# How to import multiple spacecraft trajectory data in Paraview?

**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-import-multiple-spacecraft-trajectory-data-in-paraview/5057
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [August 8, 2020, 12:52am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-import-multiple-spacecraft-trajectory-data-in-paraview/5057 "2020-08-08T00:52:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![mwl](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@mwl](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwl)
#### Post date: [August 8, 2020, 12:52am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-import-multiple-spacecraft-trajectory-data-in-paraview/5057/1 "2020-08-08T00:52:15Z")

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We want to display multiple spacecraft trajectory data for visualization. Each trajectory is a time series of position and velocity, forming a matrix of n x 7, where each row contains the 7 numbers of the time, position and velocity, and there are n such row vectors. Each trajectory is given in a single ascii file with the above format. The number of vectors in each file (n) could be different. The time steps for each trajectory are different. Is there a simple method for loading multiple trajectory files into Paraview for visualization?  
Is it necessary for all the trajectories to have the same number of equal time steps?  
Thanks.

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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: [August 10, 2020, 1:37pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-import-multiple-spacecraft-trajectory-data-in-paraview/5057/2 "2020-08-10T13:37:14Z")

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> [@mwl](#):
>
> The time steps for each trajectory are different.

This will be complex to import all trajectory at the same time in ParaView.  
You will need to compute the interpolation of the values in the trajectory that does not contains the other timesteps.

I’d go with a custom programable source to read your files.

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### Author: ![mwl](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@mwl](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwl)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2020, 7:15pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-import-multiple-spacecraft-trajectory-data-in-paraview/5057/3 "2020-08-20T19:15:04Z")

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Hi Mathieu,

Thank you for your response.

Yes, we figured that out.

Do you know of codes to do this? Surely lots of people are visualizing multiple trajectories? Does the Paraview Community have some common resources for visualizing multiple trajectories?

Thanks again for your help.

Martin

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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: [August 27, 2020, 11:57am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-import-multiple-spacecraft-trajectory-data-in-paraview/5057/4 "2020-08-27T11:57:10Z")

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Your format is very specific, but the problem of having data for different timestep is indeed generic. It is supported by ParaView though, you need to use multiple file that specify the time step associated.

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### Author: ![mwl](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@mwl](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwl)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2020, 7:07pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-import-multiple-spacecraft-trajectory-data-in-paraview/5057/5 "2020-08-27T19:07:30Z")

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Oh, I see. Paraview is a lot smarter than I realized. This is great! Thank you so much.

Martin
