From octave-graphics-request at bevo dot che dot wisc dot edu Thu Jan 15 22:04:18 2004
Subject: Re: New visualization system for octave (using VTK)
From: Dragan Tubic <tdragan at gel dot ulaval dot ca>
To: Vardhman Jain <vardhman at students dot iiit dot net>
Cc: octave-graphics at bevo dot che dot wisc dot edu
Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2004 23:04:02 -0500

>     I would like to know in detail about your work if you dont mind. Is
> your Visualization system meant for plotting 3D models from the
> functions ( rather than 2d plots as gnuplot does)?
It is meant to be a general 3D (and 2D) visualization system for octave. In 
the first part of the project I plan to provide all VTK (see below) 
functionality in octave. Later on, I plan to create a m**lab compatibility 
layer for 3D graphics (functions like trisurf, plot3 etc).

>     I  am also trying to develop a 3D visualization system for running
> through Octave, I would like to know if I should go ahead on my own or
> try to pick your code base and develop it more. 
Sorry, I can't answer you that one. It depends on your plans and what you 
would like to do. As for my code base, there isn't much for the moment. The 
project consists of a single .oct file that initializes the visualization 
system and an automatic wrapper that converts VTK classes into octave DL 
functions. There is no harm in having two visualization systems. Also, you 
are more than welcome to help out with my system.

> Also please let me know 
> if I can think of using opengl for visualization, I mean it is supported
> by this VTK library you are talking about. 
OpenGL is indeed supported by VTK. You could use OpenGL for visualization but 
I believe that VTK is a better choice: it provides platform independent 
visualization, mouse and keyboard interaction, event loops and integrates 
well with a large number of widget toolkits (QT,Motif,Windows,etc).

> It VTK some gtk sort of thing? 
No. VTK is a free, opensource C++ 3D visualization library. It consists of 700 
classes and ~350,000 lines of code which makes it very difficult to match its 
functionality  (that is why I chose to wrap VTK classes instead of starting 
from scratch). You can find out  more about VTK here
http://public.kitware.com/VTK/what-is-vtk.php

Regards,
Dragan

>
> Thanks in anticipation
> vardhman
>
> Dragan Tubic wrote:
> >Hi,
> >
> >Could you please send me error messages so I can make corrections?
> >
> >I'm using VTK 4.2 from debian unstable.
> >
> >Thanks,
> >
> >Dragan
> >
> >On January 15, 2004 07:56 am, Melqart wrote:
> >>Hi Dragan,
> >>
> >>On 11th of January 2004, you wrote:
> >>>I made a new visualization system for octave based on the VTK library.
> >>>The system is an automatic wrapper for VTK classes which brings most of
> >>>the VTK in octave (670 classes to be exact). The octave wrapper is
> >>>actually a hacked TCL wrapper which comes with VTK.
> >>
> >>I find your work interesting. But I could not manage to compile it (but
> >>I'll manage to make it work tonight). Which VTK version were you using?
> >>
> >>Cheers,
> >>
> >>Melqart (Melvin Hadasht)