[vtkusers] VTK and GUI - vtkRenderWindow - Virtual or Physical?

[Thomas Lambertz]

>
>
> Hi Experts,
>
> I have a question about vtkRenderWindow, and vtkOpenGLRenderWindow. 
> Are such objects virtual, or have to be physical by setting the parent 
> window ID?
>
> The requirement behind this question is here. Suppose an application 
> must separate its window display and interaction from its internal 
> code. The application needs to set a virtual vtkOpenGLRenderWindow 
> with interactors that are also virtual, and binding them with a 
> physical window whenever necessary. Simply put, make 
> vtkOpenGLRenderWindow and the interactor purely ‘server’ objects to 
> return bitmaps (or video streams?). These server objects are fully 
> functional and independent of physical implementation. By doing this, 
> the application never needs to get into vtk code to change files such 
> as vtkMFCWindow.
>
> A real scenario for this. If this is possible, with a .Net wrapper, 
> one can easily use Win Forms as render window.
>
> It would be tremendously helpful if the answer is YES, or can be YES. 
> Your replies are highly appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Frank Gao
>

Hello Frank,

i am far away from being such an expert - but - maybe me tries are 
helpful for you.

I splittet my application into two parts. GUI runs as a managed Win Form 
and the numerical parts are done in a separate DLL which is native-x86. 
And - to come closer to your question - yes - i have not found problems 
at this time by letting VTK render into a Forms-Picturebox.

I know that VS 2003/2005 can handle managed / unmanaged Code in the same 
executable but i didnt tried this way ( splitting has some advantages 
for me ).

Hope this helps,
Tom