# Obtaining the normal vector of the camera view
**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/obtaining-the-normal-vector-of-the-camera-view/7568
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Tags:** python
**Created:** [July 7, 2021, 3:33pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/obtaining-the-normal-vector-of-the-camera-view/7568 "2021-07-07T15:33:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Xabier\_Morales\_Ferez](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Xabier_Morales_Ferez)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2021, 3:33pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/obtaining-the-normal-vector-of-the-camera-view/7568/1 "2021-07-07T15:33:55Z")
Good afternoon,
I need to compute the cross-product between flow velocity values and a given direction and I would like to automatize the process if possible. The only workaround that I found at the moment is creating a clip or a plane clicking the “Camera Normal” option and manually copying the resulting vector to a calculator. Is it possible to access this value through python? So far, I have only managed to found the camera position after view = GetActiveView().
Kind regards,
Xabier
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2021, 5:17pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/obtaining-the-normal-vector-of-the-camera-view/7568/2 "2021-07-07T17:17:20Z")
You can use python scripting for that
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### Author:  [@Xabier\_Morales\_Ferez](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Xabier_Morales_Ferez)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2021, 10:28am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/obtaining-the-normal-vector-of-the-camera-view/7568/3 "2021-07-08T10:28:50Z")
Hi! Thanks for your prompt response.
Any hint on where should I look at? I have been checking the properties obtained from GetActiveView(), but so far I have not been able to find the direction of the camera.
Kind regards,
Xabier
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2021, 11:40am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/obtaining-the-normal-vector-of-the-camera-view/7568/4 "2021-07-08T11:40:10Z")
`GetActiveCamera()` should do the trick here.
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### Author:  [@Xabier\_Morales\_Ferez](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Xabier_Morales_Ferez)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2021, 1:36pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/obtaining-the-normal-vector-of-the-camera-view/7568/5 "2021-07-08T13:36:54Z")
Thank you very much! I managed to do it with `GetActiveCamera().GetViewPlaneNormal()`.