[Paraview] Manually set UGrid point IDs for time-series plotting?

[Eric Monson]

Hello,

I'm wondering if there is any way of manually setting point ID values  
within a vtkUnstructuredGrid? (I'm using Python to populate a UGrid  
from HDF5 data and then writing to *.vtu and *.pvd files for multiple  
time steps.)

I'm visualizing a time series of points diffusing in a space, where  
some particles appear and disappear over time. This presents a problem  
when I want to plot with Extract Points Over Time, because the point  
"index" that ParaView sees isn't consistent (doesn't correspond to a  
single particle) over the whole time series.

I have a scalar array of IDs associated with the point data, which I  
successfully use with John Biddiscombe's Temporal Trails Filter (since  
it has an option for using a scalar array for ID), but I don't know  
how to use that same info for XY plotting.

I see that the ExodusII reader puts some global ID info into a  
vtkModelMetadata object and packs it into the UGrid field data. (Then,  
I'm guessing that the Extract Points Over Time might be able to sense  
this and "un-grey" the Use Global Ids check box...?) Is there any  
other way (besides using a vtkExodusIIReader) to do the equivalent  
process, such that the info will be viewable by the plotting routines?

Thanks a lot,
-Eric

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Eric E. Monson
Duke Visualization Technology Group