Rendering Textile in Existing VTK Render Window in Python

[Jagir]

Hi,
I am trying to render texgen generated textiles in an existing VTK Render window. I followed the C++ documentation of CTKGenRenderer and based on the signature, I provided the constructor with an vtkRenderWindowInteractor. Below is a sample code

iren = vtk.vtkRenderWindowInteractor()
renderer = CTexGenRenderer(iren)

Unfortunately, this fails with the following error

renderer = CTexGenRenderer(iren)
File "D:\Anaconda2\lib\site-packages\TexGen\Renderer.py", line 369, in __init__
this = _Renderer.new_CTexGenRenderer(pRenderWindowInteractor)
NotImplementedError: Wrong number or type of arguments for overloaded function 'new_CTexGenRenderer'.
Possible C/C++ prototypes are:
TexGen::CTexGenRenderer::CTexGenRenderer(vtkRenderWindowInteractor *)
TexGen::CTexGenRenderer::CTexGenRenderer()

I am able to render the textile with the builtin vtk window as follows

renderer = CTexGenRenderer()
renderer.RenderTextile(Textile)
renderer.Start()

Also, the object returned by renderer.GetRenderer() is a SwigPyObject and not a vtkObject and, consequently I am unable to attach the rendering to another window.

My setup is : Windows 7, 64 bit, Anaconda Python 2.7 with vtk5.10.1 and Texgen 3.9 built for windows 7, 64 bit, python 2.7.

I would be grateful if you could provide with any insights/ workarounds to get this going.

Thanks
Jagir

[louisepb]

Hi Jagir,
I'm not sure what the solution to this is. The rendering in TexGen is programmed in C++ using VTK and then SWIG wrapped to give the Python interface. That's why the GetRenderer function returns a SwigPyObject. You should be able to use the renderer functions to create a standalone window which will access the TexGen rendering functions by using from TexGen.Renderer import * but this wouldn't be the same as creating a window using import vtk.
Are you wanting to create a window in your own application? Could you do this by using the TexGen renderer functions?

Not sure I've been much help there...
Louise

[Jagir]

Hi Louise,
Thanks for the input. Yes, I was trying to create a widget where both texgen and other graphical elements would render together. I was attempting to compile the software stack and look into the reasons for swig incompatibility, however with the latest visual studio building VTK 5.10 has been a challenge.
So I have given up on using the renderer. I am now using the mesh generated by texgen and loading it in my graphics windows.

Thanks
Jagir