# Pyvista doesn't work in pycharm **URL:** \ **Category:** General\ **Tags:** visualization\ **Created:** [January 8, 2024, 9:25am UTC](https://fenicsproject.discourse.group/t/pyvista-doesnt-work-in-pycharm/13246 "2024-01-08T09:25:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jipeng\_Cui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Jipeng\_Cui](https://fenicsproject.discourse.group/u/Jipeng_Cui)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2024, 9:25am UTC](https://fenicsproject.discourse.group/t/pyvista-doesnt-work-in-pycharm/13246/1 "2024-01-08T09:25:14Z")
Hi, I am a new user of fenicsx. When I tried the tutorial on solving the [Poisson equation](https://jsdokken.com/dolfinx-tutorial/chapter1/fundamentals_code.html#plotting-the-mesh-using-pyvista), I ran into a problem with the visualization part. Actually, I am running the program in Pycharm. When I run to use Pyvista to show the results, the program starts to run but cannot stop for a long time. In these lines ```auto if not pyvista.OFF_SCREEN: plotter.show() else: figure = plotter.screenshot("fundamentals_mesh.png") ``` However, it works if I didn’t use the unstructured grid, such as ```auto import pyvista as pyvista pyvista.set_jupyter_backend("pythreejs") points = [[0, 0, 0], [1, 0, 0], [0.5, 0.667, 0]] mesh = pyvista.PolyData(points) mesh.plot(show_bounds=True, cpos='xy',color='red', point_size=20) ``` I’d like to know why it didn’t work and how can I do for that. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![dokken](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fenicsproject.discourse.group/dokken/32/1560_2.png) [@dokken](https://fenicsproject.discourse.group/u/dokken)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2024, 9:30am UTC](https://fenicsproject.discourse.group/t/pyvista-doesnt-work-in-pycharm/13246/2 "2024-01-08T09:30:19Z")
> [@Jipeng\_Cui](#): > > I am a new user of fenicsx. When I tried the tutorial on solving the [Poisson equation](https://jsdokken.com/dolfinx-tutorial/chapter1/fundamentals_code.html#plotting-the-mesh-using-pyvista), I ran into a problem with the visualization part. Are you running the notebook in pycharm, or a pythonscript in pycharm? For your second example, you are using `pythreejs`, which is no longer part of pyvista’s backend. Could you please specify what versions of pyvista you are using. Thirdly, in the latter example, you have not added a “show” command, so it is unclear if you are using the same logic as in your first snippet. ---
**Author:** ![Jipeng\_Cui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Jipeng\_Cui](https://fenicsproject.discourse.group/u/Jipeng_Cui)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2024, 9:39am UTC](https://fenicsproject.discourse.group/t/pyvista-doesnt-work-in-pycharm/13246/3 "2024-01-08T09:39:36Z")
Thanks for your kind reply! At first, I run the code in the pythonscrpit in pycharm. Secondly, I’m sorry that I forget to tell you I have removed the pythreejs in the brackets. The second example works. And my pyvista version is 0.43.1 which is the latest version. Finally, I run plotter.show() but it still doesn’t stopped and nothing appear. ---
**Author:** ![dokken](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fenicsproject.discourse.group/dokken/32/1560_2.png) [@dokken](https://fenicsproject.discourse.group/u/dokken)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2024, 9:46am UTC](https://fenicsproject.discourse.group/t/pyvista-doesnt-work-in-pycharm/13246/4 "2024-01-08T09:46:19Z")
How did you install DOLFINx on your system, through apt, conda, docker or something else? Are you also saying that something like the code in: [Creating an Unstructured Grid — PyVista 0.43.1 documentation](https://docs.pyvista.org/version/stable/examples/00-load/create-unstructured-surface.html#creating-an-unstructured-grid) does not run? Could you also check the output of `print(pyvista.OFF_SCREEN)`? ---
**Author:** ![Jipeng\_Cui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Jipeng\_Cui](https://fenicsproject.discourse.group/u/Jipeng_Cui)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2024, 10:24am UTC](https://fenicsproject.discourse.group/t/pyvista-doesnt-work-in-pycharm/13246/5 "2024-01-08T10:24:41Z")
I install by conda. The code you posted can be ran. And the output of `print(pyvista.OFF_SCREEN)` is false. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![dokken](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fenicsproject.discourse.group/dokken/32/1560_2.png) [@dokken](https://fenicsproject.discourse.group/u/dokken)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2024, 10:32am UTC](https://fenicsproject.discourse.group/t/pyvista-doesnt-work-in-pycharm/13246/6 "2024-01-08T10:32:29Z")
Try removing: `pyvista.start_xvfb()` as that is the only difference in the codes. ---
**Author:** ![Jipeng\_Cui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Jipeng\_Cui](https://fenicsproject.discourse.group/u/Jipeng_Cui)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2024, 10:34am UTC](https://fenicsproject.discourse.group/t/pyvista-doesnt-work-in-pycharm/13246/7 "2024-01-08T10:34:46Z")
It works! Thank you very much! Could you please tell me why this line `pyvista.start_xvfb()`affects the code running? ---
**Author:** ![dokken](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/fenicsproject.discourse.group/dokken/32/1560_2.png) [@dokken](https://fenicsproject.discourse.group/u/dokken)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2024, 10:39am UTC](https://fenicsproject.discourse.group/t/pyvista-doesnt-work-in-pycharm/13246/8 "2024-01-08T10:39:25Z")
XVFB is a way to run off-screen plots, and is required for running inside docker images and in some other cases(like building the tutorial webpage). See: [Trame Jupyter Backend for PyVista — PyVista 0.44.dev0 documentation](https://docs.pyvista.org/version/dev//user-guide/jupyter/trame.html#other-considerations) ---
**Author:** ![Jipeng\_Cui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Jipeng\_Cui](https://fenicsproject.discourse.group/u/Jipeng_Cui)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2024, 12:33pm UTC](https://fenicsproject.discourse.group/t/pyvista-doesnt-work-in-pycharm/13246/9 "2024-01-08T12:33:19Z")
Thanks for your answer! I’m trying to understand!