BackgroundPlotter custom menus and buttons

[andrea-bistacchi]

Hello, I was wondering if there is an already tested way to add custom menus and buttons to the BackgroundPlotter. I guess it should be possible since in the end it is a Qt window. I have not been able to find an example.

Thanks!

[banesullivan]

Hi there, we've been working on expanding how users can customize the BackgroundPlotter with buttons/menus. You can currently do this, but the interface isn't all that clean. We are hoping to expand pyvista-gui into a fully customizable suite with tons of templates/easy to add features but we haven't had the time yet to make it functional.

In the meantime, here is an example of how to add custom menus and a toolbar to the BackgroundPlotter:

import pyvista as pv
from pyvista import examples

from PyQt5.QtWidgets import  QAction


st_helens = examples.download_st_helens().warp_by_scalar()


plotter = pv.BackgroundPlotter()

def add_st_helens():
    plotter.add_mesh(st_helens, name="st helens")

# Add a drop down menu
user_menu = plotter.main_menu.addMenu('My Features')
user_menu.addAction('Add St. Helens', add_st_helens)

# Add a toolbar
def add_action(toolbar, key, method, main_window):
    action = QAction(key, main_window)
    action.triggered.connect(method)
    toolbar.addAction(action)
    return

user_toolbar = plotter.app_window.addToolBar('User Toolbar')
add_action(user_toolbar, 'Line Widget', plotter.add_line_widget, plotter.app_window)

[andrea-bistacchi]

Good, thanks!

BTW, how do I access properties of the line widget? Particularly coordinates of the end points.

Thanks!

[banesullivan]

You’d need to pass a callback method when activating the line widget. See https://docs.pyvista.org/plotting/widgets.html#line-widget

So in order to have a Qt button handle all that, you’d need a custom function to properly call the add_line_widget method with your callback

Something like

def line_callback(a, b):
    # do stuff with the two points
    pass

def add_line():
    plotter.add_line_widget(line_callback)

# put add_line on the Qt button

_{Sent with GitHawk}

[andrea-bistacchi]

Great thanks!

[banesullivan]

@bistek, would you please open a new issue about these picking issues? In the meantime, I'll try to find a solution

[andrea-bistacchi]

Done #133, thanks!

[HametAl]

Hi there, we've been working on expanding how users can customize the BackgroundPlotter with buttons/menus. You can currently do this, but the interface isn't all that clean. We are hoping to expand pyvista-gui into a fully customizable suite with tons of templates/easy to add features but we haven't had the time yet to make it functional.

In the meantime, here is an example of how to add custom menus and a toolbar to the BackgroundPlotter:

import pyvista as pv
from pyvista import examples

from PyQt5.QtWidgets import  QAction


st_helens = examples.download_st_helens().warp_by_scalar()


plotter = pv.BackgroundPlotter()

def add_st_helens():
    plotter.add_mesh(st_helens, name="st helens")

# Add a drop down menu
user_menu = plotter.main_menu.addMenu('My Features')
user_menu.addAction('Add St. Helens', add_st_helens)

# Add a toolbar
def add_action(toolbar, key, method, main_window):
    action = QAction(key, main_window)
    action.triggered.connect(method)
    toolbar.addAction(action)
    return

user_toolbar = plotter.app_window.addToolBar('User Toolbar')
add_action(user_toolbar, 'Line Widget', plotter.add_line_widget, plotter.app_window)

Is there a way to remove default items from menu bar and toolbar, or we need to disable the default menu and tool bars and then define and add our own menu and tool bars?