InteractiveGMT

NOTE: This is Claude generated README that has more technical details than need.

Interactive 3-D viewing of GMT.jl data — grids, point clouds, and GMTfv solids / polygon meshes — in a self-contained Qt6 + VTK window. Its own Qt window, VTK render pipeline, interaction gizmo, cube axes, colour bar, shading, vertical curtains, in-window Julia console and data viewer.

Windows-only (the viewer ships as a Windows DLL). But there is nothing that prevents future Linux and MacOS versions

Layout

src/        Julia package (the bridge): one file per concern (grid, points, fv, curtain, …)
deps/       the C/C++ viewer
  src/      gmtvtk.cpp (umbrella TU) + 00_includes…90_c_api .cpp fragments (#included, not compiled separately)
  CMakeLists.txt, build.bat, run.bat
  assets/   bundled demo images (seismic profile for the curtain example)
examples/   runnable demos (curtain, drape, fv, solids, f3dview, shademesh)
test/       CI-safe unit tests of the pure-Julia helpers

Build the viewer

deps\build.bat

Needs VS2022 + the VTK 9.6 / Qt6 / TBB deps (toolchain paths are hard-coded in deps/CMakeLists.txt, deps/build.bat and src/libgmtvtk.jl — override the Julia side with the INTERACTIVEGMT_VTK_BIN / INTERACTIVEGMT_QT_BIN / INTERACTIVEGMT_QT_PLAT env vars). Outputs deps/build/gmtvtk.dll (the host library this package dlopens) and deps/build/gmtvtk_demo.exe (a standalone synthetic-peaks demo).

The viewer is loaded in-process: using InteractiveGMT dlopens gmtvtk.dll into the running Julia session at __init__. A dlopen'd DLL stays loaded for the life of the session, so after rebuilding gmtvtk.dll you must start a fresh Julia session to pick up the changes (an old session also keeps the .dll locked against the linker). Editing only the Julia side needs just a re-using/Revise, no rebuild.

Quick start

using InteractiveGMT, GMT
G   = GMT.peaks()
fig = view_grid(G)                 # opens a window, returns a QtFigure handle

The call is non-blocking: it returns immediately and a Julia Timer pumps the Qt loop (~50 Hz) so the REPL stays usable while the window is open. (In a julia script.jl run with no REPL, end the script with wait_windows() to keep the process alive until the window closes.)

API

function	shows
view_grid(G; …)	a GMTgrid surface (CPT colour or image drape, vcurtain, overlays)
view_points(D; …)	a coloured point cloud (Ctrl+right-drag rubber-band selection)
view_fv(fv; …) / view_fv("torus"; …)	a GMTfv solid / named solid / polygon mesh
f3dview(x; …)	front-door dispatch over all of the above
add!(fig, D; …)	add line/point overlays to a live grid window
add_curtain!(fig, path; …)	hang a vertical image curtain (seismic / midwater profile)
show_table(fig, D)	display tabular data in the window's Data Viewer tab
selection(fig)	read back the rubber-band-selected point rows
isalive(fig) · save_png(path) · wait_windows()	window utilities

The functions are documented in their docstrings (and, in depth, in QTVTK_PLAN.md). Each overlay/curtain is interactive: right-click for a context menu; the Scene Objects dock lists every element with a show/hide checkbox.

In-window Julia console

A Julia Console dock runs commands straight in the host session (the viewer is in-process), with fig pre-bound to that window — so add!(fig, [x y z]; mode=:points) works with no handle typed. See the docstrings / QTVTK_PLAN.md for the C++↔Julia callback mechanism.

Examples

include(joinpath(pkgdir(InteractiveGMT), "examples", "solids.jl"))
include(joinpath(pkgdir(InteractiveGMT), "examples", "curtain.jl"))   # needs network (grdcut)