# Trouble Seeing Geometries in vtk file

**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/trouble-seeing-geometries-in-vtk-file/17531
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Tags:** vtk
**Created:** [April 23, 2026, 7:06am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/trouble-seeing-geometries-in-vtk-file/17531 "2026-04-23T07:06:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![ErayBaykal](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@ErayBaykal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/ErayBaykal)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2026, 7:06am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/trouble-seeing-geometries-in-vtk-file/17531/1 "2026-04-23T07:06:49Z")

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I’ve tried uploading vtk files from different sources and they all only seem to display the bounding box and no materials within. I’ve tried changing the coloring menu to the material but it didn’t change anything. Here’s one of the vtk files I’ve tried:

[first\_sim\_view.vti](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/short-url/ck2e67PNQDTNJdPjyde04W0vVpX.vti) (733.3 KB)

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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: [April 23, 2026, 7:27am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/trouble-seeing-geometries-in-vtk-file/17531/2 "2026-04-23T07:27:50Z")

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Change the representation type from outline to surface:

 ![a](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/default/original/3X/6/f/6f1909787f139cbcb0abe3cb87ed538cec2ae70c.png)

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![ErayBaykal](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@ErayBaykal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/ErayBaykal)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2026, 7:39am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/trouble-seeing-geometries-in-vtk-file/17531/3 "2026-04-23T07:39:37Z")

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Thanks Mathieu! I tried changing it to surface but now it just made the bonding box solid. I reduced opacity to see if I’ll notice anything inside but still don’t see my object.

What’s weird is if I click contour, I see a shape that looks like my object.

 ![Screenshot 2026-04-23 at 1.36.35 AM](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/default/original/3X/f/a/fae881cc570802eacb58ee89a1c744adee08a915.jpeg)

 ![Screenshot 2026-04-23 at 1.39.24 AM](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/default/original/3X/3/b/3b10a4273e2f04b7bca5596d39a7d78020957abf.jpeg)

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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: [April 23, 2026, 7:41am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/trouble-seeing-geometries-in-vtk-file/17531/4 "2026-04-23T07:41:47Z")

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Your data is an image data, which is basically an axis aligned voxel grid with data on each points and voxel.

Using a contour lets you extract a contour from the data in the voxel grid.

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![ErayBaykal](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@ErayBaykal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/ErayBaykal)
#### Post date: [April 23, 2026, 4:09pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/trouble-seeing-geometries-in-vtk-file/17531/5 "2026-04-23T16:09:27Z")

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That makes sense! Switching representation to volume made my object pop up finally.

Thanks!

 ![Screenshot 2026-04-23 at 10.08.25 AM](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/default/original/3X/4/e/4e6bf3e4736ba6cbe075259f8bb3200861e23987.jpeg)