vtkImplicitModeller - compute distance from input geometry on structured point dataset
vtkImplicitModeller is a filter that computes the distance from the input
geometry to the points of an output structured point set. This distance
function can then be "contoured" to generate new, offset surfaces from
the original geometry. An important feature of this object is
"capping". If capping is turned on, after the implicit model is created,
the values on the boundary of the structured points dataset are set to
the cap value. This is used to force closure of the resulting contoured
surface. Note, however, that large cap values can generate weird surface
normals in those cells adjacent to the boundary of the dataset. Using
smaller cap value will reduce this effect.
Another important ivar is MaximumDistance. This controls how far into the
volume the distance function is computed from the input geometry. Small
values give significant increases in performance. However, there can
strange sampling effects at the extreme range of the MaximumDistance.
In order to properly execute and sample the input data, a rectangular
region in space must be defined (this is the ivar ModelBounds). If not
explicitly defined, the model bounds will be computed. Note that to avoid
boundary effects, it is possible to adjust the model bounds (i.e., using
the AdjustBounds and AdjustDistance ivars) to strictly contain the
sampled data.
This filter has one other unusual capability: it is possible to append
data in a sequence of operations to generate a single output. This is
useful when you have multiple datasets and want to create a
conglomeration of all the data.