VTK for .NET platform

Motivation:

Visualization Toolkit (VTK) is object oriented library for data visualization. The VTK already supports some languages on different platforms. But usage of VTK on .NET is not supported directly. The application would have to be split in two parts (the first part - C++ Managed Extension as CLS compliant, the second part - arbitralry CLS compliant language). 

Approach: 

The aim of this work is straightforward use of visualisation toolkit on .NET platform. This is done by means of .NET wrappers. Each VTK class has its own wrapper. The wrapper contains wrapped Win32 class and provides access to its methods. Data conversion and memory management is also job for wrapper. All wrappers are linked into one dynamic linked library (vtkDotNetWrap.dll).

Usage:

For example, with vtkDotNetWrap is possible to write application powered by VTK in C# only. Eventual application scheme is suggested on (pict. 1). 

(pict. 1) possible scheme of application with vtkDotNetWrap

People:

• Václav Skala (skala@kiv.zcu.cz)
• Milan Frank (mfrank@kiv.zcu.cz)

Examples of use:

• Original C++ code. (mace.cxx)
• The same code in C#. (mace.cs)

Download:

• Download page

References:

• VTK home-page:    www.kitware.com/vtk

Some interesting implementation details:

• Basic structure of wrapper is outlined in this pseoudo-souce code.