Building and Installing VTK with Python 2.7 in Windows XP

Hope this may be useful to someone somewhere...it certainly took me a while to figure it out. It should be much more straightforward in Ubuntu, but if XP is unavoidable, try this:

• Download and install the latest version of Python (www.python.org/download/)


• Download and install a free build system such as cmake (www.cmake.org/cmake/resources/software.html


• Download the VTK source files (www.vtk.org/VTK/resources/software.html)


• Download and install activetcl (www.activestate.com/activetcl/downloads). Skip this step if tcl/tk already installed on system.


• If necessary, download and install a C++ development environment such as MS Visual C++ Express (www.microsoft.com/express/Downloads/#2010-Visual-CPP).


• Unpack the VTK source somewhere.


• Make a subdirectory named "build".


• Open ccmake.


• Where it says `Where is the source code', enter the path to the main VTK directory.


• Where it says `Where to build the binaries', enter the path to the new build folder you just created.


• Hit `Configure'.


• Toggle BUILD_SHARED_LIBS on.
  
  Keep VTK_USE_CARBON on.
  
  Do not use VTK_USE_COCOA.
  
  Toggle VTK_USE_HYBRID on.
  
  Toggle VTK_WRAP_PYTHON on.


• Configure again. If there are errors, they are most likely requiring you to add a couple of missing entries to the list of variables. You will probably need to add PYTHON_LIBRARY (eg. c:/python27/Lib) and PYTHON_INCLUDE_DIR (eg. c:/python27/include).


• When no errors are returned, hit `Generate'.


• Find the file FindPythonLibs.cmake and check it has the version of python you are using in the list of version numbers.


• From the VTK build folder, locate the .sln file and open in VC++.


• In VC++, set the debug option to `Release' or `ReleaseWithDebug'.


• Build the solution.

Now you should be able to go into your Python IDE (I use Spyder* which is free), or Python shell, and do `from vtk import *;' to start using the VTK library. Simple as that! I will add tutorials as I learn myself, or if you have any tutorials, please send them my way!

*You must have SciPy and NumPy packages installed too.