# color by volume

**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/color-by-volume/1682
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [April 17, 2019, 6:04am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/color-by-volume/1682 "2019-04-17T06:04:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Lucius](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/b782af/32.png) [@Lucius](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Lucius)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2019, 6:04am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/color-by-volume/1682/1 "2019-04-17T06:04:19Z")

</div>

Hi, I’m new to ParaView and couldn’t find a straightforward answer in the tutorial:

I’ve got a skeleton and need to colorise the bones with a jet heatmap by their volume sizes, e.g. big volumes red and smaller ones blue.

I’d appreciate any help, best,  
Lucius

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### 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: [April 17, 2019, 7:50am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/color-by-volume/1682/2 "2019-04-17T07:50:05Z")

</div>

What is the type of your data ? Is there a way to identify the diferent sutrctures ? Are they connected ?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Lucius](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/b782af/32.png) [@Lucius](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Lucius)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2019, 7:59am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/color-by-volume/1682/3 "2019-04-17T07:59:55Z")

</div>

It’s stl models. Yes it’s possible to identify the different structures.  
They exist either as single bones (multiple stl files) or one file – all in one.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### 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: [April 17, 2019, 8:05am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/color-by-volume/1682/4 "2019-04-17T08:05:34Z")

</div>

So you are trying to compute the volumes within closed surfaces ?  
Nothing of the sort exist in ParaView yet, afaik.

@cory.quammen

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Lucius](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/b782af/32.png) [@Lucius](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Lucius)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2019, 8:15am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/color-by-volume/1682/5 "2019-04-17T08:15:02Z")

</div>

Yes I’m trying that. Ok thanks for the info.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### 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 17, 2019, 1:31pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/color-by-volume/1682/6 "2019-04-17T13:31:49Z")

</div>

Yeah, nothing in ParaView computes the volumes inside an enclosed polygonal mesh. The capabilities exist in VTK, and it wouldn’t be too hard to throw together for someone with enough time.

Elaborating, `vtkMassProperties` can be used to compute the volume of a polygonal geometry, `vtkConnectivityFilter` can be used to identify separate pieces in the STL.