3D graphics in Jupyter notebook (ipynb)

Question

I'm searching for most convenient way how to insert 3D graphics into ipython (Jupyter) notebook? I mean some simple 3D model of machines (space-crafts in my case) mostly composed of simple primitives e.g. like CAD

What I want:

• people who read the notebook can interactively rotate the model
• The model is either loaded from file, or directly generated from python (or other) source code
• The model can be easily composed from simple primitives (lines, cones, cylinders, sphere ... ) within the code
• something which does not need some non-standard and hard-to-install dependecies, so anybody can easily run the notebook on this computer

Possible solution I found up to now (and problems):

• FreeCAD IPython integration (just proposal, does not seem to be finished)
• three.js - but I have no experience with neither Javascript nor it's integration into IPython, so I would prefer some python solution
  • seen.js seems to be exactly what I want, but again it is javascript
• Plot.ly - it is for data-visualization, rather than for visualization of 3D models
• PyOpenGL - a bit too low-level, and I'm not sure how well it runs in web browser and Jupyter - I did not found any example
• POVray - is not interactive, integration to IPython would be cumbersome (calling external render, and than loading resulting image)

Answer 1

I would recommend using PyVista with itkwidgets.

Check the following example.

import pyvista
from pyvista import examples
from itkwidgets import view
dataset = examples.load_uniform()
dataset
view(dataset, slicing_planes=True, ui_collapsed=True, shadow=False)

That gives you the following result.