# Reading custom property from PLY file

**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/reading-custom-property-from-ply-file/11260
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [January 25, 2023, 12:44am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/reading-custom-property-from-ply-file/11260 "2023-01-25T00:44:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Jon](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/jon/32/10750_2.png) [@Jon](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Jon)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2023, 12:44am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/reading-custom-property-from-ply-file/11260/1 "2023-01-25T00:44:04Z")

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Hello, I’ve got a PLY file with a custom property called `signed_distance` for each face of the mesh, and I’d like to use that property with a color map in ParaView. I can’t figure out how to access this property anywhere in ParaView, though; under Coloring the only option available in the dropdown is Solid Color, and I’m not able to pull in a color parameter from any fields in the file.

 ![image](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/default/original/2X/f/ffac64e6a0e03e66f4edfb449cdff8c80ef41c55.png)

For reference, here’s the PLY header:

```auto
ply
format binary_little_endian 1.0
element vertex 954459
property double x
property double y
property double z
property double signed_distance
element face 1908926
property list uchar uint vertex_indices
end_header

```

I’ve found similar questions elsewhere in Discourse, [here](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/how-to-set-colors-fo-polydata-for-a-custom-reader/7584) and [here](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/reading-ply-file-with-color/5538/11). The answers advise unchecking “Map Scalars” and “Interpolate Scalars Before Mapping,” but that doesn’t change anything for me.

Any advice for pulling this custom property in and using it with a Color Map?

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Jon](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/jon/32/10750_2.png) [@Jon](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Jon)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2023, 12:51am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/reading-custom-property-from-ply-file/11260/2 "2023-01-25T00:51:37Z")

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Quick update: I was able to access signed\_distance by converting the PLY file to VTK via meshio, but I’m still curious about accessing the property natively through the PLY reader.

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### Author: ![mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/mwestphal/32/17_2.png) [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [January 25, 2023, 8:52am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/reading-custom-property-from-ply-file/11260/3 "2023-01-25T08:52:24Z")

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Hi @Jon

Please share your ply file

Best,