VTK: Intersection between a plane and a polydata

Question

Is there a simple way to compute whether a plane and a polydata-object intersect?

I want to know on which sides my polydata-object protude my bounding box.

I want to use VTK for this task.

Answer 1

I solved this using a vtkBoundingBox, which has the plane position and a second vtkBoundingBox which got the the bounds from my vtkPolyData.

Answer 2

Will the vtkIntersectionPolyDataFilter work for you? http://www.vtk.org/Wiki/VTK/Examples/Cxx/PolyData/IntersectionPolyDataFilter

Answer 3

You can use vtkCutter, like below:

#include <vtkSmartPointer.h>
#include <vtkCubeSource.h>
#include <vtkPolyDataMapper.h>
#include <vtkPlane.h>
#include <vtkCutter.h>
#include <vtkProperty.h>
#include <vtkActor.h>
#include <vtkRenderer.h>
#include <vtkRenderWindow.h>
#include <vtkRenderWindowInteractor.h>

int main(int, char *[])
{ 
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkCubeSource> cube =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkCubeSource>::New();
  cube->SetXLength(40);
  cube->SetYLength(30);
  cube->SetZLength(20);
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyDataMapper> cubeMapper =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyDataMapper>::New();
  cubeMapper->SetInputConnection(cube->GetOutputPort());

  // Create a plane to cut,here it cuts in the XZ direction (xz normal=(1,0,0);XY =(0,0,1),YZ =(0,1,0)
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkPlane> plane =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkPlane>::New();
  plane->SetOrigin(10,0,0);
  plane->SetNormal(1,0,0);

  // Create cutter
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkCutter> cutter =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkCutter>::New();
  cutter->SetCutFunction(plane);
  cutter->SetInputConnection(cube->GetOutputPort());
  cutter->Update();

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyDataMapper> cutterMapper =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkPolyDataMapper>::New();
  cutterMapper->SetInputConnection( cutter->GetOutputPort());

  // Create plane actor
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkActor> planeActor =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkActor>::New();
  planeActor->GetProperty()->SetColor(1.0,1,0);
  planeActor->GetProperty()->SetLineWidth(2);
  planeActor->SetMapper(cutterMapper);

  // Create cube actor
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkActor> cubeActor =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkActor>::New();
  cubeActor->GetProperty()->SetColor(0.5,1,0.5);
  cubeActor->GetProperty()->SetOpacity(0.5);
  cubeActor->SetMapper(cubeMapper);

  // Create renderers and add actors of plane and cube
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderer> renderer =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderer>::New();
  renderer->AddActor(planeActor); //display the rectangle resulting from the cut
  renderer->AddActor(cubeActor); //display the cube

  // Add renderer to renderwindow and render
  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindow> renderWindow =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindow>::New();
  renderWindow->AddRenderer(renderer);
  renderWindow->SetSize(600, 600);

  vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindowInteractor> interactor =
    vtkSmartPointer<vtkRenderWindowInteractor>::New();
  interactor->SetRenderWindow(renderWindow);
  renderer->SetBackground(0,0,0);
  renderWindow->Render();

  interactor->Start();

  return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}