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Past the basics

Six things it doesthat people miss

Most users learn open, apply, colour, and stop. These are the features that change what ParaView is for.

Multiple linked views

Render, spreadsheet, chart and histogram side by side, all showing the same pipeline object.

Selection

Pick cells in the 3D view and carry them into a table, a chart, or a new filter branch.

Time series as one object

A directory of timestep files opens as one source with a timeline, not a hundred separate loads.

Python everywhere

A shell inside the app, a trace recorder, and pvbatch for running the result with no window.

Comparative views

A grid of the same visualisation across parameter values, for comparing cases at a glance.

Client-server

Run the server next to the data and the interface where you are. Only rendered pixels travel.

Views

The render viewis one of many

Splitting the layout is how ParaView stops being a picture viewer and starts being an analysis tool.

Spreadsheet ViewThe raw arrays as rows. The fastest way to find out whether a field is what you think it is.
Line Chart ViewWhere Plot Over Line and Plot Data Over Time land. Exportable to CSV with a right-click.
HistogramThe distribution of a field, which is how you choose a sensible contour value instead of guessing.
Python ViewA matplotlib figure drawn from the pipeline data, inside the layout, updating with the timeline.
Selection

Click a cell,then keep it

Selection is the bridge between looking at something and doing arithmetic on it, and it is almost invisible in the interface.

Select points or cells in the render view with the toolbar tools, and the Spreadsheet View narrows to exactly those rows. Extract Selection then turns that into a new pipeline object you can filter, export or plot over time. Plot Selection Over Time takes a selection and produces a chart of how those specific cells evolved — which is the answer to a surprising share of real questions.

In 3DPickpoints or cells, from the toolbar
ExtractKeepa new pipeline object from it
Over timeFollowhow those exact cells evolved
Repeatability

Everything hereis scriptable

The interface is a front end onto a Python API, and anything you can click you can write down.

headless rendering

$ pvbatch --force-offscreen-rendering render.py

$ ls frames/

Tools · Start TraceRecords your clicks as Python. The fastest way to learn the API is to do the thing and read the result.
pvpython and pvbatchRun a script with or without a connection to the interface. pvbatch is the one for headless batches.
State filesA .pvsm saves the whole session. Use it when you want the setup back, not a rerunnable job.

This matters more on a rented machine than on a laptop. Get the pipeline right interactively, trace it, then run the trace over every case with pvbatch and stop the machine. You pay for the render, not for the hours you would have spent clicking through a hundred datasets.

On a machine

ParaView isalready built

Nothing here needs compiling. Pick a machine, and these two commands put it on there.

hub://paraview

$ dxflow workflow create --identity paraview hub://paraview

$ dxflow workflow start paraview

Start a machineWhat ParaView needs
Read it, then run itPrepaid and by the hour, on a machine that is yours about a minute after you ask.
Start a machineAll notes