VTK in MFC

• Download demo project - 97.1 KB

Introduction

Recently, I was required to work with VTK, an interesting (and powerful) library for visualization. I have found a lack of documentation regarding using VTK in MFC, so, I decided to write a small guide for those who want to use VTK in MFC.

Background

In my case, I have used Visual Studio 2008 and VTK 6.1. I have tried to compile VTK 6.1 with VC6, but it didn't work :).

Also, you can find here an reference about how to configure and build VTK library: http://www.vtk.org/Wiki/VTK/Configure_and_Build.

Necessary Steps

Step 1

First of all, you just need to download the source of library and data. And put them somewhere on your HDD. For example, let's chose C: partition. So, we have two folders: C:\VTK\VTK-6.1.0 and C:\VTK\VTKData-6.1.0.

Step 2

You need to download CMake from here. Unzip the file, and start cmake-gui.exe. You will have something like:

On the code source edit box, type C:/VTK/VTK-6.1.0 and on binaries edit box, type C:/VTK/bin ... there, the CMake will create a bin folder inside of C:\VTK\. Push Configure button. The CMake will popup the following window:

Just push Finish button, and wait ... when the CMake is finished the job, it will give you a message Configuring done and in the output list some red lines ...

Step 3

Inside of C:\VTK\bin folder, you must have CMakeCache.txt file. Open it and edit the following lines:

//Build VTK examples.
BUILD_EXAMPLES:BOOL=ON

into:

//Build VTK examples.
BUILD_EXAMPLES:BOOL=OFF

and:

//Request building vtkGUISupportMFC
Module_vtkGUISupportMFC:BOOL=OFF

into:

//Request building vtkGUISupportMFC
Module_vtkGUISupportMFC:BOOL=ON

Save the file, and go back to cmake-gui.exe.

Step 4

No press again Configure button. You will get the same message: Configuring done. And after that, press Generate button in order to generate solution file by Visual Studio 2008 compiler.

Step 5

Open VTK.sln solution file from C:\VTK\Bin\ installed folder. And compile and build ALL_BUILD project ... this task will take a long time ... And after building has ended, build Install project, in order to install VTK in C:\Program Files\ folder. Now you are ready to go! In order to use VTK inside of MFC project, you just need to include VTK headers and VTK library files, just like in TestBMP testing project attached. The headers are in C++->Additional Include Directories, and library files are in Linker->Input->Additional Dependencies. One more thing, in stdafx.h file, you will have to add:

#define vtkRenderingCore_AUTOINIT 4
(vtkInteractionStyle,vtkRenderingFreeType,vtkRenderingFreeTypeOpenGL,vtkRenderingOpenGL)
#define vtkRenderingVolume_AUTOINIT 1(vtkRenderingVolumeOpenGL)

Using the Code

Let's consider that we have to read bitmap files. For that, we have to include inside of CDocument header:

#include "vtkBMPReader.h"

class CTestBMPDoc : public CDocument
{
protected: // create from serialization only
    CTestBMPDoc();
    DECLARE_DYNCREATE(CTestBMPDoc)

// Attributes
public:
    vtkBMPReader* m_pvtkBMPReader;
.......
}

and in implementation file:

CTestBMPDoc::CTestBMPDoc()
{
    // TODO: add one-time construction code here

    m_pvtkBMPReader = NULL;
}

void CTestBMPDoc::OnCloseDocument()
{
    // TODO: Add your specialized code here and/or call the base class

    if(NULL != m_pvtkBMPReader)
        m_pvtkBMPReader->Delete();

    CDocument::OnCloseDocument();
}

BOOL CTestBMPDoc::OnOpenDocument(LPCTSTR lpszPathName)
{
    if (! CDocument::OnOpenDocument(lpszPathName))
        return FALSE;

    // TODO:  Add your specialized creation code here

    m_pvtkBMPReader = vtkBMPReader::New();
    m_pvtkBMPReader->SetFileName(lpszPathName);
    return TRUE;
}

and to render bitmap files inside of CView class, we have to use some VTK objects: vtkMFCWindow, vtkRenderer, vtkImageActor. An example of using these objects in CView:

#include "vtkMFCWindow.h"
#include "vtkRenderer.h"
#include "vtkImageActor.h"

class CTestBMPView : public CView
{
protected: // create from serialization only
    CTestBMPView();
    DECLARE_DYNCREATE(CTestBMPView)

// Attributes
public:
    CTestBMPDoc* GetDocument() const;

// Operations
public:

protected:
    vtkMFCWindow* m_pvtkMFCWindow;
    vtkRenderer* m_pvtkRenderer;
    vtkImageActor* m_pvtkImageActor;
...
}

and in implementation CView file:

CTestBMPView::CTestBMPView()
{
    // TODO: add construction code here

    m_pvtkMFCWindow = NULL;
    m_pvtkRenderer = vtkRenderer::New();
    m_pvtkImageActor = vtkImageActor::New();
}

CTestBMPView::~CTestBMPView()
{
    if(NULL != m_pvtkMFCWindow)
        delete m_pvtkMFCWindow;
}
void CTestBMPView::OnDestroy()
{
    if(NULL != m_pvtkRenderer)
        m_pvtkRenderer->Delete();
    if(NULL != m_pvtkImageActor)
        m_pvtkImageActor->Delete();

    CView::OnDestroy();

    // TODO: Add your message handler code here
}

BOOL CTestBMPView::OnEraseBkgnd(CDC* pDC)
{
    // TODO: Add your message handler code here and/or call default

    return TRUE;
//    return CView::OnEraseBkgnd(pDC);
}

void CTestBMPView::OnSize(UINT nType, int cx, int cy)
{
    CView::OnSize(nType, cx, cy);

    // TODO: Add your message handler code here

    if(NULL != m_pvtkMFCWindow)
        m_pvtkMFCWindow->MoveWindow(0, 0, cx, cy);
}

void CTestBMPView::OnInitialUpdate()
{
    CView::OnInitialUpdate();

    // TODO: Add your specialized code here and/or call the base class

    m_pvtkMFCWindow = new vtkMFCWindow(this);
    m_pvtkMFCWindow->GetRenderWindow()->AddRenderer(m_pvtkRenderer);
    m_pvtkRenderer->SetBackground(0.0, 0.0, 0.5);
    if(NULL != GetDocument()->m_pvtkBMPReader)
    {
        //setup renderer
        m_pvtkImageActor->GetMapper()->SetInputConnection(GetDocument()->m_pvtkBMPReader->GetOutputPort());
        m_pvtkRenderer->AddActor(m_pvtkImageActor);
    }
}

You will find more details inside the sample project. Enjoy it!

30 Jan 2015 - I updated the code archive, I added Release folder to the archive.