# Annotate date in the viewport of the 3D visualization
**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/annotate-date-in-the-viewport-of-the-3d-visualization/4683
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [June 25, 2020, 5:22pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/annotate-date-in-the-viewport-of-the-3d-visualization/4683 "2020-06-25T17:22:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@savalma](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/savalma)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2020, 5:22pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/annotate-date-in-the-viewport-of-the-3d-visualization/4683/1 "2020-06-25T17:22:44Z")
Hi Paraview Member,
I have the dates for every timestep as a string in a file and I want to link this file to create an annotation where I can see the date instead of the time step. I looked at other sources where this question was already asked, but since I already have the file with the date as a string, I thought I would only need to use the python annotation filter. Unfortunately, I am getting the following error and I can’t understand why it does not recognize the column header as a variable name, even though within the error description it is recognized as so.
I am using Time[t\_index] within the expression input of the pythonannotation filter
The error I get is this
Failed to evaluate expression ‘Time[t\_index]’. The following exception stack should provide additional developer-specific information. This typically implies a malformed expression. Verify that the expression is valid.
Variables in current scope are [‘Hours’, ‘input’, ‘Time’, ‘Id’, ‘Date’]
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “”, line 7, in
File “”, line 5, in vtkPythonAnnotationFilter\_EvaluateExpression
File “C:/Program Files/ParaView 5.6.1/bin\Lib/site-packages\paraview\annotation.py”, line 90, in execute
result = calculator.compute(inputs, expression, ns=ns)
File “C:/Program Files/ParaView 5.6.1/bin\Lib/site-packages\paraview\calculator.py”, line 140, in compute
retVal = eval(expression, globals(), mylocals)
File “”, line 1, in
NameError: name ‘t\_index’ is not defined
Thank you for the attention
---
### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [June 26, 2020, 2:09am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/annotate-date-in-the-viewport-of-the-3d-visualization/4683/2 "2020-06-26T02:09:48Z")
The correct formula is : `t_value`
Alternatively, you can use the Annotate Time filter.
---
### Author:  [@savalma](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/savalma)
#### Post date: [June 26, 2020, 2:54am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/annotate-date-in-the-viewport-of-the-3d-visualization/4683/3 "2020-06-26T02:54:12Z")
Hi Mathieu,
Thank you for replying. Using t\_value will print the time step on the screen, but I want to print the date associated to that time step. I have this date already in a string format within a .csv file that has as a column header “Time”, which is why I thought using Time[t\_index] would work. But I get that error. I understand that a programmable filter has been used before, but it has been used to change the datetime format into a string format. From what I understand basically to create the file that I already have in the .csv file.
Thank you,
Sergio
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [June 26, 2020, 2:55am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/annotate-date-in-the-viewport-of-the-3d-visualization/4683/4 "2020-06-26T02:55:20Z")
Can you share your dataset ?
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### Author:  [@savalma](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/savalma)
#### Post date: [June 26, 2020, 3:10am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/annotate-date-in-the-viewport-of-the-3d-visualization/4683/5 "2020-06-26T03:10:13Z")
Sure, I have attached the csv file and shared the link for the associated vtk files.
[ParaviewRef\_v1.csv](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/short-url/1iYrfs7rGcTBsHqbhyRABMSFCWP.csv) (58 Bytes)
[https://ucdavis.box.com/s/vu7lf1rubvrqt28cip9h1z9jiziokas2](https://ucdavis.box.com/s/vu7lf1rubvrqt28cip9h1z9jiziokas2)
Thank you
---
### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [June 26, 2020, 3:21am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/annotate-date-in-the-viewport-of-the-3d-visualization/4683/6 "2020-06-26T03:21:15Z")
Your problem is that your .csv file doesn’t have a time associated to it.
A simple work around is to duplicate and rename it :
```
ParaViewRef_v1_0.csv
ParaViewRef_v1_1.csv
ParaViewRef_v1_2.csv
```
You then open the file series : `ParaViewRef_v1_..csv` and add a PythonAnnotation with the following formula : `Time.GetValue(t_index)`
The correct fix is to add your time data inside the FieldData of your dataset, but that can’t be done using simple filters in ParaView.