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

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

3. Choosing a package 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. IS&T Scientific Visualization Tutorial – Spring 2010

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

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

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

7. gnuplot 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. IS&T Scientific Visualization Tutorial – Spring 2010

8. gnuplot 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 IS&T Scientific Visualization Tutorial – Spring 2010

9. Xmgrace 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 Evgeny Stambulchik at Weizmann Institute of Science. IS&T Scientific Visualization Tutorial – Spring 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

16. Microsoft Excel 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) IS&T Scientific Visualization Tutorial – Spring 2010

17. Excel plotting 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 IS&T Scientific Visualization Tutorial – Spring 2010

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