# Could not determine discrete values to use for annotations
**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/could-not-determine-discrete-values-to-use-for-annotations/6630
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [March 5, 2021, 5:55pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/could-not-determine-discrete-values-to-use-for-annotations/6630 "2021-03-05T17:55:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@theodorebaltis](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/theodorebaltis)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2021, 5:55pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/could-not-determine-discrete-values-to-use-for-annotations/6630/1 "2021-03-05T17:55:33Z")
I’m trying to create a discrete color bar for my data.
When I click “Interpret Values as Categories” in the Color Map Editor I am presented with this warning:
Though my dataset consists of integers and has less than 32 discrete values.
I’m plotting by DebrisID.
Am I missing something or is this a bug?
Thanks,
Ted
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### Author:  [@theodorebaltis](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/theodorebaltis)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2021, 6:21pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/could-not-determine-discrete-values-to-use-for-annotations/6630/2 "2021-03-05T18:21:30Z")
And since I have to create each entry manually, is there any API available through the Python Shell to make that easier?
Alternatively, I know I could separately generate an xml colormap and load that in. But I would still want to be able to quickly update the values/annotations on the fly with a simple for loop.
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### Author:  [@theodorebaltis](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/theodorebaltis)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2021, 8:05pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/could-not-determine-discrete-values-to-use-for-annotations/6630/3 "2021-03-05T20:05:51Z")
Update:
Found the API through a trace.
So I can easily set all the Values/Annotations I need, but generating the colors (even random ones) is more difficult.
I could sit there and click the “Add new entry” button over and over to auto-generate some colors, but that’s less than ideal, even for a work-around.
Is there a way to access the “random” (I think it’s actually consistently random, starting with white, red, blue, green…) colors that this button produces so that I can replicate this behavior programmatically?
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2021, 9:04am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/could-not-determine-discrete-values-to-use-for-annotations/6630/4 "2021-03-08T09:04:10Z")
Please share your data ?
In any case, using a preconfigure color map should work, click on the “heart”.
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### Author:  [@theodorebaltis](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/theodorebaltis)
#### Post date: [March 8, 2021, 9:33pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/could-not-determine-discrete-values-to-use-for-annotations/6630/5 "2021-03-08T21:33:01Z")
After more testing, I see it’s only this one dataset that has this issue.
Unfortunately I cannot share it.
I’m trying to reproduce with one that I can.
The problem with the preconfigured discrete color maps is that they are obviously configured with a certain number of values/annotations, none of which match what I’m after.
In case I run into this again I plan on creating a map from scratch and saving it as a preset.
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### Author:  [@cory.quammen](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/cory.quammen)
#### Post date: [March 9, 2021, 2:04pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/could-not-determine-discrete-values-to-use-for-annotations/6630/6 "2021-03-09T14:04:52Z")
> [@theodorebaltis](#):
>
> Is there a way to access the “random” (I think it’s actually consistently random, starting with white, red, blue, green…) colors that this button produces so that I can replicate this behavior programmatically?
These colors come from the KAAMS color map preset in ParaView. A quick and dirty way to access them is:
```python
lut = GetColorTransferFunction("dummy")
lut.ApplyPreset('KAAMS')
rgbColors = lut.IndexedColors
# rgbColors = [1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 1.0, 1.0, 0.63, 0.63, 1.0, 0.67, 0.5, 0.33, 1.0, 0.5, 0.75, 0.53, 0.35, 0.7, 1.0, 0.75, 0.5]
```
The list of colors returns contain interleaved RGB values (white, red, green, blue, etc.).