# Help opening .h5 file in ParaView

**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/help-opening-h5-file-in-paraview/17158
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Tags:** vtkhdf
**Created:** [September 5, 2025, 2:18pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/help-opening-h5-file-in-paraview/17158 "2025-09-05T14:18:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![msg022](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@msg022](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/msg022)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2025, 2:18pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/help-opening-h5-file-in-paraview/17158/1 "2025-09-05T14:18:20Z")

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Hi everyone,

I’m trying to open a `.h5` file in ParaView, but I keep getting an error. I’ve looked through the forum and other articles, but I couldn’t solve the issue.

Can someone help me?

Here is my file:[https://www.swisstransfer.com/d/59de3071-848d-4b29-8dc7-3eb5d618fced](https://www.swisstransfer.com/d/59de3071-848d-4b29-8dc7-3eb5d618fced)

Thanks in advance!

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### 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: [September 5, 2025, 2:25pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/help-opening-h5-file-in-paraview/17158/2 "2025-09-05T14:25:21Z")

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A number of different file formats are specified as HDF5 databases and have the extension .h5. What program generated it?

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### Author: ![msg022](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@msg022](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/msg022)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2025, 2:27pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/help-opening-h5-file-in-paraview/17158/3 "2025-09-05T14:27:51Z")

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I’m using Waiwera. A modelling program.

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### 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: [September 5, 2025, 2:35pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/help-opening-h5-file-in-paraview/17158/4 "2025-09-05T14:35:14Z")

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Thanks. To my knowledge ParaView does not have a reader specifically for reading this format.

[The format](https://waiwera.readthedocs.io/en/latest/output.html) looks fairly straightforward, though, and you could write a **Programmable Source** with h5py to import the data.