# Visual elements

OVITO distinguishes between the underlying data and the visual representations produced from that data. One typical example of this separation between data objects and their visual representation is the `Position` particle property, which holds the XYZ coordinates of a set of point-like particles. To visualize this data, OVITO automatically creates a Particles visual element, which is responsible for rendering a corresponding set of spheres in the viewports, using the `Position` particle property as source data. The Particles visual element provides several parameters that let you control the visual appearance of the particles, e.g. the glyph shape (spheres, discs, cubes, etc.).

This separation of data objects and visual elements provides additional flexibility within OVITO. It becomes possible to visualize the same data in several different ways (multiple visual elements based on the same source data) and to visualize multiple datasets side by side (one visual element rendering several data objects in the same way).

Visual elements are usually created automatically by OVITO’s data pipeline system alongside the imported or computed data. They all appear under the Visual elements section of the pipeline editor shown in the screenshot. You can disable individual visual elements using the check boxes next to them in the pipeline editor. This will turn off the visualization of the corresponding data in the interactive viewports and in rendered images.

Visual element | Description
--- | ---
Particles | Renders a set of particles using different glyph shapes
Bonds | Renders the bonds between particles as cylinders
Vectors | Renders arrow glyphs to graphically represent a vector particle property
Simulation cell | Renders the simulation box as a wireframe geometry
Surface mesh | Renders a smooth polygonal surface mesh
Triangle mesh | Renders a triangle mesh loaded from a mesh geometry file
Voxel grid | Renders a voxel grid
Lines | Renders a set of continuous lines to visualize the particle trajectories created with the Generate trajectory lines modifier or drawn using the `DataCollection.lines.create()` method
Dislocations | Renders dislocation lines extracted by the Dislocation analysis (DXA) modifier

See also

`ovito.vis.DataVis` (Python API)