# Beta Diversity volatility plots v2
**URL:** https://forum.qiime2.org/t/beta-diversity-volatility-plots-v2/12458
**Category:** User Support
**Created:** [November 12, 2019, 1:14pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/beta-diversity-volatility-plots-v2/12458 "2019-11-12T13:14:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@bmurph79](https://forum.qiime2.org/u/bmurph79)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2019, 1:14pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/beta-diversity-volatility-plots-v2/12458/1 "2019-11-12T13:14:44Z")
Hi all, Asking this as a previous post ([Beta diversity volatility plots](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/beta-diversity-volatility-plots/7327)) did not seem to come to a conclusion.
Has anyone been able to plot beta diversity metrics using the volatility plot tool? According to the docs it should be possible to produce a first distances / first differences file and plug that into the volatility analysis. The generation of both seems to have run fine and I can see the resulting qza artifacts however they are not available for use when attempting to produce a volatility plot. All being done using Qiime2 Studio.
Thanks for the help.
BMurph
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### Author:  [@Nicholas\_Bokulich](https://forum.qiime2.org/u/Nicholas_Bokulich)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2019, 11:32pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/beta-diversity-volatility-plots-v2/12458/2 "2019-11-12T23:32:33Z")
> [@bmurph79](#):
>
> I can see the resulting qza artifacts however they are not available for use when attempting to produce a volatility plot.
Could you please clarify? Maybe with a screenshot if appropriate? I can confirm that this works (at least with the command-line interface), since the first differences output is transformable to metadata, and hence can be used by this method. Thanks!
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### Author:  [@bmurph79](https://forum.qiime2.org/u/bmurph79)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2019, 9:47pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/beta-diversity-volatility-plots-v2/12458/3 "2019-11-13T21:47:23Z")
HI @Nicholas_Bokulich. I think that you may have actually answered my question. Do I understand correctly that instead of using the qza file directly as an input to the volatility that it is necessary to (and bear in mind I am using Q2studio) convert the qza file to a format where the firstdistances can be added to a metadata file as is the case when viewing alpha diversity results? As the tutorial is written I assumed that the qza file could be used directly.
As a non command line user perhaps the command "m-metadata-file" suggest that it has to be in the form of metadata?
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### Author:  [@Nicholas\_Bokulich](https://forum.qiime2.org/u/Nicholas_Bokulich)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2019, 9:49pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/beta-diversity-volatility-plots-v2/12458/4 "2019-11-13T21:49:44Z")
> [@bmurph79](#):
>
> Do I understand correctly that instead of using the qza file directly as an input to the volatility that it is necessary to (and bear in mind I am using Q2studio) convert the qza file to a format where the firstdistances can be added to a metadata file as is the case when viewing alpha diversity results? As the tutorial is written I assumed that the qza file could be used directly.
No, you should be able to use the first distances artifact directly as input to that visualizer, though I am not sure how the q2studio interface impacts this.
Are you able to use the command line to run this visualizer? That could be the best approach if q2studio is a barrier here.
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### Author:  [@bmurph79](https://forum.qiime2.org/u/bmurph79)
#### Post date: [November 13, 2019, 10:03pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/beta-diversity-volatility-plots-v2/12458/5 "2019-11-13T22:03:33Z")
@Nicholas_Bokulich Thanks. I will have to investigate more. For some reason when attempting to generate a volatility plot the drop down menu in Q2S (Longitudinal - Visualizers - Generate interactive volatility plot) does not contain the firstdifferences artifact that has previously been generated.
I note that the description in Q2S suggests "Any numeric metadata column (and metadata-transformable artifacts, e.g., alpha diversity results) can be plotted on the y-axis, and are selectable using the "metric\_column" selector".
I will investigate and report back.
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.qiime2.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [December 15, 2019, 4:06am UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/beta-diversity-volatility-plots-v2/12458/6 "2019-12-15T04:06:51Z")
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