# adding render actors to model node

**URL:** <https://discourse.slicer.org/t/adding-render-actors-to-model-node/17589>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [May 12, 2021, 12:27pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/adding-render-actors-to-model-node/17589 "2021-05-12T12:27:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jimbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d78d45/32.png) [@jimbo](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/jimbo)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2021, 12:27pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/adding-render-actors-to-model-node/17589/1 "2021-05-12T12:27:53Z")

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Dear all,

I am new to slicer and I am having some issues creating model nodes. I have some code to render splines and surfaces which I render by creating mappers, actors and then adding the actors to render window. Is there a way how I can simply add those actors to a model node so I can access them from the data module?

I greatly appreciate any help.

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**Author:** ![pieper](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/pieper/32/8_2.png) [@pieper](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/pieper)\
**Post date:** [May 12, 2021, 8:58pm UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/adding-render-actors-to-model-node/17589/2 "2021-05-12T20:58:40Z")

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Since Slicer can have multiple threeD view instances that should have the same mapping from model nodes to vtk actors/mappers/widgets we have a layer called displayable managers. [This documentation](https://www.slicer.org/wiki/Documentation/Nightly/Developers/DisplayableManagers) is a bit old but it describes the basic operations. The API docs [are here](https://apidocs.slicer.org/v4.10/classvtkMRMLAbstractDisplayableManager.html). Most of these are in C++ but there is also a scripted version.

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**Author:** ![lassoan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.slicer.org/lassoan/32/13_2.png) [@lassoan](https://discourse.slicer.org/u/lassoan)\
**Post date:** [May 13, 2021, 4:41am UTC](https://discourse.slicer.org/t/adding-render-actors-to-model-node/17589/3 "2021-05-13T04:41:45Z")

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You can render a vtkPolyData by calling `slicer.modules.models.logic().AddModel(polydata)`. See complete examples in the [script repository](https://slicer.readthedocs.io/en/latest/developer_guide/script_repository.html#show-a-simple-surface-mesh-as-a-model-node).