diff --git a/etc/apps/paraview3/bashrc b/etc/apps/paraview3/bashrc
index 2062c389e0b49be2e62c5b8d9d1707eb03ab1f76..0aff5a335237d50c8314edb9d03a9dcf00f829fa 100644
--- a/etc/apps/paraview3/bashrc
+++ b/etc/apps/paraview3/bashrc
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ case "$ParaView_VERSION" in
     ;;
 
 *)
-    ParaView_MAJOR=`echo $ParaView_VERSION | sed -e 's/^\([0-9][0-9]*\.[0-9][0-9]*\).*$/\1/'`
+    [ -z ${ParaView_MAJOR} ] && ParaView_MAJOR=`echo $ParaView_VERSION | sed -e 's/^\([0-9][0-9]*\.[0-9][0-9]*\).*$/\1/'`
     ;;
 esac
 export ParaView_MAJOR