# Can we flip left handed normals to right handed normals?

**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/can-we-flip-left-handed-normals-to-right-handed-normals/1671
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [April 16, 2019, 1:38am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/can-we-flip-left-handed-normals-to-right-handed-normals/1671 "2019-04-16T01:38:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![wascott](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/8e8cbc/32.png) [@wascott](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/wascott)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2019, 1:38am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/can-we-flip-left-handed-normals-to-right-handed-normals/1671/1 "2019-04-16T01:38:40Z")

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From a user:

I have a grid model in the netcdf format. It has Nx x Ny x Nz gridpoints with a given grid spacing. At each node, there is one variable, i.e. rho(density). The model is input as a left-hand rule model. I would like to see how the model looks if it was a RH rule model. Essentially, that would entail having the X nodes have a reverse of their ranking, xmax becomes xmin, xmin becomes xmax. Is there any switch in Paraview that would do that automatically, or do I need to recreate my model.

Hopefully, my description is sufficient to explain what I would like to do.

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### Author: ![Kenneth\_Moreland](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/kenneth_moreland/32/15033_2.png) [@Kenneth\_Moreland](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Kenneth_Moreland)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2019, 2:20pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/can-we-flip-left-handed-normals-to-right-handed-normals/1671/2 "2019-04-16T14:20:26Z")

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Would it work to run the `Transform` filter and set `Scale` to (-1, 1, 1)?

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### Author: ![cory.quammen](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/cory.quammen/32/11193_2.png) [@cory.quammen](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/cory.quammen)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2019, 3:21pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/can-we-flip-left-handed-normals-to-right-handed-normals/1671/3 "2019-04-16T15:21:08Z")

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I was thinking the same thing, but a little trepidatious about the effect that would have on surface normals, volumes, etc. caused by inverting the elements.

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### Author: ![Kenneth\_Moreland](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/kenneth_moreland/32/15033_2.png) [@Kenneth\_Moreland](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Kenneth_Moreland)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2019, 4:35pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/can-we-flip-left-handed-normals-to-right-handed-normals/1671/4 "2019-04-16T16:35:28Z")

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You’re right. It does add some weirdness. For example, if I do this scale on a 3D image and then `Contour` it, the normals come out all wrong. However, converting the data to an unstructured grid with `Clean to Grid` at any point seems to resolve the problems. So buyer beware.

I guess to be safe you would have to reorder all of the points. I don’t know of any existing filter to do that.

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### Author: ![wascott](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/8e8cbc/32.png) [@wascott](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/wascott)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2019, 5:09pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/can-we-flip-left-handed-normals-to-right-handed-normals/1671/5 "2019-04-16T17:09:38Z")

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Would it be worth while (long term) creating a filter that would do this?

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### Author: ![Kenneth\_Moreland](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/kenneth_moreland/32/15033_2.png) [@Kenneth\_Moreland](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Kenneth_Moreland)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2019, 5:13pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/can-we-flip-left-handed-normals-to-right-handed-normals/1671/6 "2019-04-16T17:13:21Z")

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How often would people need it? Usually this type of thing is taken care of in the reader.

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### Author: ![Andy\_Bauer](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/andy_bauer/32/5442_2.png) [@Andy\_Bauer](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Andy_Bauer)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2019, 7:32pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/can-we-flip-left-handed-normals-to-right-handed-normals/1671/7 "2019-04-16T19:32:30Z")

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There is the `Reflect` filter which takes care of normals, cell inversions and other items like that. I think it only works for unstructured grids and polydata though.
