pyvista.PolyDataFilters.boolean_difference

PolyDataFilters.boolean_difference(other_mesh, tolerance=1e-05, progress_bar=False)

Perform a boolean difference operation between two meshes.

Essentially, boolean union, difference, and intersection are all the same operation. Just different parts of the objects are kept at the end.

The difference of two manifold meshes A and B is the volume of the mesh in A not belonging to B.

Note

If your boolean operations don’t react the way you think they should (i.e. the wrong parts disappear), one of your meshes probably has its normals pointing inward. Use PolyDataFilters.plot_normals() to visualize the normals.

Note

Both meshes must be composed of all triangles. Check with PolyData.is_all_triangles and convert with PolyDataFilters.triangulate().

Changed in version 0.32.0: Behavior changed to match default VTK behavior.

Parameters:

other_meshpyvista.PolyData

Mesh operating on the source mesh.

tolerancefloat, default: 1e-5

Tolerance used to determine when a point’s absolute distance is considered to be zero.

progress_barbool, default: False

Display a progress bar to indicate progress.

Returns:

pyvista.PolyData

The result of the boolean operation.

Examples

Demonstrate a boolean difference with two spheres. Note how the final mesh only includes sphere_a.

>>> import pyvista as pv
>>> sphere_a = pv.Sphere()
>>> sphere_b = pv.Sphere(center=(0.5, 0, 0))
>>> result = sphere_a.boolean_difference(sphere_b)
>>> pl = pv.Plotter()
>>> _ = pl.add_mesh(
...     sphere_a, color='r', style='wireframe', line_width=3
... )
>>> _ = pl.add_mesh(
...     sphere_b, color='b', style='wireframe', line_width=3
... )
>>> _ = pl.add_mesh(result, color='lightblue')
>>> pl.camera_position = 'xz'
>>> pl.show()

Static Scene

Interactive Scene

See Boolean Operations for more examples using this filter.