# Transforming vector results to new coordinate system
**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/transforming-vector-results-to-new-coordinate-system/8686
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [December 22, 2021, 10:34pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/transforming-vector-results-to-new-coordinate-system/8686 "2021-12-22T22:34:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@FEngineer](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/FEngineer)
#### Post date: [December 22, 2021, 10:34pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/transforming-vector-results-to-new-coordinate-system/8686/1 "2021-12-22T22:34:06Z")
Hi,
does ParaView have a built-in tool or filter to transform the vector field results (like stress or displacement components) to a user-specified coordinate system ? I’m particularly interested in the transformation to a cylindrical system. From what I’ve found in some old threads, Calculator filter could be used to manually transform the data (by proper mathematical operation). But is there a more automated and straightforward way to do this ? For example, let’s say that I have a model of a pipe with internal pressure and I want to convert the stress components from Cartesian to cylindrical coordinate system so that I can get the circumferential, radial and axial stresses.
---
### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2021, 12:25pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/transforming-vector-results-to-new-coordinate-system/8686/2 "2021-12-23T12:25:25Z")
Transform filter does transform vectors and tensors afair
---
### Author:  [@FEngineer](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/FEngineer)
#### Post date: [December 23, 2021, 3:34pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/transforming-vector-results-to-new-coordinate-system/8686/3 "2021-12-23T15:34:06Z")
Isn’t this filter used only to translate or rotate the object in the viewport ? What I want to achieve is keep the model in the same spot in space and just change the coordinate system for contour plot of each vector component.
---
### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2021, 2:09pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/transforming-vector-results-to-new-coordinate-system/8686/4 "2021-12-24T14:09:36Z")
TransformFilter + AppendAttributes should do the trick
---
### Author:  [@FEngineer](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/FEngineer)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2021, 12:59pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/transforming-vector-results-to-new-coordinate-system/8686/5 "2021-12-27T12:59:45Z")
I get how this could work but there are two issues here:
- the Transform filter will only let me translate or rotate the model so it could be useful to change axes (for example, displacement in X axis becomes displacement in Z axis and so on) but I don’t think that it’s enough to switch the output to cylindrical coordinate system (unless I’m missing something)
- I realized that the stress components in my case are scalars (only displacement is available as a vector) so the Transform filter won’t affect this data. Maybe that’s because of the way the data is exported to vtk format. I use FreeCAD’s import/export capabilities for that.
Is Calculator filter the only option in this case ?
---
### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2021, 1:09pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/transforming-vector-results-to-new-coordinate-system/8686/6 "2021-12-27T13:09:02Z")
> [@FEngineer](#):
>
> the Transform filter will only let me translate or rotate the model so it could be useful to change axes (for example, displacement in X axis becomes displacement in Z axis and so on) but I don’t think that it’s enough to switch the output to cylindrical coordinate system (unless I’m missing something)
Indeed, it is not. You cant switch to a cylindrical coord system in ParaView afaik.
> I realized that the stress components in my case are scalars (only displacement is available as a
> vector) so the Transform filter won’t affect this data. Maybe that’s because of the way the data is exported to vtk format. I use FreeCAD’s import/export capabilities for that.
How do you want your scalars to be transformed ?
> Is Calculator filter the only option in this case ?
Probably needed.