# Time Inspector and Animation View redesign
**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/time-inspector-and-animation-view-redesign/11236
**Category:** Development
**Tags:** proposal
**Created:** [January 23, 2023, 11:03am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/time-inspector-and-animation-view-redesign/11236 "2023-01-23T11:03:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@timothee.chabat](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/timothee.chabat)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2023, 8:52am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/time-inspector-and-animation-view-redesign/11236/21 "2023-02-16T08:52:24Z")
Looks very nice, I like it ! A few thoughts :
- maybe the TimeKeeper should not be in the Animations section but in its own “parent” line, because even though it is animatable it’s not really like other optional animation tracks imo
- I don’t really get what is the double value next to the stride option : currently you specify how much time step you want to skip from the current until the next. But I think it can be a bit unclear what happens if you specify a time stride value.
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### Author:  [@nicolas.vuaille](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/nicolas.vuaille)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2023, 9:11am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/time-inspector-and-animation-view-redesign/11236/22 "2023-02-16T09:11:19Z")
I put the timekeeper inside the Animation so it can be collapsed with other tracks.
Controlling stride from an effective time value (and not just timestep) is a feature request. Still have to see how it will interact with the current timestep stride.
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### Author:  [@timothee.chabat](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/timothee.chabat)
#### Post date: [February 16, 2023, 9:23am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/time-inspector-and-animation-view-redesign/11236/23 "2023-02-16T09:23:58Z")
> [@nicolas.vuaille](#):
>
> I put the timekeeper inside the Animation so it can be collapsed with other tracks.
The timekeeper can already be hidden with the advanced mode and imo this is enough. But let’s wait for other inputs.
I think the fixed time stride is a bit sketchy, but maybe it is not the right thread to discuss this.
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### Author:  [@LEKIEN](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/LEKIEN)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2023, 10:06am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/time-inspector-and-animation-view-redesign/11236/24 "2023-02-20T10:06:51Z")
> [@timothee.chabat](#):
>
> I think the fixed time stride is a bit sketchy, but maybe it is not the right thread to discuss this.
The fixed time stride is an specification.
This clearly makes sense when comparing multiple “parametric” bases. To this need, the reader must take into account a request for a time that it does not contain, in this case for us, to load the nearest time from below.
Now, activating this mode can result to build a new timeline from a configurable rule at the settings level.
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### Author:  [@LEKIEN](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/LEKIEN)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2023, 10:15am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/time-inspector-and-animation-view-redesign/11236/25 "2023-02-20T10:15:05Z")
Very good design, @nicolas.vuaille.
There are still a few aspects missing in the advanced view, but that’s detail (access time by number, checkbox choose mode / swap mode by time or number). (what’s “over” ?)
The “dark gray upper timeline” is the additional timeline of the selected timebases? (The start/end of the Sequence mode define here ?)
@mwestphal
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### Author:  [@nicolas.vuaille](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/nicolas.vuaille)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2023, 11:06am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/time-inspector-and-animation-view-redesign/11236/26 "2023-02-20T11:06:54Z")
Hi @LEKIEN ,
Some annotations, so we can talk about same widgets.
- A: current time (floating value)
- B: current timestep (integer step)
- C: `over` == `number of timestep` (readonly in `Snap to TimeStep`, editable in `Sequence`).
- D: stride in time
- E: stride in timestep.
- F: enable / disable the use of sources to get available timesteps. =\> switch from `Snap` to `Sequence`
- G: timeline with combination of timesteps from every checked sources
- H: start time:
- I: end time:
`D` and `E` maybe in conflict, so the easiest way may be to make only one visible, as you suggest, and have a switch button between `time value` and `time step` mode. May also impact `A` and `B`.
`H` and `I` are editable, and should also have _lock_ button.
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### Author:  [@LEKIEN](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/LEKIEN)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2023, 11:36am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/time-inspector-and-animation-view-redesign/11236/27 "2023-02-20T11:36:36Z")
> [@nicolas.vuaille](#):
>
> `D` and `E` maybe in conflict, so the easiest way may be to make only one visible, as you suggest, and have a switch button between `time value` and `time step` mode. May also impact `A` and `B`.
Perfect.
Yes, I think having the switch button will bring more clarity. I don’t really see any mixed use except for a short transition from one mode to another.
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### Author:  [@Kenneth\_Moreland](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Kenneth_Moreland)
#### Post date: [February 20, 2023, 2:12pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/time-inspector-and-animation-view-redesign/11236/28 "2023-02-20T14:12:20Z")
> [@nicolas.vuaille](#):
>
> `H` and `I` are editable, and should also have _lock_ button.
This is a clever way to save space, but I can also see this failing in multiple ways ways.
- How will the option to edit the start/end values in the time bar be discoverable? The idea that 2 out of _n_ numbers are editable in the time bar will be something that users won’t think to even try and unlikely to try by happenstance. There should be a visible indication of an editable widget.
- If the start and end times have extra annotation for widgets, will the interfere with the rest of the display such as tick marks?
- Regardless of how the editable property of these two numbers is visually indicated, how will you prevent that from interfering with the other clicking action of the time bar, which is to select the current time. Although there are other places you can use to select the time, allowing it in the time bar is convenient because you can do a dragging motion to scrub the video. None of the other widgets allow that.
I think we could use a more detailed mockup of the time bar to work through these issues.
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### Author:  [@nicolas.vuaille](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/nicolas.vuaille)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2023, 10:31am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/time-inspector-and-animation-view-redesign/11236/29 "2023-03-22T10:31:16Z")
Hi there, some news and screenshots on the ongoing work.
Please let us know if you have feedbacks.
## Temporal Sources
`Start Time` and `End Time` have highlighted background and are editable.
## Animation
Here `End Time` is locked (different background)
## Merge request
A merge request is now open, so code review can go on.
[https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview/-/merge\_requests/6245](https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview/-/merge_requests/6245)
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### Author:  [@nicolas.vuaille](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/nicolas.vuaille)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2023, 12:53pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/time-inspector-and-animation-view-redesign/11236/30 "2023-04-17T12:53:33Z")
We are please to announce that this was just merged in the master branch of ParaView !
Here some screenshots of the last version:
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### Author:  [@LEKIEN](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/LEKIEN)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2023, 8:18am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/time-inspector-and-animation-view-redesign/11236/31 "2023-04-27T08:18:51Z")
Amazing work, @nicolas.vuaille.
Very clever the fact of exploiting the selection of “no time” to switch to frame mode.
It remains to code the displacement of this vertical blue line via the mouse. 😉
Good job. 👍
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### Author:  [@nicolas.vuaille](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/nicolas.vuaille)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2023, 7:17am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/time-inspector-and-animation-view-redesign/11236/32 "2023-05-15T07:17:09Z")
As a last update here, and concerning developers, here is a diagram of the different new classes involved:
Some small fixes are coming, and note that the whole will be part of the 5.12 release.
[Previous page](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/time-inspector-and-animation-view-redesign/11236.md?page=1)