VTK integration

Features & Ideas
1

Would it be possible to add support for VTK?
VTK, “the visualization toolkit”, is an open-source visualization software and data format. VTK is often used for visualizing finite element analysis results, but is also for displaying 3D ground models.
I would be interested in hearing what you think and where to start if it were indeed possible to add support for VTK.

3 Likes
2

Hi @JoostGevaert! Welcome to the community!

Not sure if the rest of the team knows about VTK, but I wasn’t aware of its existence until right now :sweat: so I wouldn’t know what to tell you other than it’s not currently on the Roadmap for us to develop.

That being said, I see no reason why it wouldn’t be possible to integrate Speckle into VTK. Since it appears to be written in C++ and our C++ SDK is actually already under development as part of the Unreal connector.

We’re currently writing the developer docs, so the “Write your Own Connector” guide is not yet published. But we’d be happy guide you if you’d be willing to take on a “VTK Connector”

Maybe @dimitrie or @cristi can give you more info on how our C++ implementation is going :wink:

Anyway thanks for the interest! Also, feel free to Introduce Yourself to the community if you feel like it :slight_smile:

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Hadn’t heard of it indeed! Thanks for the suggestion :slight_smile:
Would also be curious to hear how @JoostGevaert you were thinking it could play inside our ecosystem?

4

Would be a good addition! VTK also has a Python API, so that could be another interface with Speckle.

2 Likes
5

Thanks a lot for the quick replies and interest everyone!
First of all, I have a background in applied geophysics and geotechnical engineering (I’ll also introduce myself on that page :slight_smile: ).
A problem we are having is that the geological, geophysical and geotechnical design models we produce integrate very poorly with the currently available software and the worst of all is that we struggle a lot with all the proprietary software and file formats. What we produce in terms of geometries are generally triangulated meshes or voxel models. Both of these formats can be visualized well with VTK. Moreover, using voxel models one can also assign properties to each voxel, making that model a “Subsurface Information Model”.
Yes, VTK indeed also has a Python API (vtk · PyPI), but I still find that API rather complicated to use and prefer using PyVista (pyvista · PyPI ;https://www.pyvista.org/).
Would it also be possible to write a connector using one of these Python API’s?
Once there is a connector, that would directly allow you to view the CAD geometries together with the VTK models in the 3D viewer, and it would also allow you to import such models to other CAD programs, right?
That’s the idea behind Speckle right? So awesome :star_struck: :star_struck: :star_struck:

1 Like
6

Hi all,
exactly the conversation I was looking for.
I am doing some tests using google colab, and everything works very nicely.
I just started looking at how to visualize the model using dash_vtk and based to this conversation I thought of two possible ways:

  1. Recreating the model, so extracting the vertices and creating the data as required by vtk.
  2. Exporting the model from the stream as one of the following formats that vtk is able to read, is this possible?

What I am trying to achieve is a 3d model visualization of some solar analysis, with some combined dashboards.
Integrating the speckle viewer in colab is very easy! and also the easiest way for now!
image

Thanks!

7

Hey Mirco,

Thanks for sharing this!

Some weeks ago we had a presentation from the team at Ladybug tools, and they are using VTK as a base for their Pollination viewer.
I’m just throwing it out but, based on what you’re trying to achieve, another approach could be trying to integrate with their tools instead…

cc @antoine

1 Like
8

Since the last time that there was some activity on this feature / idea:

What are were the outcomes of your chats regarding Pollination :heart: Speckle @dimitrie, @Mostapha and @chriswmackey?

@oguzhankoral, how does the VTK → Speckle part of your CFD automation work?

9

Hi @JoostGevaert,

My library generates .vtk results by using cutPlaneSurface utility of OpenFOAM. Then with this data I map vtk vectors to multicolored Speckle Meshes. You can find it here archaea-simulation/archaea_simulation/speckle/vtk_to_speckle.py at ea92c5f62c540d5aeb34ab716b2a7722babb8bc3 · archaeans/archaea-simulation · GitHub

Best regards

2 Likes
10

Awesome, very useful, thanks a million!

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11

Hoping not to be a nuisance by insisting, @dimitrie, @Mostapha, @chriswmackey, what cam out of your discussion w.r.t. VTK integration?