# Animating a collection

**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/animating-a-collection/8838
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [January 25, 2022, 2:20am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/animating-a-collection/8838 "2022-01-25T02:20:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![PetrKryslUCSD](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/petrkryslucsd/32/5908_2.png) [@PetrKryslUCSD](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/PetrKryslUCSD)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2022, 2:20am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/animating-a-collection/8838/1 "2022-01-25T02:20:09Z")

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Here is my pvd file:

```auto
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<VTKFile type="Collection" version="1.0" byte_order="LittleEndian" compressor="vtkZLibDataCompressor">
  <Collection>
    <DataSet timestep="0.0" part="0" file="mvtkcollection1-1.vtu"/>
    <DataSet timestep="0.1" part="0" file="mvtkcollection1-2.vtu"/>
    <DataSet timestep="0.2" part="0" file="mvtkcollection1-3.vtu"/>
    <DataSet timestep="0.3" part="0" file="mvtkcollection1-4.vtu"/>
    <DataSet timestep="0.4" part="0" file="mvtkcollection1-5.vtu"/>
    <DataSet timestep="0.5" part="0" file="mvtkcollection1-6.vtu"/>
    <DataSet timestep="0.6" part="0" file="mvtkcollection1-7.vtu"/>
    <DataSet timestep="0.7" part="0" file="mvtkcollection1-8.vtu"/>
    <DataSet timestep="0.8" part="0" file="mvtkcollection1-9.vtu"/>
    <DataSet timestep="0.9" part="0" file="mvtkcollection1-10.vtu"/>
    <DataSet timestep="1.0" part="0" file="mvtkcollection1-11.vtu"/>
  </Collection>
</VTKFile>

```

Each of the files exist, and can be visualized. My question is: how do I animate the collection?  
I try to do the obvious thing,  
 ![image](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/default/original/2X/c/c7e180b2eb9ce812463cdf858e5862d4f0377fb1.png)  
but I got a hard crash.

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![wascott](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/8e8cbc/32.png) [@wascott](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/wascott)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2022, 2:56am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/animating-a-collection/8838/2 "2022-01-25T02:56:47Z")

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You shouldn’t have to open the Animation view. Maybe a place to start is with ParaView 5.10. There are now example .pdf files included with the download. Start with those? They are in File/ Open/ Examples/ vtk/ xml/ parallelUnstrctured. Just open timeBasedUnstructured.pvd, and play it forward and backward.

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![PetrKryslUCSD](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/petrkryslucsd/32/5908_2.png) [@PetrKryslUCSD](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/PetrKryslUCSD)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2022, 3:09am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/animating-a-collection/8838/3 "2022-01-25T03:09:39Z")

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Are you saying collections only work with 5.10?

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![PetrKryslUCSD](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/petrkryslucsd/32/5908_2.png) [@PetrKryslUCSD](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/PetrKryslUCSD)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2022, 3:14am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/animating-a-collection/8838/4 "2022-01-25T03:14:18Z")

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OK, I’ve got 5.10. I loaded the file, but HOW do I play it?

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![PetrKryslUCSD](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/petrkryslucsd/32/5908_2.png) [@PetrKryslUCSD](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/PetrKryslUCSD)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2022, 3:19am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/animating-a-collection/8838/5 "2022-01-25T03:19:23Z")

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You mean ‘pvd’ files, not ‘pdf’ files, correct?

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![PetrKryslUCSD](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/petrkryslucsd/32/5908_2.png) [@PetrKryslUCSD](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/PetrKryslUCSD)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2022, 3:37am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/animating-a-collection/8838/6 "2022-01-25T03:37:36Z")

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Ok, I think I’ve got it: with 5.10 the play buttons just work, and no settings need to be twiddled. Thanks for your help.

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![wascott](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/8e8cbc/32.png) [@wascott](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/wascott)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2022, 6:08pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/animating-a-collection/8838/7 "2022-01-25T18:08:54Z")

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Good. And to quote a friend, Ken Moreland, I blame spell correct. Yes, .pvd files.