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Plotting packages overview

Plotting packages overview. Robert Putnam putnam@bu.edu. Outline. Choosing a plotting package gnuplot, Xmgrace, Matlab, Excel Demos. Choosing a package. Features Graph types Labeling, annotation. FFT, curve fitting, etc. Quality of output Control over lines, symbols, fonts, etc.

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Plotting packages overview

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  1. Plotting packages overview Robert Putnam putnam@bu.edu IS&T Scientific Visualization Tutorial – Spring 2010

  2. Outline IS&T Scientific Visualization Tutorial – Spring 2010 Choosing a plotting package gnuplot, Xmgrace, Matlab, Excel Demos

  3. Choosing a package IS&T Scientific Visualization Tutorial – Spring 2010 • Features • Graph types • Labeling, annotation. • FFT, curve fitting, etc. • Quality of output • Control over lines, symbols, fonts, etc. • Overall appearance • Type of output • File types: tiff, jpeg, LaTex, postscript, etc.

  4. Choosing a package IS&T Scientific Visualization Tutorial – Spring 2010 • Work flow (integrated into numerical or spreadsheet application, batch options, standalone, piped into, etc.) • UI, ease of use • Command line v. GUI • Portability • Cost

  5. Plotting packages IS&T Scientific Visualization Tutorial – Spring 2010 • Open source • gnuplot • Xmgrace • Commercial • Matlab • Microsoft Excel

  6. gnuplot and xmgrace IS&T Scientific Visualization Tutorial – Spring 2010 Free, open-source Run under Linux/Unix, et al. Many on-line examples Many graph types supported

  7. gnuplot IS&T Scientific Visualization Tutorial – Spring 2010 Long history (in development since 1986) Also runs under MS Windows and OSX. 3d plots as well as 2d plots Excellent documentation and examples. See also Gnuplot in Action, Janert.

  8. gnuplot IS&T Scientific Visualization Tutorial – Spring 2010 • Command line user interface • Full-featured scripting language • Many output options: • eps, fig, jpeg, LaTeX, metafont, pbm, pdf, png, postscript, svg • Can pipe directly from program • Batch mode

  9. Xmgrace IS&T Scientific Visualization Tutorial – Spring 2010 • Long history (since 1991) • XMGR -> ACE/gr-> Grace • "GRaphing, Advanced Computation and Exploration of data“, or • "Grace Revamps ACE/gr“ (recursive, like GNU) • Since 1996, development team working under EvgenyStambulchik at Weizmann Institute of Science.

  10. Xmgrace IS&T Scientific Visualization Tutorial – Spring 2010 • GUI • Much control over layout, fonts, line appearance, etc. • Curve fitting, linear and non-linear • Analysis • FFT, integration/differentiation, correlation, smoothing, etc.

  11. Xmgrace IS&T Scientific Visualization Tutorial – Spring 2010 • GUI • The good news: • Highly interactive • Zoom • Change graph features on the fly • The bad news: • Non-intuitive • Unfriendly scripting language

  12. Matlab IS&T Scientific Visualization Tutorial – Spring 2010 • Commercial package (MATHWORKS) since 1980s. • Linux, Windows, Mac • Numerical computing environment • Mathematical functions for linear algebra, statistics, Fourier analysis, filtering, optimization, and numerical integration

  13. Matlab IS&T Scientific Visualization Tutorial – Spring 2010 • Workflow options • Interactive • Command line and/or menu interface • Batch mode • Integrate with external applications/languages (e.g., C/C++, Java, Excel)

  14. Matlab plotting IS&T Scientific Visualization Tutorial – Spring 2010 • 2d plot types: • Line, area, bar, and pie charts • Direction and velocity plots • Histograms • Polygons and surfaces • Scatter/bubble plots • Animations

  15. Matlab plotting, cont. IS&T Scientific Visualization Tutorial – Spring 2010 • 3d plotting and volume visualization • Surface, contour, and mesh • Image plots • Cone, slice, stream, and isosurface

  16. Microsoft Excel IS&T Scientific Visualization Tutorial – Spring 2010 • Commercial spreadsheet package for MS Windows, Macintosh • In wide use • Easy integration with other MS applications • Some support for automation with VBA (Visual Basic Application)

  17. Excel plotting IS&T Scientific Visualization Tutorial – Spring 2010 • Chart types • Column, bar, line, pie, scatter, area, doughnut, radar, surface, bubble, stock, cylinder/cone/pyramid • 3-D, soft shadowing, and anti-aliasing • GUI • E.g., direct modification of graph appearance • Cut and paste to other MS applications

  18. Demos IS&T Scientific Visualization Tutorial – Spring 2010 Plot sin(x)/x Plot data:

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