Plotting Packages Ray Gasser Aaron Fuegi SCV Visualization Workshop – Fall 2008

Plotting Packages - Applications Commercial –MATLAB –Microsoft Excel Open source –Gnuplot –XMGrace SCV Visualization Workshop – Fall 2008

Plotting in MATLAB Commercial package Command line + menu interface Good output quality Good control of plot appearance (with some effort) Excellent on-line documentation SCV Visualization Workshop – Fall 2008

Plotting in MATLAB - Example SCV Visualization Workshop – Fall 2008

Plotting in Microsoft Excel Commercial package Data in connected Excel spreadsheet –If using functions (ex: sin(x)), applied in spreadsheet, not in plot. GUI Interface –Click on item you want to modify (axis, gridlines, chart size, etc…) and adjust. High quality output but can be tricky to control Cut & Paste – easy interaction with other Windows/Mac OS programs SCV Visualization Workshop – Fall 2008

Plotting in Microsoft Excel - Example SCV Visualization Workshop – Fall 2008

Plotting in Gnuplot Free, widely available Command line interface Fair output quality Fair control of plot appearance Interfaces to C, Fortran, Perl, Python Tons of documentation and examples easily available on the web (or included with the package) SCV Visualization Workshop – Fall 2008

Plotting in Gnuplot - Example SCV Visualization Workshop – Fall 2008

Plotting in XMGrace Free GUI + command line interface Good output quality Great control over plot appearance Can be called from C/Fortran programs User’s guide, tutorial, and examples included in package. Caveats: quirky user interface and non-intuitive workflow; steep learning curve. SCV Visualization Workshop – Fall 2008

Plotting in XMGrace - Example SCV Visualization Workshop – Fall 2008

Plotting Packages - Demos MATLAB Xmgrace Gnuplot Microsoft Excel SCV Visualization Workshop – Fall 2008