# Is the PVD file schema defined?

**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/is-the-pvd-file-schema-defined/17678
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [August 7, 2026, 2:35pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/is-the-pvd-file-schema-defined/17678 "2026-08-07T14:35:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![CsatiZoltan](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/csatizoltan/32/6997_2.png) [@CsatiZoltan](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/CsatiZoltan)
#### Post date: [August 7, 2026, 2:35pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/is-the-pvd-file-schema-defined/17678/1 "2026-08-07T14:35:28Z")

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Hi,

I would like to parse a .pvd file. Is the XML schema specified somewhere?

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### Author: ![CsatiZoltan](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/csatizoltan/32/6997_2.png) [@CsatiZoltan](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/CsatiZoltan)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2026, 3:58pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/is-the-pvd-file-schema-defined/17678/2 "2026-08-10T15:58:07Z")

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It seems to be an extension of the [VTK XML file formats](https://docs.vtk.org/en/latest/vtk_file_formats/vtkxml_file_format.html), and is not documented. However, [`vtkXMLPVDWriter.cxx`](https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview/-/blob/master/VTKExtensions/IOCore/vtkXMLPVDWriter.cxx) gives hints on how the PVD file is written.

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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 17, 2026, 9:47am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/is-the-pvd-file-schema-defined/17678/3 "2026-08-17T09:47:08Z")

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I confirm the lack of documentation and the fact thats its merely an extension of XML VTK format.