# What's a PVSM file ?

**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/whats-a-pvsm-file/515
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [September 4, 2018, 3:45pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/whats-a-pvsm-file/515 "2018-09-04T15:45:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![embeddedmz](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/embeddedmz/32/142_2.png) [@embeddedmz](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/embeddedmz)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2018, 3:45pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/whats-a-pvsm-file/515/1 "2018-09-04T15:45:55Z")

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Hello,

The title says it all !

Apparently it serves to save a “state”. But could this state represent the views I created in Paraview, the range of the color map and the preset chosen (especially after connecting to catalyst) ? if so, that’s neat ! how can I save the state and restore it ?

Thanks.

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### Author: ![cory.quammen](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/cory.quammen/32/11193_2.png) [@cory.quammen](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/cory.quammen)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2018, 5:09pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/whats-a-pvsm-file/515/2 "2018-09-04T17:09:59Z")

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To save state:

File -\> Save State…

To load state:

File -\> Load State…

Section 8.4 of the [ParaView Guide](https://www.paraview.org/paraview-guide/) provides more details on state files.

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### Author: ![embeddedmz](https://discourse.paraview.org/user_avatar/discourse.paraview.org/embeddedmz/32/142_2.png) [@embeddedmz](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/embeddedmz)
#### Post date: [September 5, 2018, 12:18pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/whats-a-pvsm-file/515/3 "2018-09-05T12:18:05Z")

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Thanks !