What is the correct workflow to develop custom interactive widget in ParaView

Development
1

Dear ParaView community,

I am still learning ParaView and I recently start to implement a custom 3D interactive widget. This is the workflow that I summarized (please correct me if I am wrong)

  1. Implement vtkMyCustomWidgetRepresentation.h/.cxx and vtkMyCustomWidgetWidget.h/.cxx
  2. Add the representation XML to Remoting/Views/Resources/3dwidgets_remotingviews.xml so the server can register it.
  3. Implement pqMyCustomWidgetProperty.h/.cxx
  4. Add
else if (type == "InteractiveMyCustomWidget")
{
  return new pqMyCustomWidgetProperty(proxy, group, parentWidget);
}

in Qt/ApplicationComponents/pqStandardPropertyWidgetInterface.cxx
5. Now my question is where should I put PropertyGroup panel_widget=“InteractiveMyCustomWidget”?

2

Yes but no. This is the process to add a interactive widget to ParaView.

I suppose that in your case you want to add that in your paraview based application, then you want to add that in a paraview plugin, not in ParaView directly.

3

Then what is the correct way to add an interactive widget in plugin?
Is the plugin structured in the following way?

-- CMakeLists.txt
-- paraview.plugin
-- MyWidget
    -- CMakeLists.txt
    -- vtk.module
    -- MyCustomWidget.xml
    -- vtkMyCustomWidgetRepresentation.h
    -- vtkMyCustomWidgetRepresentation.cxx
    -- vtkMyCustomWidget.h
    -- vtkMyCustomWidget.cxx
    -- vtkMyCustomWidgetProperty.h
    -- vtkMyCustomWidgetProperty.cxx

But if I don’t change the source code pqStandardPropertyWidgetInterface.cxx, how does it know what property to return?

4

It is a bit more complex than that. You should take a look at Examples/Plugins/PropertyWidgets in paraview sources.

But if I don’t change the source code pqStandardPropertyWidgetInterface.cxx, how does it know what property to return?

This is supported for plugin to declare their own widgets and uses them.

5

Examples/Plugins/PropertyWidgets only replaces an existing property with a new property in a vtkShrinkFilter.
When a vtkShrinkFilter is created in ParaView, a pipelinesource will be created. Based on the panel_widget, it knows what property to display in UI. But how does it know what widget to display in the 3D scene? Where am I supposed to implement this logic?

How do I understand relationship between filter - widget - representation - property?

6

If I create a filter inherited from vtkPlaneCutter, I will automatically have a widget (a slice plane with its normal) when this filter is created. where is it in the source code and how it is associated with vtkPlaneCutter?

7

The same as in ParaView, with XML files.

where is it in the source code and how it is associated with vtkPlaneCutter?

XMLs

Examples/Plugins/PropertyWidgets only replaces an existing property with a new property in a vtkShrinkFilter.

Indeed, but better than nothing. We should add a plugin showing how to create an interactive vtk widget.

8

Yes, please! I really need to learn how to create an interactive vtk widget in ParaView.

9

I’ve opened an issue for it but one would need to contribute in order to move it forward.
https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview/-/issues/21324