# Ellipsoid particle motion
**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/ellipsoid-particle-motion/9081
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [February 27, 2022, 5:23pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/ellipsoid-particle-motion/9081 "2022-02-27T17:23:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@kaazem\_Rezaa\_Asl](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/kaazem_Rezaa_Asl)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2022, 5:23pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/ellipsoid-particle-motion/9081/1 "2022-02-27T17:23:38Z")
Dear All,
I am currently working on ellipsoid particle tracking using openFoam. I would like to visualize the ellipsoid particles motion in paraview using xyz coordinates, minor & major axis, and orientation. I have all these parameters in text files for each single particle. Is it possible to read them and visualize particle motion?
Best Regards,
Kazem
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2022, 10:14pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/ellipsoid-particle-motion/9081/2 "2022-02-27T22:14:18Z")
Did you try loading your files in ParaView ?
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### Author:  [@kaazem\_Rezaa\_Asl](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/kaazem_Rezaa_Asl)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2022, 6:46am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/ellipsoid-particle-motion/9081/3 "2022-02-28T06:46:16Z")
No. because i do not know if paraview has this capability to visualize an ellipsoid particle through a text file. I have not been working with paraview very much and not sure if it is a simple task.
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2022, 7:02am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/ellipsoid-particle-motion/9081/4 "2022-02-28T07:02:46Z")
please share your data
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### Author:  [@kaazem\_Rezaa\_Asl](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/kaazem_Rezaa_Asl)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2022, 8:17pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/ellipsoid-particle-motion/9081/5 "2022-02-28T20:17:01Z")
Thanks for your consideration. I attached a sample file. It contains the properties as follows:
time x y z minor diameter major diameter transformation matrix (it is a matrix expressed in terms of either Euler angles or Euler parameters (quaternions))
[Sample.csv](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/short-url/c7LzEBs9HHWPtI5ItvfU2WOmVPB.csv) (14.2 KB)
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### Author:  [@kaazem\_Rezaa\_Asl](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/kaazem_Rezaa_Asl)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2022, 7:06am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/ellipsoid-particle-motion/9081/6 "2022-03-03T07:06:35Z")
Any idea how to draw an ellipse using a text file??
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2022, 8:11am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/ellipsoid-particle-motion/9081/7 "2022-03-03T08:11:02Z")
Your files is not of .csv format, it cant be opened easilly in ParaView.
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### Author:  [@kaazem\_Rezaa\_Asl](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/kaazem_Rezaa_Asl)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2022, 8:13am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/ellipsoid-particle-motion/9081/8 "2022-03-03T08:13:29Z")
i can send txt file. would it solve the problem??
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2022, 8:14am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/ellipsoid-particle-motion/9081/9 "2022-03-03T08:14:39Z")
You need to generate compatible data. Cant help you much more here.
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### Author:  [@kaazem\_Rezaa\_Asl](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/kaazem_Rezaa_Asl)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2022, 8:17am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/ellipsoid-particle-motion/9081/10 "2022-03-03T08:17:46Z")
what do you mean by compatible data? i really wanna know how Paraview deal with the data? because for a spherical particle there is a table to point filter. But how about other shapes such as ellipse??
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2022, 8:29am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/ellipsoid-particle-motion/9081/11 "2022-03-03T08:29:22Z")
ParaView will just show what you give to it if the data is compatible. Your data is not.
You may want to read the ParaView tutorial:
[https://www.paraview.org/Wiki/images/1/17/ParaViewTutorial510.pdf](https://www.paraview.org/Wiki/images/1/17/ParaViewTutorial510.pdf)
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### Author:  [@kaazem\_Rezaa\_Asl](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/kaazem_Rezaa_Asl)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2022, 8:37am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/ellipsoid-particle-motion/9081/12 "2022-03-03T08:37:58Z")
Thanks. So you do not have any suggestion but compatibility. I was wondering if Paraview has this capacity itself or i need to develop a customized filter to visualize an ellipse.
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2022, 8:42am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/ellipsoid-particle-motion/9081/13 "2022-03-03T08:42:05Z")
> [@kaazem\_Rezaa\_Asl](#):
>
> I was wondering if Paraview has this capacity itself or i need to develop a customized filter to visualize an ellipse.
ParaView can show an ellipse of course, but you need to provide the data that contains the ellipse.
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### Author:  [@kaazem\_Rezaa\_Asl](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/kaazem_Rezaa_Asl)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2022, 8:50am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/ellipsoid-particle-motion/9081/14 "2022-03-03T08:50:45Z")
Good news. So i need to just build a compatible data file. Right? not developing any filter or stuff like that. Is there any guide how to build a file that contains the ellipse? I suppose to draw an ellipse we need the origin and three points. Right?
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2022, 8:52am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/ellipsoid-particle-motion/9081/15 "2022-03-03T08:52:07Z")
So you just want to generate an ellipse in ParaView ? Thats even more easy.
Source → Ellipse → Apply
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### Author:  [@kaazem\_Rezaa\_Asl](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/kaazem_Rezaa_Asl)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2022, 8:54am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/ellipsoid-particle-motion/9081/16 "2022-03-03T08:54:05Z")
It is a good suggestion but not for my case. I export ellipse coordinates from openfoam and need to read in Paraview. I can not visualize 2000 ellipse let say by hand.
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2022, 8:55am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/ellipsoid-particle-motion/9081/17 "2022-03-03T08:55:01Z")
> [@kaazem\_Rezaa\_Asl](#):
>
> I export ellipse coordinates from openfoam and need to read in Paraview.
Ok, well then just write .csv or .vtk file from OpenFOAM. It should contains the actual points of the ellipse.
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### Author:  [@kaazem\_Rezaa\_Asl](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/kaazem_Rezaa_Asl)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2022, 8:58am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/ellipsoid-particle-motion/9081/18 "2022-03-03T08:58:29Z")
Thanks. I will try your suggestion. Just need to find out how many points of ellipse shall i provide for Paraview
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2022, 9:07am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/ellipsoid-particle-motion/9081/19 "2022-03-03T09:07:23Z")
> [@kaazem\_Rezaa\_Asl](#):
>
> Just need to find out how many points of ellipse shall i provide for Paraview
As much as you need to make your visualization as smooth as you need.
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### Author:  [@Christos\_Tsolakis](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Christos_Tsolakis)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2022, 8:50pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/ellipsoid-particle-motion/9081/20 "2022-03-04T20:50:34Z")
> [@kaazem\_Rezaa\_Asl](#):
>
> Dear All,
> I am currently working on ellipsoid particle tracking using openFoam. I would like to visualize the ellipsoid particles motion in paraview using xyz coordinates, minor & major axis, and orientation. I have all these parameters in text files for each single particle. Is it possible to read them and visualize particle motion?
> Best Regards,
> Kazem
Hi Kazem,
an alternative route is to create a file containing the points and store the ellipsoid matrix of corresponding to each point as a tensor. ParaView will then be able to create an ellipsoid centered on each of your points. The tensor values will define orientation and the axes of the ellipsoid. This should solve the issue of visualizing many of them.
For example :
Attached is the corresponding file
[ellipses.vtk](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/short-url/s9OVMaZ1HYVR5i6uscVjO7pFoxH.vtk) (174 Bytes)
The expected format of the matrices is described [here](https://vtk.org/doc/nightly/html/classvtkTensorGlyph.html#details)
[Next page](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/ellipsoid-particle-motion/9081.md?page=2)