# File format that easily visualizes a 3D curve

**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/file-format-that-easily-visualizes-a-3d-curve/11512
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [February 27, 2023, 3:36pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/file-format-that-easily-visualizes-a-3d-curve/11512 "2023-02-27T15:36:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![sherrifbro](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@sherrifbro](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/sherrifbro)
#### Post date: [February 27, 2023, 3:36pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/file-format-that-easily-visualizes-a-3d-curve/11512/1 "2023-02-27T15:36:42Z")

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I have a list of x,y,z coordinates that form a 3D curve. I want to visualize many such curves.

One method is that I import them as CSV → use a programmable filter. I don’t have the hang of this programmable filter but copy pasting a code snippet from some forum did the trick.

Second method I found was that, by changing my method of generating those x,y,z coordinates prior to visualization, I could write them in a vtp file format. Simply reading that vtp file was enough for me to visualize the curve without any processing inside paraview.

I love this second approach but that change in my pre-paraview work flow that led me to generate a vtp file is quite inconvenient.

My question is - should I try to figure out how can I convert my csv files into a vtp file using some python script (it doesn’t seem easy in my search so far), OR is there any other file formats that is easy to write and can visualize the 3D curve right after reading it?

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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 28, 2023, 10:05am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/file-format-that-easily-visualizes-a-3d-curve/11512/2 "2023-02-28T10:05:09Z")

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Are you looking for TableToPoints filter ?

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### Author: ![sherrifbro](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@sherrifbro](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/sherrifbro)
#### Post date: [February 28, 2023, 2:12pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/file-format-that-easily-visualizes-a-3d-curve/11512/3 "2023-02-28T14:12:34Z")

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This worked. I had tried this filter but forgot to change the ‘Representation’ to ‘Points’.

Now I can simply read the CSV → Table To Points: Representation=‘Points’.