# How can I use the Netcdf time Annotation

**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-can-i-use-the-netcdf-time-annotation/8227
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [October 20, 2021, 8:42am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-can-i-use-the-netcdf-time-annotation/8227 "2021-10-20T08:42:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 5

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### Author: ![felicia\_vis](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@felicia\_vis](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/felicia_vis)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2021, 8:52am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-can-i-use-the-netcdf-time-annotation/8227/5 "2021-10-27T08:52:43Z")

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I haven’t used that plugin, but I think you will need to build ParaView from source - see this forum entry: [NETCDF Time Annotation](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/netcdf-time-annotation/3695)

If you wish to avoid building from source, I just wrote a user-friendly Python filter that adds date (DD/MM/YYYY) and time (hours:min::sec) to NetCDF files, so you just need to load it via the Plugin Manager in a single step. I put it on GitHub with instructions and example files: [GitHub - FeliciaBrisc/ParaView-NetCDF-Date-And-Time-Plugin](https://github.com/FeliciaBrisc/ParaView-NetCDF-Date-And-Time-Plugin)  
The filter uses the netcdf4-python module, which you can easily install via Anaconda:  
conda install -c anaconda netcdf4 ( [Netcdf4 :: Anaconda.org](https://anaconda.org/anaconda/netcdf4) )

This filter is based on an older Python script I wrote, but it’s a lot more user-friendly - you can see the old script for example in this 2016 video: [Particles simulation of North Atlantic salinity at 20m depth - YouTube](https://youtu.be/wU93GUtCePE) or this newer one [A tropical-like cyclone in the Mediterranean Sea - YouTube](https://youtu.be/RsqeJE1ClRU) where the date is in the lower left corner, to get an image how it works.

Should this be useful, my conda and ParaView configuration (on Windows10):

1. I installed first ParaView 5.8.1 (which works with Python3.7)
2. In the Anaconda prompt(console), I created a Python3.7 environment in conda:  
conda create --name PYTHON37 python=3.7  
2A. Then the env. has to be activated:  
conda activate PYTHON37  
2B. Install netcdf4-python in this environment:  
conda install -c anaconda netcdf4  
2C. Point the system to your conda paths:  
set PYTHONHOME=C:\your\_path\anaconda3\envs\PYTHON37  
set PYTHONPATH=C:\your\_path\anaconda3\envs\PYTHON37\Lib
3. And finally start ParaView in this same conda prompt:  
D:\your\_path\_to\_ParaView581\bin\paraview.exe
4. And if you wish to use the filter I wrote, follow the steps form the Instructions pdf on Github - it’s just a few mouse clicks  
Repeat then step 2A,2C and 3 whenever you start ParaView

Hope this helps.

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