vtkContourFilter - generate isosurfaces/isolines from scalar values

Super Class: vtkDataSetToPolyDataFilter

Description:

vtkContourFilter is a filter that takes as input any dataset and generates on output isosurfaces and/or isolines. The exact form of the output depends upon the dimensionality of the input data. Data consisting of 3D cells will generate isosurfaces, data consisting of 2D cells will generate isolines, and data with 1D or 0D cells will generate isopoints. Combinations of output type are possible if the input dimension is mixed. This filter will identify special dataset types (e.g., structured points) and use the appropriate specialized filter to process the data. For examples, if the input dataset type is a volume, this filter will create an internal vtkMarchingCubes instance and use it. This gives much better performance. To use this filter you must specify one or more contour values. You can either use the method SetValue() to specify each contour value, or use GenerateValues() to generate a series of evenly spaced contours. It is also possible to accelerate the operation of this filter (at the cost of extra memory) by using a vtkScalarTree. A scalar tree is used to quickly locate cells that contain a contour surface. This is especially effective if multiple contours are being extracted. If you want to use a scalar tree, invoke the method UseScalarTreeOn().

Caveats:

For unstructured data or structured grids, normals and gradients are not computed. This calculation will be implemented in the future. In the mean time, use vtkPolyDataNormals to compute the surface normals.

See Also:

vtkMarchingCubes vtkSliceCubes vtkDividingCubes vtkMarchingSquares

Methods:

Detailed Method Descriptions: