vtkMCubesReader - read binary marching cubes file

Super Class: vtkPolyDataSource

Description:

vtkMCubesReader is a source object that reads binary marching cubes files. (Marching cubes is an isosurfacing technique that generates many triangles.) The binary format is supported by W. Lorensen's marching cubes program (and the vtkSliceCubes object). The format repeats point coordinates, so this object will merge the points with a vtkLocator object. You can choose to supply the vtkLocator or use the default.

Caveats:

Binary files assumed written in sun/hp/sgi (i.e., Big Endian) form. Because points are merged when read, degenerate triangles may be removed. Thus the number of triangles read may be fewer than the number of triangles actually created. The point merging does not take into account that the same point may have different normals. For example, running vtkPolyDataNormals after vtkContourFilter may split triangles because of the FeatureAngle ivar. Subsequent reading with vtkMCubesReader will merge the points and use the first point's normal. For the most part, this is undesirable. Normals are generated from the gradient of the data scalar values. Hence the normals may on occasion point in a direction inconsistent with the ordering of the triangle vertices. If this happens, the resulting surface may be "black". Reverse the sense of the FlipNormals boolean flag to correct this.

See Also:

vtkContourFilter vtkMarchingCubes vtkSliceCubes vtkLocator

Methods:

Detailed Method Descriptions: