Using pythreejs with PyVista#
The pythreejs jupyterlab plotting backend is a powerful library that enables web-based visualization leveraging threejs. It allows for embedded html documentation (as shown here).
The biggest advantage to using the pythreejs backend compared to
the other backends is that it accurately recreates the VTK scene into
a threejs scene including:
Mesh edges
Lighting
Physically based rendering
Face and point scalars
Textures
You can use this backend to display PyVista scenes directly within a jupyter notebook, create interactive web documentation, or even export to standalone HTML pages.
Note
This backend has better support and features than the ipygany
backend, but is still missing support for vtk widgets and some
features (like scalar bars and labels). See Caveats.
PyVista Wrapping#
Plotting scenes from pyvista are automatically serialized to a
three.js scene when using the pythreejs backend. This can be
enabled globally with pyvista.set_jupyter_backend() or by
setting it in pyvista.Plotter.show().
import pyvista as pv
from pyvista import examples
mesh = examples.download_bunny()
mesh.flip_normals()
pl = pv.Plotter()
pl.add_mesh(mesh, color='lightgrey')
pl.camera_position = 'xy'
pl.show(jupyter_backend='pythreejs')
Note how the mesh color, background color, and camera position are all
mapped over to the three.js scene, meaning that you can reuse
existing code and change the backend depending on the type of plotting
backend you wish to use.
Note that there are many missing features, including all vtk widgets, but many of these can be replaced with jupyterlab widgets. If you wish to assemble your own scene, change the jupyter_backend while returning the “viewer” with:
>>> pl = pv.Plotter()
>>> pl.add_mesh(mesh, color='lightgrey')
>>> pl.background_color = 'white'
>>> pl.camera_position = 'xy'
>>> widget = pl.show(jupyter_backend='pythreejs', return_viewer=True)
>>> type(widget)
pythreejs.core.Renderer.Renderer
This renderer can then be added to any number of jupyterlab widgets and
then shown as a complete widget. For example, you could even display
two side by side using ipywidgets.AppLayout.
Plotting Representation and Materials#
The PyVista plotting scenes are faithfully serialized to same plotting scene within three.js using the same lighting, camera projection, and materials.
# set the global theme to use pythreejs
pyvista.global_theme.jupyter_backend = 'pythreejs'
pl = pyvista.Plotter()
# lower left, using physically based rendering
pl.add_mesh(pyvista.Sphere(center=(-1, 0, -1)),
show_edges=False, pbr=True, color='white', roughness=0.2,
metallic=0.5)
# upper right, matches default pyvista plotting
pl.add_mesh(pyvista.Sphere(center=(1, 0, 1)))
# Upper left, mesh displayed as points
pl.add_mesh(pyvista.Sphere(center=(-1, 0, 1)),
color='k', style='points', point_size=10)
# mesh in lower right with flat shading
pl.add_mesh(pyvista.Sphere(center=(1, 0, -1)), lighting=False,
show_edges=True)
# show mesh in the center with a red wireframe
pl.add_mesh(pyvista.Sphere(), lighting=True, show_edges=False,
color='red', line_width=0.5, style='wireframe',
opacity=0.99)
pl.camera_position = 'xz'
pl.show()
Scalars Support#
The pythreejs backend supports plotting scalars for faces and
points for point, wireframe, and surface representations.
import pyvista
pyvista.global_theme.show_scalar_bar = False
import numpy as np
def make_cube(center=(0, 0, 0), resolution=1):
cube = pyvista.Cube(center=center)
return cube.triangulate().subdivide(resolution)
pl = pyvista.Plotter()
# test face scalars with no lighting
mesh = make_cube(center=(-1, 0, -1))
mesh['scalars_a'] = np.arange(mesh.n_faces)
pl.add_mesh(mesh, lighting=False, cmap='jet', show_edges=True)
# test point scalars on a surface mesh
mesh = make_cube(center=(1, 0, 1))
mesh['scalars_b'] = mesh.points[:, 2]*mesh.points[:, 0]
pl.add_mesh(mesh, cmap='bwr', line_width=1)
mesh = make_cube(center=(-1, 0, 1))
mesh['scalars_c'] = mesh.points[:, 2]
pl.add_mesh(mesh, style='points', point_size=30)
# test wireframe
mesh = make_cube(center=(1, 0, -1))
mesh['scalars_d'] = mesh.points[:, 2]
pl.add_mesh(mesh, show_edges=False, line_width=3,
style='wireframe', cmap='inferno')
pl.camera_position = 'xz'
pl.show()
Point Cloud Example#
Plot a sample point cloud with pyvista using the pythreejs backend
while assigning the points scalars random values.
pc = pyvista.PolyData(np.random.random((100, 3)))
pc['scalars'] = np.random.random(100)
pc.plot(jupyter_backend='pythreejs', style='points', point_size=10, cmap='jet')
Textures#
The pythreejs backend also supports textures.
import pyvista
globe = examples.load_globe()
globe.plot(jupyter_backend='pythreejs', smooth_shading=True)
See the Applying Textures example for more details regarding textures.
RGB and RGBA Coloring#
The pythreejs supports RGBA plotting. See the rgba parameter
within add_mesh() for more details.
import numpy as np
import pyvista
mesh = pyvista.Sphere()
# treat the points as RGB coordinates to make a colorful mesh
pts = mesh.points.copy()
pts -= pts.min()
rgba_sphere = (255*pts).astype(np.uint8)
# plot the corners for fun
corners = mesh.outline_corners()
pts = corners.points.copy()
pts -= pts.min()
pts = 255*(pts/pts.max()) # Make 0-255 RGBA values
corners['rgba_values'] = pts.astype(np.uint8)
edges = corners.tube(radius=0.01).triangulate()
pl = pyvista.Plotter(window_size=(600, 600))
pl.add_mesh(mesh, scalars=rgba_sphere, rgba=True, smooth_shading=True)
pl.add_mesh(edges, rgba=True, smooth_shading=True)
pl.show(jupyter_backend='pythreejs')
Multiple Render Windows#
You can plot multiple render windows within a single pythreejs
just like how you would with PyVista.
See Assigning Scalars to a Mesh for an example.
Large Models and Physically Based Rendering#
This example shows a large mesh and demonstrates how even fairly large meshes, like the carburetor example which contains 500,000 faces and 250,000 points, can be quickly loaded. This is, of course, bandwidth dependent, as this mesh is around 6 MB.
Note that here we enable physically based rendering using pbr=True.
import pyvista as pv
from pyvista import examples
pv.set_jupyter_backend('pythreejs')
# download an example and reduce the mesh density
mesh = examples.download_carburator()
mesh.decimate(0.5, inplace=True)
# Plot it on a white background with a lightgrey mesh color. Enable
# physically based rendering and give the mesh a metallic look.
mesh.plot(window_size=(600, 600), background='w', color='lightgrey',
pbr=True, metallic=0.5)
Create Interactive Documentation#
All the documentation on this page was generated using a combination
of pythreejs, pyvista and jupyter_sphinx.
For example, in a sample *.rst file, add the following:
.. jupyter-execute::
import pyvista as pv
from pyvista import examples
pv.set_jupyter_backend('pythreejs')
mesh = pv.Cube()
mesh.plot(show_edges=True)
To generate:
You can also use the :hide-code: option to hide the code and only
display the plot.
You should also consider changing the global theme when plotting to improve the look of your plots:
import pyvista
pyvista.global_theme.background = 'white'
pyvista.global_theme.window_size = [600, 600]
pyvista.global_theme.antialiasing = True
You will need the following packages:
pyvistapythreejsjupyter_sphinx
In your conf.py, add the following:
extensions = [
"jupyter_sphinx",
# all your other extensions
]
Export to HTML#
Using pythreejs, you can export most scenes completely to a
standalone HTML file. For example:
>>> import pyvista
>>> from pyvista import examples
>>> mesh = examples.load_uniform()
>>> pl = pyvista.Plotter(shape=(1,2))
>>> _ = pl.add_mesh(mesh, scalars='Spatial Point Data', show_edges=True)
>>> pl.subplot(0,1)
>>> _ = pl.add_mesh(mesh, scalars='Spatial Cell Data', show_edges=True)
>>> pl.export_html('pyvista.html')
Caveats#
Not all PyVista features are currently supported with the
pythreejs plotting backend. Future ones can be added opening a
feature request at PyVista Issues.
Missing features include: