ovito

This module defines the Scene class, which serves as a “universe” or context for all actions performed by a script. The global scene object is accessible as module-level variable ovito.scene. The scene manages a list of Pipeline objects, which will be visible in images and videos when rendering the scene through a Viewport. Furthermore, you can save the entire scene definition including all pipelines to a .ovito session state file, which can be opened in the graphical OVITO application.

ovito.scene: Scene

This module-level variable points to the global Scene object, which serves as context for all operations performed by the script. The Scene object represents the program state and provides access to the contents of the visualization scene:

import ovito

# Retrieve the output data of the pipeline that is currently selected in OVITO:
data = ovito.scene.selected_pipeline.compute()

ovito.version: tuple[int, int, int]

A module-level attribute reporting the current OVITO software version (as three numeric components).

ovito.version_string: str

Module-level attribute reporting the current OVITO software version (as a human-readable string).

class ovito.Scene

This class encompasses all data of an OVITO program session (basically everything that gets saved in a .ovito state file). It manages the list of objects (i.e. Pipeline instances) that are part of the three-dimensional scene and which will show up in rendered images.

From a script’s point of view, there exists exactly one universal instance of this class at any time, which is accessible through the ovito.scene module-level variable. A script cannot create another Scene instance by itself.

property anim: AnimationSettings

The AnimationSettings instance associated with the scene, providing access to internal animation/playback state such as the current animation frame, the length of the animation interval, and viewport playback parameters.

load(filename: str | PathLike)

Loads all pipelines stored in a .ovito session state file. This function works like the ‘Load Session State’ function of the desktop application. It can load session state files that were produced with the OVITO Pro desktop application or which have been written by the Scene.save() method. It cannot load session state files created with the OVITO Basic desktop application.

After the state file has been loaded, the pipelines list will be populated with exact copies of the data pipelines that were part of the scene at the time it was saved. See also this section for more information.

property pipelines: MutableSequence[Pipeline]

The list of Pipeline objects that are currently part of the three-dimensional scene. Only pipelines in this list will display their output data in the interactive viewports and in rendered images. You can add or remove a pipeline either by calling its add_to_scene() or remove_from_scene() methods or by directly manipulating this list using the standard Python append() and del statements:

from ovito import scene
from ovito.io import import_file

pipeline = import_file('input/simulation.dump')

# Insert the pipeline into the visualization scene.
pipeline.add_to_scene()
# It's now part of the 'scene.pipelines' list.
assert pipeline in scene.pipelines
# If needed, we can take it out again.
pipeline.remove_from_scene()

property render_settings: RenderSettings

The RenderSettings instance associated with the scene, providing access to internal image/movie rendering state such as the output resolution, output file path, active renderer, and the range of animation frames to render.

The RenderSettings object provides access to the current render settings in the OVITO GUI and represents a low-level alternative to the ovito.vis.Viewport.render_image() and ovito.vis.Viewport.render_anim() methods.

save(filename: str | PathLike)

Saves the current scene to a .ovito session state file on disk. The scene comprises all pipelines in the Scene.pipelines list. This function works like the ‘Save Session State As’ function of the OVITO desktop application.

Note

Only Pipeline objects for which add_to_scene() has been called will be included in the session state file. Independent pipelines in Python variables that have not been added to the scene’s pipelines list will be left out.

The saved scene may be restored again from disk by

• calling the Scene.load() method,

• using the -o command line option of the ovitos interpreter, or

• opening the saved state file with the OVITO Pro desktop application.

When the state file is loaded back from disk, the global Scene.pipelines list will contain again all pipelines that were part of the scene at the time it was saved, including all modifiers and their settings. See also the section Saving and loading pipelines.

property scene_root: SceneRoot

The SceneRoot instance associated with the scene, providing access to the root of the tree of SceneNode instances that make up the three-dimensional scene, as well as its selection state.

property selected_pipeline: Pipeline | None

The Pipeline currently selected in the OVITO desktop application, or None if no pipeline is selected. Typically, this is the last pipeline that was added to the scene using Pipeline.add_to_scene().

This field can be useful for macro scripts running in the context of an interactive OVITO session, which want to perform some operation on the currently selected pipeline, e.g. inserting a new modifier.

property viewport_config: ViewportConfiguration

The ViewportConfiguration instance associated with the scene, providing access to the current arrangement of interactive Viewport windows in the OVITO MainWindow, which viewport is active or maximized, and the tree of ViewportLayoutCell instances describing their on-screen layout.

ovito.enable_logging()

You can call this function at the beginning of your Python script to enable logging of otherwise invisible operations performed by OVITO. Whenever OVITO performs long-running work or computations, it will print informational messages to stderr to indicate the current activity, e.g. file I/O, modifier execution, and image rendering.