[Paraview] animating .. a single point's traverse in time

[Hart, Cynthia Joyce - (cyndyb)]

Hi folks,

I have an exceedingly simple thing I’d like to be able to animate in Paraview, and I can’t seem to figure out how.  I’m thinking it’s stunningly easy, but I just can’t see it!

I am working with some agricultural remote sensing data.   My data input format is very, very simple – just a plain vanilla /csv file.  Embedded in that file, are the Northing/Easting coordinates of a GPS equipped tractor as it moves through several fields, bearing sensors and acquiring data as it goes.  For starters, it is desired to produce an animation showing the path of the tractor as it moves.  There are approx. 20,000 points in the file.  I’d like to create some sort of simple terrain backdrop for the ‘map’ and then show the path of the tractor, frame by frame, based on coordinates provided on each row of the csv file.  What would be the easiest way to go about this?

The file also contains sensor data values from a set of identical scanners positioned in a straight row on a large ‘boom’ which is centered on the tractor.  (a linear detector array, essentially).  One reason to animate the path as the tractor moves, is to see at what frame the tractor turns around to take the next pass between the rows of the field it is scanning.  I eventually want to visualize the sensor values on the boom as it moves, I imagine as some sort of heat map.  Each sensor location is only known as relative to the tractor center.  So, when the tractor turns around… the location of each sensor relative to the known location (the GPS value from the tractor) changes sign in one axis.

I appreciate input on how you might go about this seemingly simple task.   Perhaps Paraview is not the right tool for the job and I ought to look at something else?  I suspect this project might build up into additional variables and such, so I thought it might be well served by Paraview in the long run.


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