ygraph - plot and animate 1D data

ygraph [ -cspgrv? ] [ -C columns ] [ -d delay ] [ -k step ] [ -x xmin,xmax ] [ -y ymin,ymax ] [ -S file1 file2 ] [ -I file ] [ --frame-integrate file ] [ --time-integrate file ] [ file ... ]

ygraph is a simple program to produce an xy-plot of 1D data. It features animation, zooming, and the ability to load multiple data sets into a single plot.

ygraph is intended to be a quick first-glance data reader, so simple, instinctive use was the major design goal. Most features are directly available from the control panel and plot window menus. Some data manipulation functions are present, but fancy plot formatting has been largely ignored, as there already exist more sophisticated tools for producing publication quality plots.

The input file format read by ygraph is a slight generalisation of the historical xgraph format which, for instance, is generated by the standard I/O methods of the Cactus Computational Toolkit <URL:http://www.cactuscode.org/>. A more detailed description of the input file format is given below.

The special filename - can be used to read data from the standard input:

cat data1.xl | ygraph -

Filenames starting with '<' are interpreted and opened as pipe:

ygraph "<cat data1.xl"

Command-line options are as follows:

-c, --no-control-panel

Start without the control panel.

-s, --separate-windows

Start with each requested plot in a separate window.

-p, --no-points

Turn off points drawn at each data point

-g, --no-grid

Don't draw a grid on the plot background.

-r, --no-range

Don't draw axis range values on the plot background.

-C, --columns column list

Set (globally) the columns to be read from the input in the format x:y. Default is 1:2.

-d, --delay time

Delay between successive animation frames. The specified value time should be an integer representing the number of milliseconds to delay between frames.

-k, --skip n

Read in only every nth frame of data.

-l, --legend pos

Set the position of the plot legend in the plot window. Valid pos values are:

a -- the legend is placed above the plot

r -- the legend is placed to the right of the plot

o -- the legend is placed over the plot data

0 -- the legend is turned off (not displayed).

By default, the legend is placed over the plot data, `o'.

-S, --subtract file1 file2

Subtract the second listed file from the first. If x-values of the two plots don't match, then values of the second are interpolated linearly to points of the first.

-I, --integrate file

Integrate file assuming f(left boundary)=0

--frame-integrate file

Integrate frames of file

--time-integrate file

Integrate frames of file and multiplying with time given by comments in the file

-?, --help

List the command line options and exit.

-v, --version

Print a version message and exit.

Filenames are usually treated as regular files that may be compressed with either gzip or bzip2. If a filename is prefixed with <, it is treated as a command instead, and data will be read from its standard input. A filename can also be a single -, which will read data from ygraph's standard input.

Once the plot window is displayed, most of the available actions should be obvious from the menu bar and control panel buttons.

ZOOM

LOGARITHMIC PLOTS

DERIVATIVES

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DATA SETS

RE-SCALED DATA SETS

POINTER LOCATION

EXPORT OF IMAGES AND ANIMATIONS

HINTS

The following keybindings are available from the plot window:

h -- go to the first frame

j -- step back one frame

k -- step forward one frame

l -- go to the last frame

space -- play/pause

s -- show all frames

L -- toggle log/linear axes (lin-lin, lin-log, log-log, log-lin)

c -- clean the window

p -- raise the control panel, if it's hidden behind the plot window

C-n -- open a new plot window

C-o -- open a new file in the current window

C-p -- open a new file in a new window

C-e -- export individual frames as images

C-m -- export multiple frames as images

C-w -- close the plot window

C-d -- take a spatial derivative of the current plot

C-s -- subtract one data set from another

C-m -- rescale data sets

C-u -- unzoom

C-x -- open the plot range dialog

C-p -- toggle the display of dots at each data point

C-g -- toggle display of grid lines

C-r -- toggle display of ranges on the plot window

C-k -- open a window listing the keybindings

C-q -- quit ygraph

Left-mouse -- zoom

Right-mouse -- print the mouse position on the plot

ygraph reads the standard 1D xgraph data format output by Cactus. The data can be in the form of an ASCII text file, gzipped or bzipped, in which case the file will be automatically decompressed as it is read. XY-data are listed in columns of the form

        <x-val1> <y-val1>
        <x-val2> <y-val2>
        <x-val3> <y-val3>
        etc.
      

where x-val and y-val are floating point coordinates of (x,y) points to be plotted and are seperated by at least one whitespace character. Multiple plots are seperated by a blank line. Comment lines are delimited by beginning the line with a " (double-quote) character, or by a hash `#' symbol. An optional time value can be assigned to each data frame by adding a line of the form

        "Time = <time-val>      

to the head of a set of (x,y) values, where time-val is a floating point value which will label the particular data set during animation. The plot can also be assigned a name by a line of the form

        "Label = <name>      

The assigned name will be used in the legend of the plot.

INPUT DATA EXAMPLE:

        "This is just a comment
        "Label = Random numbers
        "Time = 0.0
        0.1   1.343
        0.2   1.939
        0.3   2.439
        0.4   3.949
        0.5   5.495
        
        "Time = 0.2
        0.1   1.442
        0.2   2.303
        0.3   3.349
        0.4   4.192
        0.5   6.029
      

To plot the files data1.xl and data2.xl in the same window, use:

ygraph data1.xl data2.xl

To plot the same pair of files but starting with each in a separate window, use:

ygraph -s data1.xl data2.xl

To plot columns 1 and 3 from a multi-column data file, use:

cut -f1,3 multicol.dat | ygraph -

To visualize data from multiple columns in one plot, use:

ygraph '<cut -f1,2 multicol.dat'

To control the delay between successive frames of the animation of a data set, use the -d flag. For example, to set the delay to 100ms, use:

ygraph -d 100 data1.xl

To plot a file with the x-range set to (-1,3) and the y-range to (-2,4), use:

ygraph -x -1,3 -y -2,4 data1.xl data2.xl

To plot data1.xl minus data2.xl, use:

ygraph -S data1.xl data2.xl

The development of ygraph has been driven by the needs of the Numerical Relativity Group <URL:http://numrel.aei.mpg.de/> at the Max-Planck-Institute fuer Gravitationsphysik, Golm, Germany.

ygraph was originally written by Denis Pollney <firstname.lastname@aei.mpg.de> <URL:http://numrel.aei.mpg.de/Misc/email.html>. Code has been contributed by a number of authors, listed in the AUTHORS file of the source code distribution.

ygraph is distributed under the GNU General Public License.

More information, recent binaries, and source code can be found at the author's homepage <URL:http://www.aei.mpg.de/~pollney/ygraph/>.

Please report problems to DP at the address above, or to the majordomo mailing list <ygraph-users@aei.mpg.de>.

xgraph(1) convert(1)