# how to learn
**URL:** https://discourse.vtk.org/t/how-to-learn/11175
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [April 10, 2023, 1:25pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/how-to-learn/11175 "2023-04-10T13:25:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@zzy123456](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/zzy123456)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2023, 1:25pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/how-to-learn/11175/1 "2023-04-10T13:25:28Z")
Hi, I want to learn vtk, where do I start?
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### Author:  [@cory.quammen](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/cory.quammen)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2023, 11:07pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/how-to-learn/11175/2 "2023-04-10T23:07:54Z")
Take a look at the User’s Guide at [https://vtk.org/documentation/](https://vtk.org/documentation/) and the VTK examples at [https://kitware.github.io/vtk-examples/site/](https://kitware.github.io/vtk-examples/site/). Learning by example is probably the best way to learn VTK (or at least it worked in my experience).
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### Author:  [@amaclean](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/amaclean)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2023, 10:24pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/how-to-learn/11175/3 "2023-04-11T22:24:41Z")
Some other pointers that may help. With respect ro the VTK Examples site, I would suggest firstly:
1. Try out the Tutorials. There is a lot of explanation about each step there. Then experiment by varying the sources e.g. use a cylinder instead of a cone, choose different colours etc.
2. Then try other examples that don’t need data.
3. Now to use examples that need data, you will need to either:
a. Go to [gitlab](https://gitlab.kitware.com/vtk/vtk-examples) and either clone the whole site or go to [src/Testing/Data](https://gitlab.kitware.com/vtk/vtk-examples/-/tree/master/src/Testing/Data) and download the individual data file(s) you want. This is also the site to use when submitting merge requests. This is the best option.
b. Clone the whole site from [github](https://github.com/Kitware/vtk-examples). Note that this is a mirror of the gitlab site (do not submit merge requeste here).
4. Have fun trying out the examples, you wil learn a lot! This will also be useful: [SelectExamples](https://kitware.github.io/vtk-examples/site/Python/Utilities/SelectExamples/).
A further explanation for point 3 is that in the vtk-examples site, data is stored as git-lfs files and you can download individual lfs files from gitlab but not from github.
Hope this helps.
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### Author:  [@zzy123456](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/zzy123456)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2023, 3:56am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/how-to-learn/11175/4 "2023-04-12T03:56:15Z")
Thank you. The example CMAKE I downloaded from the official website has been suffering from such errors for several days. What should I do
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### Author:  [@amaclean](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/amaclean)
#### Post date: [April 12, 2023, 4:49am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/how-to-learn/11175/5 "2023-04-12T04:49:29Z")
You are using an older version of VTK, it would be better to use the most recent version of VTK. If you want to keep using the old vrsion of VTK this link may give you some ideas: [Module Migration](https://vtk.org/doc/nightly/html/md__builds_gitlab-kitware-sciviz-ci_Documentation_Doxygen_ModuleMigration.html). It points out the differences between VTK8 and VTK9.