[Paraview] Particle trajectories with Paraview - How to to use an existing dataset (xml / hdf5) - error messages with "Particle Pathlines"

[Oliver Fochler]

Dear Paraview users,

I know that this topic has probably been discussed a couple of times.
But so far I haven't been able to get find any real solutions from the
discussion threads to my specific problem. I'm afraid I will need a
detailed dummy / newbie explanation..


What I would like to do:
----------------------------------------

Plot the trajectory of a moving particle, i.e. trace its path with some
sort of line. The position of the particle is given as x,y,z coordinates
(euclidean position) at certain distinct time steps.
The ability to fade out the track after n time steps would be nice. And
of course I need more than one particle, but that doesn't really matter.


The data format I have:
----------------------------------------

I'm using a converter written by someone else to convert the output of
my simulations to a format that is understood by paraview. In principle
I do have the source code of this converter, but I haven't really
bothered to look into it yet (and don't really have the time to do so now).
The output I get from this converter is hdf5, i.e. a xml file and a .h5
file. The data is organized in frames, one frame per time step. See
below for an excerpt from my xml file.

In principle this dataset just holds the positions and momenta of point
like particles (plus some more scalar values) at given time steps.



What I've done so far / Error messages:
--------------------------------------

Loading this dataset (the xml file) into paraview works fine. It
displays all the points and animating is no problem. Each frame is
correctly associated with the actual time (as denoted in the xml file)
and I can loop through the time steps to see the particles evolve,
inspect scalar properties with glyphs and so on.

But how can I get the trajectory of a particle? Or rather the polyline
connecting the coordinate points the particle has passed at the given
time steps.

I've tried using the "Particle Pathlines" filter but it gives me error
messages like

 "vtkCompositeDataPipeline (0x5c93630): Algorithm
vtkTemporalPathLineFilter(0x54ff590) returned failure for request:
vtkInformation (0x55b9160)"

for Paraview 3.6.2 or

"vtkTemporalPathLineFilter (0x4b7a680): The input dataset did not have a
valid DATA_TIME_STEPS information key"
and
"vtkCompositeDataPipeline (0x4b7c0c0): Algorithm
vtkTemporalPathLineFilter(0x4b7a680) returned failure for request:
vtkInformation"

for Paraview 3.8.0




I would be very glad if you had some suggestions!

Cheers,
Oliver



Here's the beginning of my xml file:


<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<!DOCTYPE Xdmf SYSTEM "Xdmf.dtd" []>
<Xdmf xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2003/XInclude" Version="2.2"
Name="Case: BAMPS_test">
  <Domain Name="myDomain">
    <Grid Name="euclidean position" GridType="Collection"
CollectionType="Unset">
      <Grid Name="Event 1" GridType="Collection" CollectionType="Temporal">
        <Grid Name="Frame 1" GridType="Uniform">
          <Topology Name="Topology" TopologyType="Polyvertex"
Dimensions="1019"/>
          <Geometry Name="Geometry" GeometryType="XYZ">
            <DataItem NumberType="Float" Precision="4" Dimensions="1019
3" Format="HDF">BAMPS_test.h5:/Case/Event 1/Frame 1/euclidean
position</DataItem>
          </Geometry>
          <Time TimeType="Single" Value="0.2"/>
          <Attribute Name="azimuthal angle" AttributeType="Scalar"
Center="Node">
            <DataItem NumberType="Float" Precision="4" Dimensions="1019"
Format="HDF">BAMPS_test.h5:/Case/Event 1/Frame 1/azimuthal angle</DataItem>
          </Attribute>
          <Attribute Name="electric charge" AttributeType="Scalar"
Center="Node">
            <DataItem NumberType="Float" Precision="4" Dimensions="1019"
Format="HDF">BAMPS_test.h5:/Case/Event 1/Frame 1/electric charge</DataItem>
          </Attribute>
          <Attribute Name="energy" AttributeType="Scalar" Center="Node">
            <DataItem NumberType="Float" Precision="4" Dimensions="1019"
Format="HDF">BAMPS_test.h5:/Case/Event 1/Frame 1/energy</DataItem>
          </Attribute>