# cellZone not shown in paraView mesh list

**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/cellzone-not-shown-in-paraview-mesh-list/11462
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [February 22, 2023, 12:04am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/cellzone-not-shown-in-paraview-mesh-list/11462 "2023-02-22T00:04:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![shizuka](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@shizuka](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/shizuka)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2023, 12:04am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/cellzone-not-shown-in-paraview-mesh-list/11462/1 "2023-02-22T00:04:07Z")

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Hi,

I have a question of the Mesh Regions in ParaView. I tried to simulate a porous media in OpenFOAM, it involves a topoSetDict. According to the Youtube tutorial, there is a cellZone group in the Mesh Regions tab. But I cannot see it.

I also posted this question on CFD forum: [[General] cellZone not shown in paraView mesh list -- CFD Online Discussion Forums](https://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/paraview/248044-cellzone-not-shown-paraview-mesh-list.html#post844966)

There I attached two screenshots and log of topoSet.

Can anyone help me with it? Thank you!

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### Author: ![Kenichiro-Yoshimi](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/ecc23a/32.png) [@Kenichiro-Yoshimi](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Kenichiro-Yoshimi)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2023, 4:13am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/cellzone-not-shown-in-paraview-mesh-list/11462/2 "2023-02-22T04:13:04Z")

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Would checking `Read zones` solve the problem?

 ![read_zones](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/default/original/2X/d/d9b63a22ccc1cb8bada143f4e3279181eaca08ff.png)

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### Author: ![shizuka](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@shizuka](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/shizuka)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2023, 10:38am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/cellzone-not-shown-in-paraview-mesh-list/11462/3 "2023-02-22T10:38:22Z")

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HI Kyoshimi,

Thank you for your reply. In fact I googled a lot and tried, it didn’t help.

 ![Screenshot 2023-02-22 112740](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/default/original/2X/7/77b5e8d364a469a8fa24c7f45192ef43a23f2dd4.png)

Above is the screenshot I just made. The list of Mesh Regions doesn’t change. The only visible change is that the U/p solutions are now “partial”.

This is the [tutorial](https://develop.openfoam.com/Development/openfoam/-/tree/master/tutorials/incompressible/pisoFoam/laminar/porousBlockage) I used, in order to run, the fvOptions needs modification:

```plaintext
		coordinateSystem
		{
			type	cartesian;
			origin	(0 0 0);
			coordinateRotation
			{
				type axesRotation;
				e1	(1 0 0);
				e2	(0 1 0);
			}
		}

```

Would it be that any other script(s) that needs to be modified? i.e., the cell Zone is not properly defined?

Thank you!

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### Author: ![Kenichiro-Yoshimi](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/ecc23a/32.png) [@Kenichiro-Yoshimi](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Kenichiro-Yoshimi)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2023, 4:52am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/cellzone-not-shown-in-paraview-mesh-list/11462/4 "2023-02-25T04:52:36Z")

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Extracting cellZone from topoSetDict information may be a function that comes with ParaFOAM, so you may need to use ParaFOAM.

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### Author: ![shizuka](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@shizuka](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/shizuka)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2023, 12:23pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/cellzone-not-shown-in-paraview-mesh-list/11462/5 "2023-02-27T12:23:04Z")

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Hi Kyoshimi, thank you very much for your reply. I am very new to OpenFOAM and ParaView. I just googled the difference between paraFOAM and ParaView, and got this:

> paraFoam is the main post-processor distributed with OpenFOAM®. However, you can use other alternatives (commercial or open source). Just to make it clear, paraFoam is a wrapper of a third-party open source product named ParaView ([www.ParaView.org](http://www.ParaView.org)). **In theory paraFoam and ParaView are the same**.

So I guess maybe it is the version of ParaView that I used…? I see the version used in the youtube is 5.6.0, and mine is 5.10.1… 😅

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### Author: ![mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/mwestphal/32/17_2.png) [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2023, 12:36pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/cellzone-not-shown-in-paraview-mesh-list/11462/6 "2023-02-27T12:36:10Z")

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> **In theory paraFoam and ParaView are the same**.

This quotes is from a .pdf distributed by wolfdynamics, not Kitware (developer of ParaView) or OpenCFD ([openfoam.com](http://openfoam.com)).  
[http://www.wolfdynamics.com/training/introOF8/supplement\_paraview\_parafoam.pdf](http://www.wolfdynamics.com/training/introOF8/supplement_paraview_parafoam.pdf)

Here is what OpenCFD and Kitware says about ParaFOAM and ParaView:

> [@I want to visualize my OpenFOAM simulation results with ParaView but I'm confused, which version should I use ?](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/i-want-to-visualize-my-openfoam-simulation-results-with-paraview-but-im-confused-which-version-should-i-use/7232):
>
> Short Answer: go to [paraview.org/download](http://paraview.org/download) download the last version of ParaView available Use it to visualize your results Long Answer: OpenFOAM ships with a script named paraFoam, which can be used to call ParaView with custom OpenFOAM-specific reader modules, as well as with the standard reader that comes with ParaView/VTK. As stated in the OpenFOAM wiki, There is almost no reason to use these particular reader modules instead of the official binary release. Also, this discourse can…

That being said, just download the last released version of ParaView, 5.11.0

[https://www.paraview.org/download/](https://www.paraview.org/download/)

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### Author: ![shizuka](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@shizuka](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/shizuka)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2023, 1:28pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/cellzone-not-shown-in-paraview-mesh-list/11462/7 "2023-02-27T13:28:43Z")

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Hi Kitware,

Thank you for the clarification! Indeed, the quote is from this tutorial pdf. Now the difference is clearer. Thanks.

I’ve installed the latest version 5.11.0 (5.11.1 is not listed on the download page). The zone cells are still not in the list. The results can be shown properly (also in version 5.10.1), and nothing suspicious in the log file, so I think the zones are well defined. It is a minor issue though.
