<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">First, thank you for the quick response
I appreciate the input.</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">I took at look at the state file you
provided, and my first thoughts are suggesting that the Transform Filter
may not provide exactly what I need. </font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">In your example you are using the Animation
Control to interpolate parameters of the Transform Filter over time. However
I don't believe that any of the functions exposed </font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">by the Transform filter will help me
actually remove Points along with the data in their associated Data Arrays.
</font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">In terms of viewing the "Information"
tab in the Object Inspector - I have a Dataset which has 2 Points, Several
Arrays of Length 2 - and I would like to create multiple filters; each
</font>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">which would contain only 1 Point with
Data Arrays of size 1. </font>
<br>
<br><font size=2 face="sans-serif">Would it be helpful if I provided a
state file with my test datasets?</font>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<table width=100%>
<tr valign=top>
<td><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif">From:</font>
<td><font size=1 face="sans-serif">"Deij, Menno" <M.Deij@marin.nl></font>
<br>
<tr valign=top>
<td><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif">To:</font>
<td><font size=1 face="sans-serif">John CTR Mick/ACT/CNTR/FAA@FAA, "paraview@paraview.org"
<paraview@paraview.org></font>
<tr valign=top>
<td><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif">Date:</font>
<td><font size=1 face="sans-serif">03/22/2012 12:39 PM</font>
<tr valign=top>
<td><font size=1 color=#5f5f5f face="sans-serif">Subject:</font>
<td><font size=1 face="sans-serif">RE: [Paraview] Assistance/Suggestion
With Animating Relatively Small Datasets Over Many Timesteps</font></table>
<br>
<hr noshade>
<br>
<br>
<br><font size=3> </font>
<p><font size=2 color=#004080 face="Calibri">How about using a Transform
Filter, possibly using scripting? Not sure if that works with timesteps,
but I suppose it can be done.</font>
<p><font size=2 color=#004080 face="Calibri"> </font>
<p><font size=2 color=#004080 face="Calibri">I made the following example
for someone on the list recently, that shows animation of a transformfilter:</font>
<p><font size=2 color=#004080 face="Calibri"> </font>
<p><a href="http://markmail.org/download.xqy?id=wjep757breylvtao&number=1"><font size=2 color=blue face="Calibri"><u>http://markmail.org/download.xqy?id=wjep757breylvtao&number=1</u></font></a><font size=2 color=#004080 face="Calibri">
(downloads a state file)</font>
<p><font size=2 color=#004080 face="Calibri"> </font>
<p><font size=2 color=#004080 face="Calibri"> </font>
<p>
<table>
<tr>
<td colspan=2><img src=cid:_2_079A57E8079A5698005D9C22852579C9><img src=cid:_2_079A59EC079A5698005D9C22852579C9>
<tr>
<td colspan=2><font size=2 color=#808080 face="Arial">dr. ir. Menno A.
Deij</font>
<tr>
<td><font size=2 color=#808080 face="Arial">Software Engineer</font>
<td>
<tr>
<td><font size=2 color=#808080 face="Arial">Maritime Simulation Group</font>
<td></table>
<p>
<table>
<tr>
<td><font size=3> </font>
<td><font size=2 color=#808080 face="Arial"><b>MARIN</b></font>
<td><font size=3> </font>
<tr>
<td>
<td><font size=2 color=#808080 face="Arial">2, Haagsteeg</font>
<td>
<tr>
<td><font size=2 color=#808080 face="Arial">E</font><font size=2 color=#424282 face="Arial">
</font><a href=mailto:M.Deij@marin.nl><font size=2 color=blue face="Arial"><u>M.Deij@marin.nl</u></font></a>
<td><font size=2 color=#808080 face="Arial">P.O. Box 28</font>
<td><font size=2 color=#808080 face="Arial">T +31 317 49 39 11</font>
<tr>
<td>
<td><font size=2 color=#808080 face="Arial">6700 AA Wageningen</font>
<td>
<tr>
<td><font size=2 color=#808080 face="Arial">T +31 317 49 35 06</font>
<td><font size=2 color=#808080 face="Arial">The Netherlands</font>
<td><font size=2 color=#808080 face="Arial">I </font><a href=http://www.marin.nl/ target=_top><font size=2 color=#424282 face="Arial"><u>www.marin.nl</u></font></a></table>
<br><font size=3> </font>
<p><font size=2 color=#808080 face="Arial">MARIN news: </font><a href="http://www.marin.nl/web/News/News-items/Exploratory-study-on-the-working-principles-of-Energy-Saving-Devices.htm"><font size=1 color=#424282 face="Arial"><u>Exploratory
study on the working principles of Energy Saving Devices</u></font></a>
<br><font size=2 color=#808080 face="Arial">This e-mail may be confidential,
privileged and/or protected by copyright. If you are not the intended recipient,
you should return it to the sender immediately and delete your copy from
your system.</font>
<br><font size=3> </font>
<p><font size=2 face="Tahoma"><b>From:</b> paraview-bounces@paraview.org
[</font><a href="mailto:paraview-bounces@paraview.org"><font size=2 face="Tahoma">mailto:paraview-bounces@paraview.org</font></a><font size=2 face="Tahoma">]
<b>On Behalf Of </b>John.CTR.Mick@faa.gov<b><br>
Sent:</b> Thursday, March 22, 2012 5:13 PM<b><br>
To:</b> paraview@paraview.org<b><br>
Subject:</b> [Paraview] Assistance/Suggestion With Animating Relatively
Small Datasets Over Many Timesteps</font>
<p><font size=3> </font>
<p><font size=2 face="Arial"><br>
This is my first experience posting to the ParaView Mailing
List; as well as my first project I am exploring with ParaView. I
hope I am posting this question to the correct audience.</font><font size=3>
<br>
</font><font size=2 face="Arial"><br>
I am attempting to create an animation of our Solar System
- at an extremely high update interval - perhaps plotting the position
and velocity of significant solar system bodies over 165 Earth years at</font><font size=3>
</font><font size=2 face="Arial"><br>
a one day interval. Initially I thought I would be able to work with
CSV files to define a dataset which includes time, positional coordinates,
and velocity vectors. While testing this approach I managed to use
the TableToPoints filter to create a visualization of a sample dataset;
but I was not able to sequence over the individual timesteps. So
in effect you see all the positions a particular planet was at for the
entire duration of the dataset.</font><font size=3> <br>
</font><font size=2 face="Arial"><br>
I created a video of this test and made it available online:</font><font size=3>
</font><font size=2 face="Arial"><br>
</font><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLPxx-2Zc9Q"><font size=3 color=blue><u>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLPxx-2Zc9Q</u></font></a><font size=3>
<br>
<br>
Next I thought perhaps the CSV format was a little too general
for what I needed, so I read the VTK file format document and migrated
over to the XML VTK format. It seems like there is no way to define
time sequenced data natively within the file format itself? ParaView
expects the user to break the timesteps into individual files - with a
numeric indicator in the filename to define the sequence. If I were
to take this approach, I could be looking at creating nearly 500,000 individual
files to represent the entire duration of time I'm interested in plotting.
I feel like there must be a better way to do this. <br>
<br>
As a small improvement I thought I could at least combine
all of the unique solar system bodies (Earth, Sun, etc.), into a single
timestep file such as this: <br>
(filename: timeseries_2455562.vtu) <br>
</font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
<?xml version="1.0"?></font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
<VTKFile type="UnstructuredGrid" version="0.1" byte_order="LittleEndian"
compressor="vtkZLibDataCompressor"></font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
<UnstructuredGrid></font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
<Piece NumberOfPoints="2" NumberOfCells="2"></font><font size=3>
</font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
<PointData Vectors="Velocity" Scalars="Radius"></font><font size=3>
</font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
<DataArray Name="Time" type="Float32"
format="ascii">2455562 2455562</DataArray></font><font size=3>
</font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
<DataArray Name="Radius" type="Float32"
format="ascii">6371 696000</DataArray></font><font size=3>
</font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
<DataArray Name="Velocity" type="Float32"
NumberOfComponents="3" format="ascii"></font><font size=3>
</font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
-2.982651603443954E+01 -5.304542013817379E+00
-7.226846229160870E-04</font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
0 0 0</font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
</DataArray></font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
</PointData></font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
<Points></font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
<DataArray type="Float32" NumberOfComponents="3"
format="ascii"></font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
-2.567030301930377E+07 1.448508985971261E+08
-3.607762965630511E+03</font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
0 0 0</font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
</DataArray></font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
</Points></font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
<Cells></font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
<DataArray Name="connectivity"
type="Int32" format="ascii">0 1</DataArray></font><font size=3>
</font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
<DataArray Name="offsets" type="Int32"
format="ascii">1 2</DataArray></font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
<DataArray Name="types" type="UInt8"
format="ascii">1 1</DataArray></font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
</Cells></font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
</Piece></font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
</UnstructuredGrid></font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
</VTKFile></font><font size=3> <br>
<br>
The idea of this approach was to list all of the scalars and vectors for
each corresponding body in a single file. In this example the first
listed scalar, vector, or coordinate point, is the Earth while the second
set of values indicates the Sun's data. By combining the bodies into
a single file I could reduce the 500,000 files required down to some 60,000
files....still undesirable but better. <br>
<br>
However I would also like to segment the Points once inside the ParaView
environment; so I can create a distinct pipeline for each body in the dataset.
One application for this would be to allow different Glyph rendering
rules for the Sun and the Earth so I can make the Sun...have a Sun texture
- and the Earth an Earth texture. <br>
<br>
After experimenting with this for awhile I found myself trying to implement
a Programmable Filter. The filter would take the Unstructured Grid
for the given timestep, and given an index, extract the Point, Scalar,
and Vector data from its input - then set only those values to the Output
Unstructured Grid. I currently have a script that looks something
like this: <br>
</font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
# CELLID 0 = EARTH</font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
cellId = 0</font><font size=3> <br>
</font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
# Obtain References To Input/Output Data</font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
gridI = self.GetUnstructuredGridInput()</font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
gridO = self.GetUnstructuredGridOutput()</font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
dataI = self.GetInput()</font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
dataO = self.GetOutput()</font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
scalarI = dataI.GetPointData().GetScalars()</font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
vectorI = dataI.GetPointData().GetVectors()</font><font size=3> <br>
</font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
# Initialize Local Storage Arrays</font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
newVector = vtk.vtkFloatArray()</font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
newVector.SetName(vectorI.GetName())</font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
newVector.SetNumberOfComponents(3)</font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
newScalar = vtk.vtkFloatArray()</font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
newScalar.SetName(scalarI.GetName())</font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
newPoint = vtk.vtkPoints()</font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
newPoint.SetNumberOfPoints(1)</font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
newCell = vtk.vtkCellArray()</font><font size=3> <br>
</font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
# Lookup CellId References</font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
idCell = gridI.GetCell(cellId)</font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
idCellType = gridI.GetCellType(cellId)</font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
idPoint = gridI.GetPoints().GetPoint(cellId)</font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
idScalar = scalarI.GetTuple(cellId)</font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
idVector = vectorI.GetTuple(cellId)</font><font size=3> <br>
</font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
# Populate New Local Cell Array with CellId Cell</font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
newCell.InsertNextCell(idCell)</font><font size=3> <br>
</font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
# Populate New Local Point Array With CellId Point</font><font size=3>
</font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
newPoint.SetPoint(0, idPoint)</font><font size=3> <br>
</font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
# Populate New Local Scalars with CellId Scalar Tuples</font><font size=3>
</font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
newScalar.InsertNextTuple(idScalar)</font><font size=3> <br>
</font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
# Populate New Local Vectors with CellID Vector Tuples</font><font size=3>
</font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
newVector.InsertNextTuple(idVector)</font><font size=3> <br>
</font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
# Copy Local Cells, Scalars, Vectors, and Points Into Output Pipeline Data</font><font size=3>
</font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
gridO.SetPoints(newPoint)</font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
gridO.SetCells(idCellType, newCell)</font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
dataO.GetPointData().SetScalars(newScalar)</font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Lucida Console"><br>
dataO.GetPointData().SetVectors(newVector)</font><font size=3> <br>
</font><font size=2 face="Arial"><br>
The filter does achieve the desired effect for the cellID 0 - but when
I switch the value of cellID to 1 (which should refer to the Sun's index)
ParaView crashes hard - where I assume I am missing something, possibly
requesting something out of bounds in memory.</font><font size=3> <br>
</font><font size=2 face="Arial"><br>
I've been struggling with this problem for a little while now and thought
to share my progress here; hopefully there is somebody out there with a
little more insight that could help guide me towards either a conclusion
with this implementation or a suggestion for a better approach.</font><font size=3>
<br>
</font><font size=2 face="Arial"><br>
Essentially - How can one give ParaView Point and Velocity vectors over
a vast sequence of time without creating potentially hundreds of thousands
of files on disc? Does this Programmable Filter seem like a reasonable
approach? Is there a native feature I am missing that does this already?
Is there some other file format other than VTK I could use to have
ParaView understand this format of data?</font><font size=3> <br>
</font><font size=2 face="Arial"><br>
Any thoughts, comments, or questions will be greatly appreciated. :)</font><font size=3>
<br>
</font><font size=2 face="Arial"><br>
Thanks,</font><font size=3> </font><font size=2 face="Arial"><br>
John</font><font size=3> </font>
<p>
<p>