Selection in ParaView Utkarsh Ayachit Kitware Inc.

Selection Mechanism to identify subset of a dataset Focus on selected subset Inspect properties of the subset Further process subset alone Track subset over time

Focus on subset

Track subset over time

Selection in ParaView What are we selecting? Data produced by a source Active Selection One application wide selection All views show the same selection if possible Creating a new selection results in removing the old one Transient: cannot be saved in state files, does not respect undo/redo.

Selection Components Selection Inspector Inspect the active selection Spreadsheet View Inspect the selected data

Active Selection Inspector Accessible through View | Selection Inspector Used to create/modify active selection Shows the properties of the active selection Control how the active selection is shown

Create new selection Active selection properties Selected cells ids Selection type Selection display Properties/Labeling

Spreadsheet View Used to view the raw cell/point data To create: split an existing view and select Spreadsheet view Display tab provides option to view only selected items

What is shown in the view Show only selected items Select block to inspect Attribute shown

Selecting using 3D View Surface cells/points Cells/Points within a frustum Blocks in a composite dataset

Select Cells on surface Used to select any set of visible cells on the surface of a dataset Representation should be points / wireframe / surface / surface with edges With 3D view active, use theSelect Cells On tool button (shortcut S) to enter selection mode Click and drag to select cells

Select Points on surface Same as selecting cells on surface except use Select Points On tool button.

Selection Linking Selection is linked among all views (whenever possible) Active selection is shown in all view (whenever possible)

Select Cells Through Select all cells intersecting a frustum Use Select Cells Through Selection Inspector has a check button to show the selection frustum Use Select Points Through for selecting points

Select Blocks Select blocks in a composite dataset

Composite Datasets Composite datasets are datasets comprising of other datasets. Group together assemblies: vtkMultiBlockDataSet Adaptive mesh refinement: vtkHierarchicalBoxDataSet

Select Blocks Use Select Block (shortcut B) to select blocks in a composite dataset Keep Ctrl pressed when clicking to add to existing selected blocks

Selecting using Spreadsheet View Can create Point/Cell index based selections (depending on what attribute is being shown) Click to select rows as one would in any spreadsheet application Can use modifiers such as Ctrl, Shift while selecting Selection is shown in all views

Selecting using Selection Inspector Create new selections Convert selections id based to global id based frustum to id based Modify existing selection

Location based selection Select cell enclosing the location or select point closet to the location within a threshold Created using the Selection Inspector and changing the selection type to Locations Provides widgets to specify locations

Threshold based selection Select cells or points that have an attribute value within the specified range Created using Selection Inspector

Labeling Selected Items Label selected cells/points using Selection Inspector Choose the array/id to label with

Extract Selection Extract selected subset for further processing Create Extract Selection filter Make selection and Copy Active Selection Hit Apply

Extract Selection Once a selection is extracted its treated as a first class data source. One can apply filters to it as usual. Extracted selection get saved in state files.

Plot Selection over Time Plot data variable changes over time for a set of cells or points Use Plot Selection Over Time filter Make selection and Copy Active Selection Output can be shown on a XY plot

Plot Selection over Time Changes for each cell/point selected can be plotted, one at a time, by choosing the block on the Display Tab

Conclusion Selection provides mechanism to focus on a subset of the dataset Selection identifies the cells/points in the output of a filter/source Active selection is shown in all views (when applicable) Selection inspector can be used to create/modify the active selection Spreadsheet view can be used to explore the attribute values for the selected items Extracting a selection makes it possible to further processes the selected subset