# Reading CGNS formats into ParaView
**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/reading-cgns-formats-into-paraview/3358
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [January 16, 2020, 11:03pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/reading-cgns-formats-into-paraview/3358 "2020-01-16T23:03:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@tejas.canchi](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/tejas.canchi)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2020, 11:03pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/reading-cgns-formats-into-paraview/3358/1 "2020-01-16T23:03:57Z")
Hello
I have a CGNS file generated from ANSYS CFX. I want to open it up in ParaView to visualize vectors. I am running Paraview 5.2 on Mint. Is there a plugin to do this? I dont see the format listed in the open file dialogue.
Thanks
Tejas
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### Author:  [@cory.quammen](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/cory.quammen)
#### Post date: [January 16, 2020, 11:33pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/reading-cgns-formats-into-paraview/3358/2 "2020-01-16T23:33:23Z")
In my macOS install of ParaView 5.2 I see .cgns as an extension in the file open dialog. From where did you obtain ParaView? CGNS file support was added way back in ParaView 3.10, so it should definitely be there.
More recent versions of ParaView are available from [www.paraview.org/download](http://www.paraview.org/download).
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### Author:  [@tejas.canchi](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/tejas.canchi)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2020, 3:49am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/reading-cgns-formats-into-paraview/3358/3 "2020-01-17T03:49:12Z")
Thanks for the reply. My instance of Paraview 5.2 does not have it in the list. I installed another instance to check and it has the cgns in the fileopen dialog but as a plugin. Is it that I am missing a plugin installation for the 5.2? I am constrained to use this version as some of our work is setup to use it. Is there a cgns plugin installation I can use?
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2020, 9:16am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/reading-cgns-formats-into-paraview/3358/4 "2020-01-17T09:16:42Z")
Please precise how do you install paraview.
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### Author:  [@cory.quammen](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/cory.quammen)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2020, 1:21pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/reading-cgns-formats-into-paraview/3358/5 "2020-01-17T13:21:26Z")
> [@tejas.canchi](#):
>
> I installed another instance to check and it has the cgns in the fileopen dialog but as a plugin.
I see in 5.2 that the CGNS option appears as “CGNS Files (Plugin) (.cgns)”. The “Plugin” part does not mean you need to obtain and load some plugin. I’m not actually sure why it says that. Did you try loading a CGNS file with it? By the way, you shouldn’t even need to specify the reader type when opening a CGNS file.
As for the version you need to use, until you tell us where it came from (whether it was built by a system administrator, for example) we cannot help you.
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### Author:  [@tejas.canchi](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/tejas.canchi)
#### Post date: [January 19, 2020, 11:43pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/reading-cgns-formats-into-paraview/3358/6 "2020-01-19T23:43:49Z")
Thanks for your reply. I have not installed the version of ParaView that is being used. It might have been a previous researcher that installed it.
Yes, I tried opening a CGNS with the older instance. The file is not shown in the fileopen dialog and neither is CGNS in the pulldown fileformats.
In the newer instance, I was able to open the CGNS without specifying reader type.
Thanks
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### Author:  [@cory.quammen](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/cory.quammen)
#### Post date: [January 20, 2020, 3:54pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/reading-cgns-formats-into-paraview/3358/7 "2020-01-20T15:54:53Z")
Great, thanks for following up.
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [January 2, 2024, 8:58am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/reading-cgns-formats-into-paraview/3358/8 "2024-01-02T08:58:44Z")
A post was split to a new topic: [understand the time-evolution of some variables by using plot Data over time](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/understand-the-time-evolution-of-some-variables-by-using-plot-data-over-time/13622)