MayaVi

A screenshot of the main window, with an example visualization
Developer(s)	Enthought
Initial release	2019;6 years ago (2019)
Stable release	4.8.3 [1]   / 16 May 2025;2 months ago (16 May 2025)
Repository	github.com/enthought/mayavi
Written in	Python, VTK, wxPython/Qt
Operating system	Linux, Mac OS X, Windows
Available in	English
Type	Data visualization
License	BSD License
Website	docs.enthought.com/mayavi/mayavi/

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MayaVi is a scientific data visualizer written in Python, which uses VTK and provides a GUI via Tkinter. MayaVi was developed by Prabhu Ramachandran, is free and distributed under the BSD License. It is cross-platform and runs on any platform where both Python and VTK are available (almost any Unix, Mac OS X, or Windows). MayaVi is pronounced as a single name, "Ma-ya-vee", meaning "magical" in Sanskrit. The code of MayaVi has nothing in common with that of Autodesk Maya or the Vi text editor. ^[2]

The latest version of MayaVi, called Mayavi2, is a component of the Enthought suite of scientific Python programs. It differs from the original MayaVi by its strong focus on making an interactive program and a reusable component for 3D plotting in Python. Although it exposes a slightly different interface and API than the original MayaVi, it now has more features. ^{[3] [4]}

Major features

• visualizes computational grids and scalar, vector, and tensor data
• an easy-to-use GUI
• can be imported as a Python module from other Python programs or can be scripted from the Python interpreter
• supports volume visualization of data via texture and ray cast mappers
• support for any VTK dataset using the VTK data format
• support for PLOT3D data
• multiple datasets can be used simultaneously
• provides a pipeline browser, with which objects in the VTK pipeline can be browsed and edited
• imports simple VRML and 3D Studio scenes
• custom modules and data filters can be added
• exporting to PostScript files, PPM/BMP/TIFF/JPEG/PNG images, Open Inventor, Geomview OOGL, VRML files, Wavefront .obj files, or RenderMan RIB file

Examples

Spherical harmonics

The spherical harmonic function ${\displaystyle Y_{3}^{0}(\theta ,\varphi )}$

fromnumpyimportlinspace,meshgrid,array,sin,cos,pi,absfromscipy.specialimportsph_harmfrommayaviimportmlabtheta_1d=linspace(0,pi,91)phi_1d=linspace(0,2*pi,181)theta_2d,phi_2d=meshgrid(theta_1d,phi_1d)xyz_2d=array([sin(theta_2d)*sin(phi_2d),sin(theta_2d)*cos(phi_2d),cos(theta_2d)])l=3m=0Y_lm=sph_harm(m,l,phi_2d,theta_2d)r=abs(Y_lm.real)*xyz_2dmlab.figure(size=(700,830))mlab.mesh(r[0],r[1],r[2],scalars=Y_lm.real,colormap="cool")mlab.view(azimuth=0,elevation=75,distance=2.4,roll=-50)mlab.savefig("Y_%i_%i.jpg"%(l,m))mlab.show()

References

1. "Release 4.8.3".
2. "MayaVi project page". SourceForge.
3. "MayaVi2 wiki page".
4. "MayaVi2 project page".

External links

• mayavi on GitHub
• MayaVi on SourceForge