1. Properties Panel

The Properties panel is perhaps the most often used panel in paraview. This is the panel you would use to change properties on modules in the visualization pipeline, including sources and filters, to control how they are displayed in views using the Display properties, and to customize the view itself. In this chapter, we take a closer look at the Properties panel to understand how it works.

Fig. 1.8 Properties Panel in paraview

1.1. Anatomy of the Properties panel

Before we start dissecting the Properties , remember that the Properties panel works on active objects, i.e., it shows the properties for the active source and active view, as well as the display properties, if any, for active source in the active view.

1.1.1. Buttons

Fig. 1.8 shows the various parts of the Properties panel. At the top is the group of buttons that let you accept, reject your changes to the panel or Delete the active source.

Did you know?

You can delete multiple sources by selecting them using the CTRL (or ⌘) key when selecting in the Pipeline Browser and then clicking on the Delete button. Sometimes, the Delete button may be disabled. That happens when the selected source(s) have other filters connected to them. You will need to delete those filters first.

1.1.2. Search box

The Search box allows you to search for a property by using the name or the label for the property. Simply start typing text in the Search box, and the panel will update to show widgets for the properties matching the text.

The Properties panel has two modes that control the verbosity of the panel: default and advanced. In the default mode, a smaller subset of the available properties is shown. These are generally the frequently used properties for the pipeline modules. In advanced mode, you can see all the available properties. You can toggle between default and advanced modes using the button next the Search box.

When you start searching for a property by typing text in the Search box, irrespective of the current mode of the panel (i.e., default or advanced), all properties that match the search text will be shown.

Did you know?

The Search box is a recurring widget in paraview. Several other panels and dialog boxes, including the Settings dialog and the Color Map Editor , show a similar widget. Its behavior is also exactly the same as in the case of the Properties panel. Don’t forget that the button can be used to toggle between default and advanced modes.

1.1.3. Properties

The Properties , Display , and View sections in the panel show widgets for properties on the active source, its display properties in the active view, and the properties for the active view, respectively. You can collapse/expand each of these sections by clicking on the section name.

To the right of each section name is a set of four buttons. Clicking the copies the current set of property values to the clipboard while clicking the will paste those property values into another compatible panel section. Note that the paste icon is enabled only for panel sections where the copied properties can be pasted.

The next two buttons and enable customizing the default values used for those properties. Refer to Section 12.2 to learn more about customizing default property values.

1.2. Customizing the layout

Fig. 1.9 Options for customizing the Properties panel layout using the Settings (left). View properties in a separate dock panel (right).

The Properties panel, by default, is set up to show the source, display, and view properties on the same panel. You may, however, prefer to have each of these sections in a separate dockable panel. You can indeed do so using the Settings dialog accessible from the Edit > Settings menu.

On the General tab search of the properties panel using the Search box, you should see the setting that lets you pick whether to combine all the sections in one (default), to separate out either the Display or View sections in a panel, or to create separate panels for each of the sections. You will need to restart paraview for this change to take effect. Also, since the Apply and Reset buttons only apply to the Properties section, they will only be shown in the dock panel that houses it.