Download and Plot Examples

Download and plot example datasets.

PyVista contains many downloadable datasets documented at pyvista.examples.downloads. You can download these through Python and immediately plot them.

This is an easy way to immediately get started with example datasets within PyVista without having to manually download and load them.

Import PyVista and the examples module

import pyvista as pv
from pyvista import examples

Surface DataSet - Download

Download a surface dataset of pine roots. Note how the dataset is automatically loaded right into Python.

dataset = examples.download_pine_roots()
dataset

Surface DataSet - Plot

Plot the pine roots using PyVista’s default plotting settings.

dataset.plot()

Volume DataSet - Download

Download the bolt dataset. This is an excellent dataset to visualize using “volumetric” plotting.

dataset = examples.download_bolt_nut()
dataset

Volume DataSet - Plot

Here, we plot the dataset using a custom view direction using pyvista.Plotter.

pl = pv.Plotter()
_ = pl.add_volume(
    dataset,
    cmap="coolwarm",
    opacity="sigmoid_5",
    show_scalar_bar=False,
)
pl.camera_position = [(194.6, -141.8, 182.0), (34.5, 61.0, 32.5), (-0.229, 0.45, 0.86)]
pl.show()

Exercise #1 - Use PyVista Examples

Visualize one of PyVista’s built in examples.

If your IDE supports it, you should be able to type dataset = examples.download_ and press tab to see all the available examples you can download.

Exercise #2 - Download and View a File

Experiment on your own by downloading a dataset and reading it in with pyvista.read(). You can use one of your own files or try downloading one from the following sources:

• Sample VTK DataSets

• Sample STL files

• Thingiverse