How to connect ITK with VTK?

Question

I'm reading DICOM series using itk and converting them into VTK for visualization purposes. Even though I manage to visualize DICOM series in 3 different windows with 3 different orientations (XY, XZ and YZ) I can't even click on the windows. When I click or try to change the slice viewed, my code gives an access violation error. I'm using ImageViewer2 to visualize the slices. A file called itkVTKImageExportBase.cxx is opened when I try to find out what the error is. The lines referred to are:

void VTKImageExportBase::UpdateInformationCallbackFunction(void* userData)
{
  static_cast<VTKImageExportBase*>
    (userData)->UpdateInformationCallback();
}

My code is as follows:

typedef itk::VTKImageExport< ImageType > ExportFilterType;
    ExportFilterType::Pointer itkExporter = ExportFilterType::New(); 
    itkExporter->SetInput( reader->GetOutput() );


    // Create the vtkImageImport and connect it to the itk::VTKImageExport instance.
    vtkImageImport* vtkImporter = vtkImageImport::New();  
    ConnectPipelines(itkExporter, vtkImporter);


    pViewerXY->SetInput(vtkImporter->GetOutput());
    pViewerXY->SetSlice(3);
    pViewerXY->SetSliceOrientationToXY();
    pViewerXY->SetupInteractor(m_pVTKWindow_1);
    pViewerXY->UpdateDisplayExtent();
    m_pVTKWindow_1->AddObserver(vtkCommand::KeyPressEvent, m_pVTKWindow_1_CallbackCommand);
    m_pVTKWindow_1->Update();

    pViewerXZ->SetInput (vtkImporter->GetOutput());
    pViewerXZ->SetSliceOrientationToXZ();
    pViewerXZ->SetupInteractor(m_pVTKWindow_2);
    pViewerXZ->UpdateDisplayExtent();
    m_pVTKWindow_2->AddObserver(vtkCommand::KeyPressEvent, m_pVTKWindow_2_CallbackCommand);
    m_pVTKWindow_2->Update();

    pViewerYZ->SetInput (vtkImporter->GetOutput());
    pViewerYZ->SetSliceOrientationToYZ();
    pViewerYZ->SetupInteractor(m_pVTKWindow_3);
    pViewerYZ->UpdateDisplayExtent();
    m_pVTKWindow_3->AddObserver(vtkCommand::KeyPressEvent, m_pVTKWindow_3_CallbackCommand);
    m_pVTKWindow_3->Update();

pViewerXX windows are imageviewer2 objects whereas m_pVTKWindow_X refers to wxVTK objects to use in wxWidgets GUI package.

Optional: My exporter and importer are as given below:

template <typename ITK_Exporter, typename VTK_Importer>
void ConnectPipelines(ITK_Exporter exporter, VTK_Importer* importer)
{
  importer->SetUpdateInformationCallback(exporter->GetUpdateInformationCallback());
  importer->SetPipelineModifiedCallback(exporter->GetPipelineModifiedCallback());
  importer->SetWholeExtentCallback(exporter->GetWholeExtentCallback());
  importer->SetSpacingCallback(exporter->GetSpacingCallback());
  importer->SetOriginCallback(exporter->GetOriginCallback());
  importer->SetScalarTypeCallback(exporter->GetScalarTypeCallback());
  importer->SetNumberOfComponentsCallback(exporter->GetNumberOfComponentsCallback());
  importer->SetPropagateUpdateExtentCallback(exporter->GetPropagateUpdateExtentCallback());
  importer->SetUpdateDataCallback(exporter->GetUpdateDataCallback());
  importer->SetDataExtentCallback(exporter->GetDataExtentCallback());
  importer->SetBufferPointerCallback(exporter->GetBufferPointerCallback());
  importer->SetCallbackUserData(exporter->GetCallbackUserData());
}
/**
 * This function will connect the given vtkImageExport filter to
 * the given itk::VTKImageImport filter.
 */
template <typename VTK_Exporter, typename ITK_Importer>
void ConnectPipelines(VTK_Exporter* exporter, ITK_Importer importer)
{
  importer->SetUpdateInformationCallback(exporter->GetUpdateInformationCallback());
  importer->SetPipelineModifiedCallback(exporter->GetPipelineModifiedCallback());
  importer->SetWholeExtentCallback(exporter->GetWholeExtentCallback());
  importer->SetSpacingCallback(exporter->GetSpacingCallback());
  importer->SetOriginCallback(exporter->GetOriginCallback());
  importer->SetScalarTypeCallback(exporter->GetScalarTypeCallback());
  importer->SetNumberOfComponentsCallback(exporter->GetNumberOfComponentsCallback());
  importer->SetPropagateUpdateExtentCallback(exporter->GetPropagateUpdateExtentCallback());
  importer->SetUpdateDataCallback(exporter->GetUpdateDataCallback());
  importer->SetDataExtentCallback(exporter->GetDataExtentCallback());
  importer->SetBufferPointerCallback(exporter->GetBufferPointerCallback());
  importer->SetCallbackUserData(exporter->GetCallbackUserData());
}

tisch tisch · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-21T00:32:30

I don't have an exact answer to your question, but have you considered using one of the common medical image processing frameworks? There are a couple of them like MITK (mitk.org) or Slicer3D (slicer.org). They do a great job of linking together ITK, VTK and a sophisticated GUI Framework like QT (in the MITK case).

I have worked a long time in medical image processing and used MITK extensively. In my opinion, using a medical image processing framework really helps you focus on your real image processing problems, rather than trying to build processing/visualization pipelines for different types of visualizations.

How to connect ITK with VTK?

3 Answers