# Read .off files
**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/read-off-files/14430
**Category:** Feature Requests
**Created:** [April 18, 2024, 12:07pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/read-off-files/14430 "2024-04-18T12:07:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Roman](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Roman)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2024, 12:07pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/read-off-files/14430/1 "2024-04-18T12:07:30Z")
It’s great that ParaView is compatible with many mesh file formats, but a very common one is missing: OFF. Originally from GeomView, it is pretty widespread and perhaps the most simple of them all. I’ve been wanting to directly open .off files in ParaView for more than 10 years.
> **[OFF (file format)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OFF_(file_format))**
>
> OFF (Object File Format) is a geometry definition file format containing the description of the composing polygons of a geometric object. It can store 2D or 3D objects, and simple extensions allow it to represent higher-dimensional objects as well. Though originally developed for Geomview, a geometry visualization software, other software has adapted the simple standard.
> The composition of a standard OFF file is as follows:
> The four-dimensional OFF format, most notably used by Stella4D, which a...
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2024, 12:07pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/read-off-files/14430/2 "2024-04-18T12:07:47Z")
That looks pretty simple to implement to be honest.
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### Author:  [@cory.quammen](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/cory.quammen)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2024, 3:44pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/read-off-files/14430/3 "2024-04-18T15:44:36Z")
Do you have some programming experience, @Roman? It would be great to get this reader into ParaView. It might even be a good candidate for a Python Algorithm plugin ([some examples](https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview/-/blob/master/Examples/Plugins/PythonAlgorithm/PythonAlgorithmExamples.py?ref_type=heads))
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### Author:  [@Roman](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Roman)
#### Post date: [April 18, 2024, 5:33pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/read-off-files/14430/4 "2024-04-18T17:33:36Z")
I do, but Python/VTK isn’t my home territory. Besides I don’t exactly have free time on my hands, unfortunately… I’m sure it’ll be much easier and quicker for somebody with experience in those areas to deliver a high-quality implementation than it would be for me.
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### Author:  [@Didarul\_Ahasan\_Redwa](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Didarul_Ahasan_Redwa)
#### Post date: [June 12, 2024, 5:20pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/read-off-files/14430/5 "2024-06-12T17:20:39Z")
I can work on that, Is there any git repo for ParaView for the developers?
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2024, 8:32am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/read-off-files/14430/6 "2024-06-13T08:32:35Z")
ParaView gitlab repository is here: [https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview/](https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview/)