pyvista-tui 0.1.5

Interactive 3D mesh visualization in the terminal using PyVista.

pyvista-tui

PyVista in the terminal.

Renders meshes directly in your terminal using off-screen VTK rendering, no GUI needed. Supports any file format PyVista can read (STL, VTK, PLY, OBJ, and dozens more). Works as a standalone CLI or directly in a standard Python or IPython interpreter.

[!NOTE] FYI, there is a legitimate feature request for this in PyVista, however this project is honestly one big April Fools joke that proved to have some actual utility.

Installation

pip install pyvista-tui

Requires Python 3.10+.

Quick Start

CLI

The CLI is exposed as both pyvista-tui and the shorter alias pvtui.

# Render a mesh inline
pvtui mesh.stl

# Interactive viewer with vim-style controls
pvtui mesh.vtk -i

# Color by a scalar array with a colormap
pvtui mesh.vtk --scalars temperature --cmap coolwarm

# Gallery view (6 axis-aligned views)
pvtui part.stl --gallery

Python API

from pyvista import examples
from pyvista_tui import plot

plot(examples.download_fea_bracket(), scalars="Equivalent (von-Mises) Stress (psi)", cmap="turbo")

Themes

Text-based themes work in every terminal -- they use only Unicode and ANSI colors.

pyvista-tui mesh.vtk -t braille    # Unicode braille (8x density)
pyvista-tui mesh.vtk -t matrix     # Green katakana rain
pyvista-tui mesh.vtk -t blueprint  # Sobel edge detection on blue

All 9 themes are switchable at runtime with keys 1--9:

Key	Theme	Description
1	default	Native terminal image (Sixel, iTerm2, or halfcell fallback)
2	braille	Unicode braille characters
3	retro	Colored ASCII art with neon green appearance
4	matrix	Matrix-style green katakana rain
5	crt	CRT scanlines with phosphor glow
6	blueprint	Sobel edge detection on deep blue
7	phosphor	Green monochrome P1 phosphor emulation
8	amber	Amber monochrome P3 phosphor emulation
9	thermal	False-color thermal camera heat map

Interactive Mode

Launch with -i for full keyboard-driven 3D navigation.

Camera

Key	Action
h / l	Rotate left / right
j / k	Rotate down / up
H / L	Pan left / right
J / K	Pan down / up
i / o	Zoom in / out
r	Reset camera
x / y / z	View along axis

Display

Key	Action
w	Toggle wireframe
e	Toggle edge visibility
p	Toggle parallel/perspective projection
n	Cycle scalars arrays
d	Toggle depth buffer visualization
m	Show mesh info
s / S	Toggle spin / reverse direction
1--9	Switch theme
q	Quit

Gallery View

Render 6 axis-aligned views in a single image:

pyvista-tui mesh.vtk --gallery --center

Multiple Meshes

Pass multiple paths (wildcards work) to tile them into a grid at a shared camera position:

pyvista-tui *.stl
pyvista-tui a.vtk b.vtk c.vtk --cpos xz --scalars VonMises --clim 67 250

Add --no-gallery to render each mesh full-size one after another instead:

pyvista-tui a.vtk b.vtk c.vtk --no-gallery

Shell brace expansion and character classes work well for sampling a range of time steps --- e.g. every tenth file between step_0170 and step_0230:

# Character classes --- same as step_0{170,180,190,200,210,220,230}.vtu
pyvista-tui data/step_0{1[789],2[0123]}0.vtu -y

The -y flag skips the confirmation prompt that otherwise fires when six or more meshes are passed.

All CLI Options

pyvista-tui [OPTIONS] MESH
pyvista-tui report

Option	Short	Description
--interactive	-i	Launch interactive TUI with camera controls
--theme NAME	-t	Rendering theme (see above)
--watch		Auto-reload on file changes (static mode)
--wireframe		Start in wireframe mode
--scalars NAME		Scalars array to color by
--pick-scalars		Choose a scalars array interactively
--color COLOR		Solid mesh color (e.g. red, #00ff66)
--cmap NAME		Colormap for scalars (e.g. viridis)
--clim MIN MAX		Scalar range limits
--opacity FLOAT		Mesh opacity (0.0--1.0)
--show-edges		Show mesh edges
--edge-color		Edge color
--smooth-shading		Enable Phong shading
--center		Center and normalize mesh in viewport
--background		Background color (auto-detected by default)
--width PIXELS		Render width
--height PIXELS		Render height
--rainbow		Rainbow wireframe (edges colored by Z)
--spin		Auto-rotate turntable animation
--bounce		DVD screensaver bounce animation
--save		Save rendered image as PNG
--gallery		1 mesh: 6 axis-aligned views; N meshes: grid
--no-gallery		With N meshes, render full-size sequentially
--yes	-y	Skip the confirmation prompt for many meshes
--rotate-gif PATH		Save 360-degree turntable as animated GIF
--compare PATH		Compare with a second mesh side-by-side
--export-ascii PATH		Export ASCII art to text file
--boot		Show retro boot sequence (always on in -i)

Terminal Compatibility

[!CAUTION] I've only tested this in iTerm2 and VSCode's terminal on my Mac. Help me make it work in more terminals, contributions welcome!

pyvista-tui adapts rendering to your terminal's capabilities. For best results, use a terminal with native image protocol support.

[!TIP] Text-based themes (-t braille, -t matrix, etc.) look good in any terminal including VS Code.

The terminal background color is auto-detected via OSC 11 so rendered images blend with your color scheme. Override with --background.

[!CAUTION] VS Code's integrated terminal does not support any image protocol and falls back to low-resolution halfcell blocks.

Development

git clone https://github.com/pyvista/pyvista-tui.git
cd pyvista-tui
just sync       # Install dependencies into .venv via uv
just test       # Run tests with coverage
just lint       # Run pre-commit hooks (ruff, formatting)
just typecheck  # Run mypy