vtkSource - abstract class specifies interface for visualization network source

Super Class: vtkProcessObject

Description:

vtkSource is an abstract object that specifies behavior and interface of source objects. Source objects are objects that begin visualization pipeline. Sources include readers (read data from file or communications port) and procedural sources (generate data programmatically). vtkSource objects are also objects that generate output data. In this sense vtkSource is used as a superclass to vtkFilter. Concrete subclasses of vtkSource must define Update() and Execute() methods. The public method Update() invokes network execution and will bring the network up-to-date. The protected Execute() method actually does the work of data creation/generation. The difference between the two methods is that Update() implements input consistency checks and modified time comparisons and then invokes the Execute() which is an implementation of a particular algorithm. An important feature of subclasses of vtkSource is that it is possible to control the memory-management model (i.e., retain output versus delete output data). If enabled the ReleaseDataFlag enables the deletion of the output data once the downstream process object finishes processing the data (please see text).

See Also:

vtkProcessObject vtkDataSetReader vtkFilter vtkPolyDataSource vtkStructuredGridSource vtkStructuredPointsSource vtkUnstructuredGridSource

Methods:

Detailed Method Descriptions: