I’m new to ParaView and I would like to achieve the following:
I am creating a cylinder in ParaView (Sources-Alphabetical-Cylinder). I set the length and the radius of the cylinder and click “Apply”.
Then I go into Properties and change its orientation, so that it is oriented along Z axis, instead of Y axis. The orientation changes in the view, but it is not reflected on the Information tab.
For some reason, when I save a VTK file, it is still oriented there along Y axis (so it doesn’t reflect the changes I made as well).
Short answer: instead of changing the Transforming parameters under the Display settings, add the Transform filter. The Transform filter will give you the same controls to change the orientation, and that will update the information in the Information tab.
Why you are seeing this behavior: The orientation in the Properties Panel under Display just moves the data in the rendering system without changing the data. It is a very lightweight way to move objects around because it does not change the underlying data. However, because it does not change the underlying data, it does not have all of the side effects you would expect. As you have discovered, the Information tab does not give you information on the new orientation, because it is reporting on the underlying data, not the rendering system. Likewise, if you try to apply a filter to the data, it will get reset back to its original position.
In contrast, when you apply the Transform filter, the underlying data is changed. Therefore, you see those changes throughout the system.
I realize this is a bit confusing. I once argued that we should just remove the Display parameters because of these weird issues with the Information panel and many other places. (Clearly, I lost this argument.) There are some rare circumstances where it might make sense to update the transformation in the display, but in almost all circumstances I recommend using the Transform filter.