[Paraview] Animating trajectories of points

[Moreland, Kenneth]

Janessa,

Whether or not you need a separate file for each time step depends on how time is represented in the file format. For csv files, the only way to represent time is through a sequence of files, so you will always need those 150,000 (unless you create your own reader or filter that adds a time-based convention to the file).

Most of the simplest text-based file formats I can think of also use a separate file for each time step (such as legacy VTK, XML-based VTK, PVD). I’m pretty sure XDMF (http://www.xdmf.org/) can support your data over all time steps in a single file, but you would have to write it out using the HDF5 library. The Exodus II file format can also support your data (as long as the number of points remains constant), but it also requires using an associated library.

-Ken

From: Janessa Tran [mailto:janessasocialmedia at gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2016 7:24 PM
To: Moreland, Kenneth <kmorel at sandia.gov>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [Paraview] Animating trajectories of points

Thank you for your assistance, Ken. I was able to get it to run. An issue I see is that my animation requires 150,000 files. Is there a way to combine the data into a single file and run an animation over time?

Thank you,
Janessa

On Wed, Jun 29, 2016 at 9:44 AM, Moreland, Kenneth <kmorel at sandia.gov<mailto:kmorel at sandia.gov>> wrote:
(Responding back to paraview list.)

That is odd behavior. Can you take a look at the csv files in a text editor? It looks like maybe all the data got appended to output1.csv, and the rest of the files are empty.

-Ken

From: Janessa Tran [mailto:janessasocialmedia at gmail.com<mailto:janessasocialmedia at gmail.com>]
Sent: Wednesday, June 29, 2016 10:04 AM
To: Moreland, Kenneth <kmorel at sandia.gov<mailto:kmorel at sandia.gov>>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [Paraview] Animating trajectories of points

Hi Ken,

Thank you for your response. I managed to upload the sequence of files. They are named in the numeric fashion you mentioned (output1.csv, output2.csv, output3.csv, etc). When I add a filter "Table to Points" on the spreadsheet, I get the results in the image I attached to the email. What I am trying to do is to get an animation of the trajectory of the points, such that I can see the points being plotted over time.

Currently when I click play, everything goes blank. If you look at the second attached image, you will see the time is 13 of 150000 at the top of the screen. How can I fix this so I can get the animation of the points over time?

Thank you very much in advance!

On Wed, Jun 29, 2016 at 8:22 AM, Moreland, Kenneth <kmorel at sandia.gov<mailto:kmorel at sandia.gov>> wrote:
Janessa,

ParaView should be able to read in a series of csv files as a time series. I just verified that when I have a sequence of csv files, ParaView treats it as a time series and plays through them.

For whatever reason, the image you originally attached to the email did not come through to me, so I cannot see exactly what you are doing. One problem could be that the names of the csv files have to follow a numbering convention so that ParaView knows to treat them as a sequence. Simply having them with sequential number names should do the trick (e.g. points1.csv, points2.csv, points3.csv, etc.). If ParaView understands the numbering convention, then the files should be grouped together in the file browser.

-Ken

From: ParaView [mailto:paraview-bounces at paraview.org<mailto:paraview-bounces at paraview.org>] On Behalf Of Janessa Tran
Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2016 10:45 PM
To: paraview at paraview.org<mailto:paraview at paraview.org>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] [Paraview] Animating trajectories of points

Hi,

This is my first time using ParaView and I am trying to get an animation of a trajectory of points. I have the data stored in separate csv files (one file for each time step). When I upload the data into ParaView, it is all grouped together and I can do it all at once. I am able to use the filter Table to Points to see the outcome of all the points together. What i am looking to do, however, is to animate a trajectory of the points over time.

Do you know how I should approach doing this? I assumed that i would be able to click "play" and it would work once I uploaded the data, however, this does not seem to be doing anything.

Thank you very much in advance!

This is what I have so far:

[Image removed by sender. Inline image 1]

- Janessa


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