VMTKSURFACEDISTANCE(1)

✨ VMTKSURFACEDISTANCE ✨

okay so bestie, you just typed man vmtksurfacedistance and landed on the User Commands part of the manual, section 1, for this vibe. It's a vmtk script, it lives at VMTKSURFACEDISTANCE(1) up in the header, and I'm gonna walk you through every single thing it does. no skips. no "etc." 💅

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🦋 NAME 🦋

vmtksurfacedistance — literally a vmtk script, and the script's name is vmtksurfacedistance. that's it. that's the name. iconic of it honestly 🎀

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

okay so here's the whole deal, and I'm gonna say it the way the page says it because the facts are the facts:

Automatic piping vmtksurfacedistance. Parsing options vmtksurfacedistance.

that's genuinely how the manpage describes itself. it's giving "the script does automatic piping and it parses its options." we move.

vmtksurfacedistance : compute the pointwise minimum distance of the input surface from a reference surface. 🫶

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💖 Input arguments 💖

these are the ones you feed in, bestie. the "here's my stuff, please do something with it" pile.

• -id Id (str,1); default=0 — the script id. it's an id. for the script. she's numbered 💅
• -handle Self (self,1) — handle to self. yes, the script has a handle to itself. main character energy, no notes 👑
• -disabled Disabled (bool,1); default=0 — disable execution and piping. flip this and she simply will not run and will not pipe. she's off duty 😴
• -i Surface (vtkPolyData,1) — the input surface. this is your actual thing. your mesh. your baby 🌸
• -ifile SurfaceInputFileName (str,1) — filename for the default Surface reader. so like, instead of handing her a vtkPolyData you can just point at a file and the default reader goes and gets it for you 🍓
• -r ReferenceSurface (vtkPolyData,1) — the reference surface. this is the "measure me against THIS" surface. the standard. the moment 💅
• -rfile ReferenceSurfaceInputFileName (str,1) — filename for the default ReferenceSurface reader. same deal, but for the reference one ✨
• -distancearray DistanceArrayName (str,1) — name of the array where the distance of the input surface to the reference surface has to be stored. you're naming the array, so name her something cute 🎀
• -distancevectorsarray DistanceVectorsArrayName (str,1) — name of the array where the distance vectors of the input surface to the reference surface has to be stored. vectors this time, not just the plain distances. it's giving direction 📐
• -signeddistancearray SignedDistanceArrayName (str,1) — name of the array where the signed distance of the input surface to the reference surface is stored. okay so listen, here's the sign situation: the distance is positive if the distance vector and the normal to the reference surface have a negative dot product, i.e. if the input surface is outer with respect to the reference surface. lowkey the most important sentence on this whole page, read it twice 🫶
• -flipnormals FlipNormals (bool,1); default=0 — flip the normals to the reference surface after computing them. after. not before. respect the order bestie 🧚
• -ofile SurfaceOutputFileName (str,1) — filename for the default Surface writer. where the output goes when she's done 💖

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💜 Output arguments 💜

and here's what she hands back to you, the lil goodie bag at the end 🎁

• -id Id (str,1); default=0 — script id. yes, again. she shows up in both lists. consistent queen 👑
• -handle Self (self,1) — handle to self. also again. she contains multitudes 💅
• -o Surface (vtkPolyData,1) — the output surface. your result. your masterpiece. slay ✨

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heads up bestie: the argument lists up top spell out the types and cardinalities exactly like this — str,1, self,1, bool,1, vtkPolyData,1 — and the defaults are exactly 0 where a default is shown. don't freestyle those, the script is not chill about it 😭

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that's literally the whole page. every flag, every type, every default, every filename argument, every array name, all accounted for. no gatekeeping here 🌈

and that's the vibe check, fr fr — this page is from vmtksurfacedistance 1.5, dated April 2026. go measure something. periodt 💅💖🦋