# MED format native support in ParaView
**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/med-format-native-support-in-paraview/7028
**Category:** Feature Requests
**Created:** [April 22, 2021, 3:29pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/med-format-native-support-in-paraview/7028 "2021-04-22T15:29:36Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2021, 3:29pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/med-format-native-support-in-paraview/7028/1 "2021-04-22T15:29:36Z")
From a user voice [request](https://paraview.uservoice.com/forums/11350-general/suggestions/14912079-med-plugin).
[MED format](https://www.salome-platform.org/user-section/about/med) is the output format of [CODE\_Aster](https://www.code-aster.org/spip.php?rubrique2), a fairly popular open source simulation code.
Currently, the only way to visualize MED file within ParaView requires to use ParaVis, a ParaView-based application within [Salome](https://www.salome-platform.org/downloads/current-version), which contains the MEDReader plugin. Once opened with ParaVis, the mesh can then be saved as a .vtm to be able to be opened in standard ParaView.
Adding native support to MED file format in ParaView would be nice
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2021, 3:33pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/med-format-native-support-in-paraview/7028/2 "2021-04-22T15:33:30Z")
While being able to open MED file in ParaView would indeed be nice, the format is very complex and not very well documented, so developping a new reader would require a fair amount of work.
Another approach would be to integrate the MEDReader plugin into the official plugins of ParaView.
The problem with this approach is that this plugin depends on the libmed which itself currently requires a full salome installation to be built. One would need to be able to build libmed and the MEDReader plugin idependantly.
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### Author:  [@dcthomp](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/dcthomp)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2021, 3:58pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/med-format-native-support-in-paraview/7028/3 "2021-04-22T15:58:41Z")
@mwestphal Such a reader exists in aeva: [here](https://gitlab.kitware.com/aeva/session/-/blob/master/vtk/aeva/ext/vtkMedReader.cxx). It requires HDF5 but nothing else AFAIK. There is also a writer.
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2021, 3:59pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/med-format-native-support-in-paraview/7028/4 "2021-04-22T15:59:25Z")
Wow, nice !
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### Author:  [@mg65](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mg65)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2021, 7:51am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/med-format-native-support-in-paraview/7028/5 "2021-11-06T07:51:32Z")
Any news or plans to implement the native support for MED? It would be great to see that!
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2021, 2:38pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/med-format-native-support-in-paraview/7028/6 "2021-12-10T14:38:53Z")
please like the first message to show support
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2023, 12:51pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/med-format-native-support-in-paraview/7028/7 "2023-06-14T12:51:55Z")
The MEDReader plugin has been integrated into ParaView binary release (Linux and Windows, all version) and is already available in the nightly:
[https://www.paraview.org/download/?version=nightly](https://www.paraview.org/download/?version=nightly)
It will be available in ParaView 5.12
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### Author:  [@llionevans](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/llionevans)
#### Post date: [June 30, 2023, 3:13pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/med-format-native-support-in-paraview/7028/8 "2023-06-30T15:13:54Z")
This is excellent news!
Do we know if things like element groups will transfer over to ParaView with the new reader?
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2023, 5:04am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/med-format-native-support-in-paraview/7028/9 "2023-07-03T05:04:08Z")
The reader exposed in ParaView is the same one as the one in Salome ParaVis, so you will find the same features.
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### Author:  [@llionevans](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/llionevans)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2023, 4:10pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/med-format-native-support-in-paraview/7028/10 "2023-10-03T16:10:16Z")
Can you please point towards a particular nightly version? I just tried the latest (03 Oct 23) and it’s not included (unless it needs turning on somehow).
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2023, 4:12pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/med-format-native-support-in-paraview/7028/11 "2023-10-03T16:12:02Z")
Yes, you need to load the med reader plugin.
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### Author:  [@llionevans](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/llionevans)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2023, 5:14pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/med-format-native-support-in-paraview/7028/12 "2023-10-03T17:14:27Z")
Ahhh, there it is. Thanks, that works 😃 This is going to make such a difference to my team.
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### Author:  [@wascott](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/wascott)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2023, 5:44pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/med-format-native-support-in-paraview/7028/13 "2023-10-03T17:44:45Z")
@mwestphal @cory.quammen Maybe we should move this reader from being a plugin to being one of the default ParaView readers?
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [October 3, 2023, 9:15pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/med-format-native-support-in-paraview/7028/14 "2023-10-03T21:15:20Z")
@wascott I’m afraid this is not possible for a few reasons:
1. This is not even a ParaView plugin, this is an external plugin that is being added in the packaging phase of ParaView
2. Adding it in ParaView proper would mean bringing in all the dependencies as third parties, which we do not want
3. The plugin itself is maintained by EDF in the SALOME/ParaVis project, so we would need to fork it, which we do not want
I understand the idea but the fact itself that we are able to bring it in the paraview binary is in itself a small miracle (that EDF funded, thanks a lot!)
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### Author:  [@ybilodid](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/ybilodid)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2023, 9:00am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/med-format-native-support-in-paraview/7028/15 "2023-11-13T09:00:41Z")
Could you please explain to a newbie where I get the MEDreader plugin? Or how to load it?
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2023, 9:02am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/med-format-native-support-in-paraview/7028/16 "2023-11-13T09:02:10Z")
HI @ybilodid
- Download and install ParaView 5.12.0-RC1 from [https://www.paraview.org/download/](https://www.paraview.org/download/)
- run ParaView
- Tools → PluginManager → MedReader → Load Selected
- File → Open → file.med → Apply
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### Author:  [@aperijake](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/aperijake)
#### Post date: [December 3, 2023, 12:50am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/med-format-native-support-in-paraview/7028/18 "2023-12-03T00:50:09Z")
Thanks for your work on this. I am trying to build 5.12.0-RC1 and also have the MEDReader plugin available. Can you explain how you do this in your step 1? Do I need to pull it from an EDF repo and drop it in the plugin folder or something along those lines?
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2023, 8:31am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/med-format-native-support-in-paraview/7028/19 "2023-12-11T08:31:01Z")
> [@aperijake](#):
>
> I am trying to build 5.12.0-RC1 and also have the MEDReader plugin available.
Why not using the binary release ? In any case, you need to use the [https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview-superbuild/](https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview-superbuild/) to build it yourself. It will download it from EDF for you.
> Can you explain how you do this in your step 1?
My step 1 is about using the binary release.
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### Author:  [@aperijake](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/aperijake)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2023, 5:01pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/med-format-native-support-in-paraview/7028/20 "2023-12-11T17:01:04Z")
Thanks for pointing me to the superbuild. I did eventually get it to work using the binary release. I am installing paraview in a docker image and using pvbatch to process some results. I had been trying the osmesa version. It would install but I would get something about “illegal instructions” when I ran it. That is when I turned to building. Eventually, I tried the egl version of the binary release and that installs and runs without issue.
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### Author:  [@kominamiHIDEAKI](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/kominamiHIDEAKI)
#### Post date: [August 29, 2026, 2:26am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/med-format-native-support-in-paraview/7028/21 "2026-08-29T02:26:08Z")
```auto
```
```auto
Hello
I am a user from Japan. Please forgive me if my English is inappropriate.
I am very grateful for paraview and MEDReader.
I have found a bug in the MEDReader plugin.
I think, it is a bug specific to the shell element known as COQUE_3D. I would like to report the details; please let me know where I should submit the report.
Is the GitHub link below the repository for the MEDReader developer?
https://github.com/SalomePlatform/medreader/tree/master/plugin
Environment in use
- paraview ver 6.1.1
- Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS
my regards
```
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