STLVisualizer Documentation

The STLVisualizer class in the PYCAD library provides a convenient interface to visualize one or more STL files using the vedo and vtk libraries. With it, users can easily visualize complex 3D meshes from STL files, either with default or custom colors.

Introduction

STLVisualizer is particularly useful when there is a need to quickly visualize 3D meshes from STL files without the overhead of configuring and managing individual plots and color schemes. This documentation provides a complete overview of the class, including its methods and typical usage scenarios.

Class Definition

class STLVisualizer:

Initialization

def __init__(self, paths, colors=None, bg=(1,1,1)):

• paths: List of paths to STL files or a single path as a string.
• colors (optional): List of colors corresponding to each STL file path. If not provided, random colors are generated.
• bg (optional): Background color for the visualization. Default is white (1,1,1).

Public Methods

def visualize(self):

• Loads and visualizes the STL meshes using the provided or generated colors.

Example Usage

Single STL File

from pycad.visualization import STLVisualizer

visualizer = STLVisualizer("./data/file.stl")
visualizer.visualize()

Multiple STL Files with Custom Colors

paths = ['./data/multi_vis/hip_left.stl', './data/multi_vis/hip_right.stl']
colors = ['#ffc800', '#aabcff']
visualizer = STLVisualizer(paths, colors)
visualizer.visualize()

Notes

• The number of colors provided should match the number of STL file paths. Otherwise, a ValueError will be raised.
• Only paths ending with .stl are accepted. If a different file type is provided, a ValueError will be raised.