# How to animate modeshapes (modal analysis)?

**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-animate-modeshapes-modal-analysis/7024
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [April 22, 2021, 3:49am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-animate-modeshapes-modal-analysis/7024 "2021-04-22T03:49:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![dculp](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@dculp](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/dculp)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2021, 3:49am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-animate-modeshapes-modal-analysis/7024/1 "2021-04-22T03:49:15Z")

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I have used ccx2paraview to convert a CalculiX modal analysis to Paraview. This resulted in 6 files – 5 vtu files corresponding to the 5 extracted modes (e.g., Filename.1.vtu, Filename.2.vtu, etc.) and one Filename.pvd file that contains a list of the modal frequencies –

\<?xml version="1.0"?\> 

The 6 files are in the Modal\_1a.zip attachment.

I want to animate just a particular mode in the Z (u3) direction. However, the animation seems to want to treat each mode as a timestep so it rapidly cycles through each without actually animating any of the modes. This is my first time trying to animate so perhaps I’m doing something silly.

Can this be done with this set of files? If so, I would appreciate step-by-step instructions or a link with such instructions. (I read the Paraview manual on animation but this wasn’t helpful.)

Thanks,  
Don C.

[Modal\_1a.zip](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/short-url/uWOxaeSWHRQyrhPPV0OoAzPnpJE.zip) (255.3 KB)

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### Author: ![cfernandesFEUP](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/cfernandesfeup/32/6400_2.png) [@cfernandesFEUP](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/cfernandesFEUP)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2021, 7:04am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-animate-modeshapes-modal-analysis/7024/2 "2021-04-22T07:04:45Z")

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Hello,

Follow this steps:  
[https://public.kitware.com/pipermail/paraview/2017-October/041077.html](https://public.kitware.com/pipermail/paraview/2017-October/041077.html)

Import just the mode file that you want and it works perfectly for your case.

Carlos

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### Author: ![dculp](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@dculp](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/dculp)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2021, 4:29pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-animate-modeshapes-modal-analysis/7024/3 "2021-04-23T16:29:14Z")

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Carlos –

Thanks, that was helpful.

A followup question – In the Animation View, just to the right of the +WarpByVector is a drop-down list that defaults to “Scale Factor”. Other options in the list include “Vectors (0)”…“Vectors (4)”, “Visibility” and “Opacity”. I tried “Vectors (0)” but this crashed ParaView. What do these options do?

Don C.