# Paraview time annotation question
**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/paraview-time-annotation-question/15175
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [August 5, 2024, 11:49pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/paraview-time-annotation-question/15175 "2024-08-05T23:49:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@fany1](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/fany1)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2024, 11:49pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/paraview-time-annotation-question/15175/1 "2024-08-05T23:49:01Z")
@danlipsa
Hello Dan (and/or other ParaView experts),
I have a question about time annotation in ParaView. Here is the context for my visualization needs:
1. The output files from my simulations (sher3d.5000, sher3d.10000, sher3d.15000, sher3d.20000) do not include simulation time information. Therefore, the annotate time feature in ParaView only displays 0, 1, 2, and 3.
2. Given that the time step size is known (e.g., 1E-3 second), I would like to display the time in ParaView as 5000x1E-3=5s, 10s, 15s, 20s.
3. I need assistance with automatically reading the extensions of the output files (5000, 10000, 15000, 20000) and converting them to the actual simulation time for annotation in ParaView.
Your insight is greatly appreciated!
Best regards,
Y. F.
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### Author:  [@cory.quammen](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/cory.quammen)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2024, 1:25am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/paraview-time-annotation-question/15175/2 "2024-08-06T01:25:24Z")
Hi @fany1, welcome to the ParaView community.
> [@fany1](#):
>
> Given that the time step size is known (e.g., 1E-3 second), I would like to display the time in ParaView as 5000x1E-3=5s, 10s, 15s, 20s.
The fastest way to proceed, assuming your times are evenly spaced as in your example here, is to use the **Temporal Shift Scale** filter.
> [@fany1](#):
>
> I need assistance with automatically reading the extensions of the output files (5000, 10000, 15000, 20000) and converting them to the actual simulation time for annotation in ParaView.
There isn’t a general way to parse numeric values from file names in ParaView (some specific readers might).
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### Author:  [@cory.quammen](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/cory.quammen)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2024, 1:32am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/paraview-time-annotation-question/15175/3 "2024-08-06T01:32:17Z")
> [@cory.quammen](#):
>
> There isn’t a general way to parse numeric values from file names in ParaView (some specific readers might).
Let me amend that slightly. You could load your file series, then write some Python to parse the time values from the file names and set those times using the **GenerateTimeSteps** filter.
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### Author:  [@nicolas.vuaille](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/nicolas.vuaille)
#### Post date: [August 6, 2024, 8:18am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/paraview-time-annotation-question/15175/4 "2024-08-06T08:18:07Z")
If you have the control over the files before using ParaView, you can also write a `.series` file that will describe the time values for each file. See [2. Loading Data — ParaView Documentation 5.12.0 documentation](https://docs.paraview.org/en/latest/UsersGuide/dataIngestion.html#handling-temporal-file-series)