VTK 
objects through a COM/Active-X/.Net (or whatever they're calling it now) 
interface. My guess is that you would have to compile the VTK Classes 
which you wish to use as ActiveX controls from within 
MSVisualStudio--this should yeild a binary object that can be imported 
into and instantiated in VisualBasic/or LabView (providing the LabView 
language supports COM interfaces). I would google for VTK used with 
VisualBasic and see if someone has already done this, or see what other 
approaches can be used to access C++ objects from VBasic or .Net--my 
logic is that LabView is probably based on Microsoft Technology on the 
Windows platform, and so it will use the same interfaces in the 
interpreter (if interfacing to outside function libraries is supported).
-Karl G.

John Eschelbach wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I was wondering if anyone had any experience using LabView to link the 
> various VTK functions together. My experience with text-based 
> languages is non-existent, but I am quite proficient in LabView and 
> would prefer to use it.
>
> Perhaps as a broader question, is it possible to only use the .dll 
> files when using VTK? LabView allows for external calls to .dll’s to 
> be made. I had hoped that I would be able to simply use the external 
> dll calls and link the functions together from within LabView. I have 
> been partially successful at calling the dll’s and seeing the 
> functions that exist inside them, but I have been unable to pass data 
> between various dll’s or functions.
>
> Any help is appreciated!
>

-- 
Karl Garsha
Light Microscopy Specialist
Imaging Technology Group
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
405 North Mathews Avenue
Urbana, IL 61801
Office: B650J
Phone: 217.244.6292
Fax: 217.244.6219
Mobile: 217.390.1874
www.itg.uiuc.edu




-- 
Karl Garsha
Light Microscopy Specialist
Imaging Technology Group
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
405 North Mathews Avenue
Urbana, IL 61801
Office: B650J
Phone: 217.244.6292
Fax: 217.244.6219
Mobile: 217.390.1874
www.itg.uiuc.edu