Find the nearest triangle from a selected point

Development
1

Hey guys,
i’m very new into VTK and using the 5.8. I already archieved to build a small 3D Plotter to open and view some .stl files. Now i’m trying to implementate a function that calculates me the nearest triangle from a selected point. I have red nearly everything about vtk on google, but still didnt find anything.
Maybe some of you can help me with this task.
Thank you so much!

2

Depending on your application, this may be easy or complex :slight_smile:

I would start with vtkDataSet::FindCell() and its cousins. Note that this virtual method is implemented in vtkDataSet derived classes (e.g., vtkPointSet::FindCell()) so you may want to poke around to learn more depending on the particulars of your data.

Now, if performance is a big concern, you need to become familiar with the cell locators (e.g., vtkCellLocator, vtkStaticCellLocator, etc. subclasses of vtkAbstractCellLocator).

Finally, if you want a trip down a deep rabbit hole, check out vtkFindCellStrategy class - some serious expertise is required to make sense of this.

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3

Thank you for your answer! I really hoped there is a library for it. I code it with C# and thought there is a function, that shows me the nearest triangle of my point :smiley:

4

You may want to check out ParaView. Its interactive point/cell/data interrogation capabilities are quite nice.

1 Like
5

Thank you, but i have to code it for myself. Can i use the FindCell() with an if condition or how does it work?

6

Given my schedule, the best I can recommend is to look at code examples. Other community members may be able to help, and of course Kitware pays the bills with support contracts (among other things :-))