MayaVi Users Guide
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# The Menus

This section details the various menus that MayaVi provides. Almost all the menu items have hot keys associated with them. The underlined letter indicates the key sequence to be used. Consider the case of the New Window menu item (the letter N is underlined) that is in the File menu (the letter F is underlined). This can be reached by using the following key strokes. Alt-F followed by N. The Menu itself requires the Alt modifier but the menu item does not. The following are the various menus that MayaVi provides.

## File Menu

The File menu provides the following menu items.

New Window

  This creates a new MayaVi visualization window that is completely independent of the first window. Any number of such windows can be created.

Open

  This provides a submenu containing two items.

  VTK file

    This provides a GUI dialog from which a VTK file can be selected for opening. Once the file is opened a new `DataVizManager` is created and a GUI dialog for configuring the data file is provided.

  VTK XML file

    This provides a GUI dialog from which a VTK XML file can be chosen. This is a new VTK format and is only available in VTK versions higher than 4.0.

  PLOT3D file

    This provides a sub menu from which either a PLOT3D file containing single block or multi-block binary structured grid data can be selected for opening. Once the file is opened a new `DataVizManager` is created and a GUI dialog for configuring the data file is provided.

  EnSight case file

    This provides a sub menu from which an EnSight case file can be opened.

Import

  This provides a submenu containing two items.

  VRML2 scene

    This loads a VRML2 scene into the current visualization.

  3D Studio scene

    This provides a menu containing all the VRML files that are already opened. The chosen VRML file is closed and the VRML files actors are removed from the rendered scene.

Load

  This provides a submenu containing three items.

  Visualization

    This loads a saved complete visualization.

  ModuleManagers

    This creates new `ModuleManager`s for the current `DataVizManager` and loads `ModuleManager`s that have been saved to a file into the newly created ones.

  ModuleManagers (Append)

    This is slightly different from the previous menu item and loads the first of the saved `ModuleManager`s into the current `ModuleManager` and for the subsequent saved `ModuleManager`s it creates new `ModuleManager`s and loads `ModuleManager`s from the saved file.

Save

  This provides a submenu containing four items.

  Entire Visualization

    This saves the entire visualization configuration to a file such that it can be loaded by the Load menu's Visualization menu item.

  Current DataVizManager

    This creates saves the current `DataVizManager` to a file. This can be loaded as a visualization.

  Current ModuleManager

    This enables one to store the currently active `ModuleManager` into a file such that it can be loaded later.

  All ModuleManagers

    This enables one to store the all the `ModuleManager`s for the currently active `DataVizManager` into a file such that it can be loaded later.

Save Scene to

  Provides a menu which in turn provides menu items to export the visualized scene to a Post Script file, PPM/BMP/TIFF/JPEG/PNG image, Open Inventor, Geomview OOGL, VRML and RenderMan RIB files. It is also possible to save the scene to a vector graphic via GL2PS. This is only available if VTK is built with GL2PS support.

Close

  Provides submenu's to close the current `DataVizManager`. This means that all the `ModuleManager`s of that particular `DataVizManager` will also be deleted. It also provides menus to close the currently active VRML and 3D Studio scenes that have been imported.

Close All

  Close all the `DataVizManager`s and all the imported VRML2 and 3D Studio scenes.

Exit

  Close this particular MayaVi Window. If this is the only MayaVi window the application exits completely.

## Visualize Menu

The Visualize menu provides the following menu items.

Modules

  Provides a sub-menu which contains a list of all available `Module`s. This list is dynamically generated based on the available modules.

Filters

  Provides a sub-menu which contains a list of all available `Filter`s. This list is dynamically generated based on the available filters.

Pipeline browser

  This creates a GUI that shows the entire VTK visualization pipeline. The objects in the pipeline can be configured by double clicking on the items. If there are a large number of objects this can become confusing to use and it would be better to use the pipeline segment browser configuration provided with the configuration for each `Module`

## Options Menu

The Options menu provides the following menu items.

Preferences

  Provides a GUI using which one can edit the default preferences. The preferences allow one to set various default settings including foreground color, background color, default directory where the file related dialogs will open in initially. These options can be saved so that the next time MayaVi is started it will use these defaults. If you set the default directory to an empty one the directory that the file open/save dialogs will use will be intelligently chosen. The stereo rendering option enables stereo rendering in the MayaVi window. If the save current lighting option is set then the current lighting is saved as the default and used in all subsequent MayaVi visualizations.

Configure RenderWindow

  Provides a simple GUI to configure the Visualization RenderWindow. This is also where one can change the stereo rendering options.

Change Foreground

  Allows one to change the default foreground color.

Change Background

  Allows one to change the default background color.

Show Debug window

  Pops up a small window where debug messages are printed. This is very useful if you run into trouble and want to know what happened. It also shows the function call sequence. The messages are also printed to stderr.

Show Control Panel

  Toggles the visibility of the control panel. This can be very useful when you want to do a full screen visualization.

Reload Modules

  This function reloads all the currently loaded Python modules. This is very useful while debugging a new feature for some module that one is creating. One may also see funny behavior for already instantiated objects.

## Help Menu

The Help menu provides the following menu items.

About

  Displays a few details about MayaVi.

Users Guide

  Opens a web browser and displays this MayaVi users guide.

Home page

  Opens a web browser and displays the MayaVi home page.

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