Continuity Data Plotter

Select File→Plot… in the Continuity Table Manager to open the Data Plotter.

Actions

  • Plot: this button has two functions. It takes the options and fields specified on the form and applies them to do one of the following:

    • Display a new plot on the current figure.

    • Update an existing plot selected in Plot name.

  • Save PNG: Allows you to save the selected plot to a PNG image file. This button has no effect if no plot exists or is selected..

  • Save PNG Sequence: This brings up a dialog with options that allow you to save a set of sequential PNG files of the steps of the animation of the plot

  • Save/Load Settings: The current options in the form can be saved and used at a later time. Note that this is only for the current settings of the Data plotter form. This command will not save any plotting that may exist.

Note: all properties described below (except Data) can be changed for both new and existing plots. To apply any changes to an existing plot, after changing any of these fields, you can either click the Plot button to apply the changes or hit Enter from the field that was changed.

Data

  • X coordinate, Y coordinate: Select the X and Y coordinate data that you want to plot from the drop-down lists.

  • Pruning: These fields are optional. Pruning can be done in any combination of two the following two methods:

    • Specify a range of X and Y values

    • Select a data column as the Key and a corresponding Value. Only those data points for which the Key holds Value will be plotted. When the Key is selected, a list of unique values is automatically generated for the Value drop-down list. Moreover, instead of selecting a single unique value, multiple values can be specified, separated by commas. So for example, you can enter 1,4,5. Finally, the comma-separated values can be ranges of values instead of a single number. For example: 1, 4, 7-10, 12.

Figures

  • Figure Title: Enter a name for the figure, and it will be displayed at the top of the plot. If no name is specified, the default name will be used (Figure N). An existing figure can be made active by selecting it from the list. The properties of the selected figure, including the plots currently present on it, will be loaded into the form. To change the name of a figure, first select it, then enter a new name for it, and then click Plot (or hit Enter). Closing an open figure will automatically remove that figure name from this list (and any associated plots)

  • x-axis label,y-axis label: enter an optional description for the data described by the x and y axes. These labels will be displayed aside the corresponding axes on the plot. These fields can be left blank if no labels are desired on either axis.

  • Axes Scale: These fields are optional. Change the x and y limits to indicate what the plotting window should be. Not every field is required to change the scale. Those fields left blank will be automatically determined. Using the Auto scale button is the same as leaving all four fields blank.

Plots

  • Plot name: Enter a name for the plot and it will be displayed in the legend (if the legend is set to be visible – see Plotting Options). An existing plot can be made active by selecting it from the list. The properties of the selected plot (style, color, size) will be loaded into the form. To change the name of a plot, first select it, then enter a new name for it, and then click Plot (or hit enter).

  • Add: To create a new plot, you must first click this button (otherwise properties of the currently selected plot will be changed). Then specify the plot properties (style, color, size) and click the Plot button.

  • Delete: To remove an existing plot from the current figure, click this button. This button has no effect when a new plot is currently being defined.

  • Color, Style, and Size specify the appearance of a new plot, or change the appearance of an existing plot. For the color, you can either select from a list of default colors, or specify a custom color by selecting custom… from the drop-down list or by clicking the colored button on the right. For the Size, you can either use the slider (for getting in the ballpark of the desired size) or the entry field (for more precision).

  • Map plot: this feature can be used to automatically create a series of plots based on a set of unique value in a specified data column. This option is only visible when a new plot is being defined. If a data column is selected for this option, then the hitting the Plot button will create as many plots as there are unique values in the column. All the data points in an individual plot will correspond to a single one of those unique values. The colors of each plot is automatically varied. Once the plots are created, their color, style, and size can be individually changed.

Plotting options

  • Reuse current figure: when selected, this option will do all plotting in the currently selected figure. When not selected, a new figure window will be opened for every new plot created.

  • Enable overlays: when selected, this option will preserve all previous plots on the current figure when a new plot is created. When not selected, only the most recently created plot will be displayed on the figure and all previous plots will be lost (for the current/active figure only). This option has no effect when Reuse current figure is not selected.

  • Show legend: toggles the display of the legend on the figure.

  • Do histogram:

Play Controls

  • Slider control: Use this slider to manually move through the animation of the plot

  • Play: Use this button to automatically play the animation continuously. Click it again to stop playing the animation.