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## Grouping files

Time-varying scientific databases are often organized as a set of files where each file contains the state of a simulation at a particular instant in time. In order for VisIt to play animations, it must have know which files are related. The File Selection Window allows you to create a ".visit" file, co-located with the database time step files, that groups all of the files together as a time-varying database. To group files, first select a set of files from the File list in the middle of the window and then click the Group button. This will create a file ending in ".visit" whose name is based on the names of the selected set of files. Once the ".visit" file is created, it appears in the list of available files. A ".visit" file is created each time the Group button is clicked but its name does not change unless the names of its constituent files also change. In other words, the ".visit" file can be overwritten if the Group button is clicked several times. Later when you want to create an animation, you open the ".visit" file to get the simulation data as it changes over time.