# Visualization of 2D height point data.

**URL:** https://discourse.vtk.org/t/visualization-of-2d-height-point-data/3951
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [August 11, 2020, 3:56am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/visualization-of-2d-height-point-data/3951 "2020-08-11T03:56:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![NeoDreamer](https://discourse.vtk.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/ccd318/32.png) [@NeoDreamer](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/NeoDreamer)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2020, 3:56am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/visualization-of-2d-height-point-data/3951/1 "2020-08-11T03:56:07Z")

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I have height point data that shape of 2D matrix.  
Which is best way to visualize that data.

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### Author: ![Paulo\_Carvalho](https://discourse.vtk.org/user_avatar/discourse.vtk.org/paulo_carvalho/32/370_2.png) [@Paulo\_Carvalho](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/Paulo_Carvalho)
#### Post date: [August 11, 2020, 11:27pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/visualization-of-2d-height-point-data/3951/2 "2020-08-11T23:27:12Z")

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Hi, friend,

Do you wish to view it as a “heat map” 2D image, as a 3D surface or as contour lines?

regards,

Paulo

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![NeoDreamer](https://discourse.vtk.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/ccd318/32.png) [@NeoDreamer](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/NeoDreamer)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2020, 1:35am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/visualization-of-2d-height-point-data/3951/3 "2020-08-12T01:35:09Z")

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Thanks, Paulo.

I want to view as 3D surface my data like the below image.  
 ![image](https://discourse.vtk.org/uploads/default/original/2X/2/24828be99e5358355e147a623eca882b49cc1311.png)  
My data consists of float array value and it has different row spacing and col spacing.

So I try to use vtkImageData, but I don’t know how to do that.  
Is it right way or not? Do I need another data object?

Regards.

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### Author: ![Paulo\_Carvalho](https://discourse.vtk.org/user_avatar/discourse.vtk.org/paulo_carvalho/32/370_2.png) [@Paulo\_Carvalho](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/Paulo_Carvalho)
#### Post date: [August 12, 2020, 12:18pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/visualization-of-2d-height-point-data/3951/4 "2020-08-12T12:18:04Z")

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Hello, friend,

Please, take a look at this code: [https://github.com/PauloCarvalhoRJ/gammaray/blob/master/viewer3d/view3dbuilders.cpp](https://github.com/PauloCarvalhoRJ/gammaray/blob/master/viewer3d/view3dbuilders.cpp) . Look for a method called `buildForSurfaceCartesianGrid2D()`. A 2D Cartesian grid is exactly an array of values like yours. This will build a surface from your data.

regards,

Paulo

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### Author: ![amaclean](https://discourse.vtk.org/user_avatar/discourse.vtk.org/amaclean/32/224_2.png) [@amaclean](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/amaclean)
#### Post date: [August 13, 2020, 7:26am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/visualization-of-2d-height-point-data/3951/5 "2020-08-13T07:26:00Z")

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You could try something like this: [InterpolateMeshOnGrid](https://lorensen.github.io/VTKExamples/site/Cxx/PolyData/InterpolateMeshOnGrid/). I’m pretty sure the gridActor is the one you want. So comment out the line:

```auto
renderer->AddActor(randomActor);

```

The `randomActor` is just the surface.

Comment out:

```auto
gridActor->GetProperty()->SetColor(0.0, 0.0, 1.0); //(R,G,B)

```

and set:

```auto
 gridMapper->ScalarVisibilityOn();

```

This will give you a rather garish default height map. You can improve this by using color maps etc.

Once you are happy with what you are doing, look at a really complex example: [ElevationBandsWithGlyphs](https://lorensen.github.io/VTKExamples/site/Cxx/Visualization/ElevationBandsWithGlyphs/)