Visualizer Module Documentation

Module: src/visualizer Purpose: Index of documentation for BELFEM's optional VTK-based visualization

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Overview

The visualizer module uses VTK to render meshes and curves and provides the visualize executable.

This module is opt-in and OFF by default. Enable it with -DUSE_VTK=ON (CMakeLists.txt: option( USE_VTK "Use Visualization Toolkit" OFF )). src/CMakeLists.txt adds the directory only under that guard. A default build contains neither the library nor the executable, and nothing else in the tree depends on it. The usual path is to let BELFEM write Exodus, VTK and HDF5 files and open them directly in external viewers such as ParaView or VisIt.

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Key Classes

Class	Files	Role
vtk::MeshView	cl_VTK_MeshView.{hpp,cpp}	Renders a mesh
vtk::Curve	cl_VTK_Curve.{hpp,cpp}	Renders a curve
vtk::BlockActor	cl_VTK_MeshView.{hpp,cpp}	VTK actor for one mesh block
vtk::SideSetActor	cl_VTK_MeshView.{hpp,cpp}	VTK actor for one sideset

The classes live in namespace belfem::vtk; the VTK_ prefix is on the file names, not the class names.

vtktypes.hpp provides the belfem::vtk smart-pointer aliases (Actor, Points, Renderer, ...); the element-type map vtk_type() lives in the mesh module (src/mesh/vtktools.hpp). visualize.cpp provides main() for the visualize executable.

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See Also

• Source code - header files in src/visualizer/
• Mesh module - mesh I/O, including the VTK writer that the external-viewer path uses
• Getting Started - build options

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Status: this index was written from the module's headers and its CMake guard. Because the module is off in a default build it is the least exercised part of the tree; treat anything here as unverified until you have built with -DUSE_VTK=ON.