# Can't load paraview in python (linux)

**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/cant-load-paraview-in-python-linux/12622
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Tags:** documentation, python
**Created:** [August 1, 2023, 3:37pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/cant-load-paraview-in-python-linux/12622 "2023-08-01T15:37:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![simona\_leserri](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/simona_leserri/32/12121_2.png) [@simona\_leserri](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/simona_leserri)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2023, 3:37pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/cant-load-paraview-in-python-linux/12622/1 "2023-08-01T15:37:34Z")

</div>

Hi there!

I have been trying to run a simple set of commands through a python script, but I can’t load paraview.simple properly.

Falling the page [https://www.paraview.org/Wiki/ParaView/Python\_Scripting](https://www.paraview.org/Wiki/ParaView/Python_Scripting) was very not useful: the page suggests to set the pythonpath to /Users/berk/work/paraview3-build/lib:/Users/berk/work/paraview3-build/lib/site-packages’

I could not find any paraview\*-build/lib folder. The binaries of my paraview are in /usr/bin/paraview while the paraview.simple module seems to be located in /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages. This location is in agreement with what I obtain in the GUI python shell by running paraview. **file**

Therefore I have tried to add the location of the simple module to my pythonpath, by editing my bashrc file. This resulted in major crashing with numpy as pyvista.

Could there have been issues with the paraview installation? Do you have any suggestions?  
I hope this issue could lead also to a clearer documentation!

Thanks in advance,  
Simona Leserri

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![ben.boeckel](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@ben.boeckel](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/ben.boeckel)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2023, 8:45pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/cant-load-paraview-in-python-linux/12622/2 "2023-08-01T20:45:40Z")

</div>

That wiki is really out-of-date (ParaView 3 is _really_ old). You should set it to `<prefix>/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages` where `<prefix>` is either where ParaView is installed _or_ the root of the build directory.