ParaView is an extensible, open-source visualization systen designed for parallel computing environments. ParaView is built on the open-source VTK software. It uses data streaming to process large datasets, supports parallel implementations of common algorithms, and uses parallel tree-composite rendering for a completely parallel solution.

Typical Usage
The following figure illustrates the key features of ParaView. The GUI is divided into the following parts:

The menu bar is used to load data, save, and exit the system. The interactive display window is where 3D renderings are placed. The tabbed notebook area provides a GUI to the currectly selected feature, filter, or processing option. The message area communicates information about the state of the system such as x-y selected pixel location, data values, and so on. When time consuming operations are initiated, the progress bar indicated relative completion of the operation using a horizontal bar chart. The level of interactivity can be controlled by adjusting the frame rate control. The frame rate control trades off rendering speed versus image fidelity.

The Origins of ParaView
ParaView is being developed as part of a three-year contract awarded to Kitware, Inc. by a consortium of three National Labs: - Los Alamos, Sandia, and Livermore. The goal of the project is to develop scalable parallel processing tools with an emphasis on distributed memory implementations. The project includes parallel algorithms, infrastructure, I/O, support, and display devices. In addition, the turn-key application ParaView is being developed as part of this contract. One significant feature of the contract is that all software developed is to be delivered open source. Hence ParaView is available as an open-source system.