# Visualising a deformed domain coloured by another variable

**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/visualising-a-deformed-domain-coloured-by-another-variable/17694
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [August 21, 2026, 10:28am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/visualising-a-deformed-domain-coloured-by-another-variable/17694 "2026-08-21T10:28:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![ctain](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/dbc845/32.png) [@ctain](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/ctain)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2026, 10:28am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/visualising-a-deformed-domain-coloured-by-another-variable/17694/1 "2026-08-21T10:28:49Z")

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I have an xdmf file with two variables, the deformation and the stress. My goal is to see the deformed domain coloured by the stress. When I open the file with Paraview (5.9.0-RC2) the plot remains in grey. The variables are renamed “variable (partial)”. I tried to use ExtractBlock and AppendAttribute without success. Thank you for your help

[linearElasticity\_deformationAndVonMises.xdmf](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/short-url/4t1guK2e3SVnoBps5u2XI4DFR1l.xdmf) (1.6 KB)

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### Author: ![ctain](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/dbc845/32.png) [@ctain](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/ctain)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2026, 10:43am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/visualising-a-deformed-domain-coloured-by-another-variable/17694/2 "2026-08-21T10:43:21Z")

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[linearElasticity\_deformationAndVonMises.h5](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/short-url/1h1OWV3WXMKc6z63093SfdyLCDn.h5) (106.2 KB)

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### Author: ![Kenneth\_Moreland](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/kenneth_moreland/32/15033_2.png) [@Kenneth\_Moreland](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/Kenneth_Moreland)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2026, 12:11pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/visualising-a-deformed-domain-coloured-by-another-variable/17694/3 "2026-08-21T12:11:33Z")

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The problem is that your data is structured to have two blocks, one with the deformation field and one with the Von Mises field. You can see that if you load the data using the **Xdmf3 Reader T** reader and inspect the blocks.

There are ways to get around that in ParaView, but the best solution is to fix your .xdmf file to put everything in one block. I don’t know much about the XDMF schema, but Codex fixed your file for me:

[linearElasticity\_deformationAndVonMises\_fixed.xdmf](https://discourse.paraview.org/uploads/short-url/a5Wk1Kd6WDZcHcfqNwBrdtBTJQg.xdmf) (1.3 KB)

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### Author: ![ctain](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/dbc845/32.png) [@ctain](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/ctain)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2026, 1:08pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/visualising-a-deformed-domain-coloured-by-another-variable/17694/4 "2026-08-21T13:08:30Z")

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I understand very well now, thank you!