The Plot Selection Menu is popped up whenever a UDFplot menu file is loaded through the Control Panel.
This is an empty menu with some defaults in place since the parent menu was empty. For a previously filled in menu, this page would show the last entries prior to the menu having been saved.
OutPut To selects the graphics output driver to be used by the generic plotting software. The Output To options are listed below. Not all device drivers may be available on a given system. File names are shown for devices which output to disk such as GIF and postscript drivers. The [PID] in the filename is the parent process ID. Under the MacIntosh OS which has no native PID this is set to 001.
| Option | Definition |
|---|---|
| Raster | Creates a raster file meta.m[PID]. Most routines in this driver are shared with the GIF driver. It is generally not selected on its own. |
| Color Postscript | Creates a postscript file PC.m[PID] |
| X Windows | Plots to an X Window. |
| TK Canvas | Plots to a TK window. |
| GIF File | Creates a postscript file GIF_XXX_[PID].gif. [XXX] is the plot number beginning at 001 and incrementing for each successive GIF file produced in the application. |
Color Table sets the color table used when displaying graphical output. Choices vary as new color tables are developed.
DEFINE PLOT brings up a single instance of the Plot Definition Menu whose options are discussed in a later section. This menu page establishes the plot format being defined. Each time the DEFINE PLOT button is clicked a new Plot Definition Menu is spawned allowing for multiple plot formats to be placed on a plot page.
CLOSE closes the Plot Selection Menu window.
Beginning Time is a set of five input boxes establishing the start time of the plot. From left to right these input boxes contain the beginning year, day of year, hour, minute, and second of the plot.
Ending Time is a set of five input boxes establishing the stop time of the plot. From left to right these input boxes contain the ending year, day of year, hour, minute, and second of the plot.
Time Stamp establishes whether the current time should be stamped on the plot page. If it is set to YES the current time is output in the lower right-hand corner of the plot page.
Menu File Name establishes whether the menu file name used to generate the plots should be stamped on the plot page. If it is set to YES the menu file name is output in the lower right-hand corner of the plot page below the Time Stamp if that is also being output.
Plot Mode establishes whether the output is to be displayed in Landscape or Portrait format.
Plot Offsets is a set of four entries used to establish the display region within the plot page. This region is called the plot window. A plot page runs from 0 to 1 in both X and Y. The axes of all output plots produced on the plot page are restricted to lie within the rectangular region bounded by the LEFT, RIGHT, TOP and BOTTOM edges as set the Plot Offsets. This defines the plot window. Any annotation or colorbar associated with a given plot may fall outside the plot window.
In general if plot annotation is being clipped on one or more sides of the plot page then the plot window should be moved in along those edges. On the other hand, if there is a large amount of dead space along any given side this should be removed by moving the plot window out in that direction. The default values supplied in the menu are sufficient to handle most plot definitions.
Duplicate allows the plots defined within the Menu Definition to be duplicated a number of times on the plot page. Each of the duplicated plot pages is called a Plot Group. The duplicate pages are stacked vertically. This is useful when a given pattern of plots which advance in time should be repeated on the same plot page.
NUMBER is the number of duplications to create.
SPACE is the gap to be left between the different Plot Groups. The spacing is specified in units of a character whose size is 15, with 1.0 being the height of one such character. A value of 0.0 is no space and the plot groups will abut one another.
Main Label is a set of inputs which collectively define the options needed to output a main label which defines the plot page contents. The label is output at the very top of the plot page.
FORMAT is used to turn on or off the labeling. There are several predefined label formats or you can choose your own, entering the label in the entry box below the Main Label option line. The FORMAT options as displayed are:
| Option | Definition |
|---|---|
| OMIT | No Label Output |
| DEFINE | Enable user defined label entry line |
| P | Label consists of the different UDF PROJECT acronyms associated with the plotted data. |
| P.M | Label consists of the different UDF PROJECT.MISSION acronyms associated with the plotted data. |
| P.M.E | Label consists of the different UDF PROJECT.MISSION.EXPERIMENT acronyms associated with the plotted data. |
| P.E | Label consists of the different UDF PROJECT.EXPERIMENT acronyms associated with the plotted data. |
When entering user defined labels through the Label Entry Box, multiple levels of labels may be specified by separating each level of labels with the token <BR>. As an example, a label of the format This is a <BR> bi-level label would produce a main label looking like
POSITION gives a coarse placement of the label across the top of the plot page. When multiple labels are produced they are stacked. The POSITION options are:
| Option | Definition |
|---|---|
| SPREAD | Label(s) are output two per line with the first label left justified against the left Plot Offset boundary and the second label right justified justified against the right Plot Offset boundary. |
| MINIMUM | Labels are left justified against the left Plot Offset boundary. |
| CENTER | Labels are centered in the plot window defined by the Plot Offset options. |
| MAXIMUM | Labels are right justified against the right Plot Offset boundary. |
X-OFFSET gives a fine placement of the label in the X direction. The offset is specified in units of the current character size, with 1.0 being the width of one character. A positive value shifts the label to the right in X and a negative value shifts the label to the left.
Y-OFFSET gives a fine placement of the label in the Y direction. The offset is specified in units of the current character size, with 1.0 being the width of one character. A positive value shifts the label up in Y and a negative value shifts the label down. Note that the label is initially centered at the top of the plot window so that a minimum downward shift of -.5 is required to see the full label.
SIZE set the label size. Valid sizes run from 3 to 32767 with character size increasing with value. As a general rule of thumb 25 is a good selection. At a label size of 1000 a single character will completely fill the plot page.
COLOR sets the label color. There are 8 basic colors to select from.
The following examples show the effects of some of the options available through the Plot Selection Menu. All of the options are demonstrated for the same plot configuration, a set of two line plots of the IMAGE spacecraft position and velocity in GCI coordinates on day 133 of the year 2000.
The only options which need to be set in the Plot Selection Menu are the beginning and ending time. The default Plot Selection Menu for the example plot is:
which produces the plot.
Time Stamp, Menu Name, Main Label
The following Plot Selection Menu shows the Time Stamp, Menu File Name turned on an a manually input Main Label.
The resultant plot is
The following Plot Selection Menu shows the Plot Mode set to Landscape. The Time Stamp and Menu File Name are on. The Main Label is set to output MISSION.PROJECT.EXPERIMENT.
The resultant plot is
The following Plot Selection Menu shows the Plot Offset values set to decrease the edges of the Plot Window in both the X and Y directions. The Time Stamp and Menu File Name are on. The Main Label is set to output MISSION.PROJECT.EXPERIMENT.
The resultant plot is
The following Plot Selection Menu shows the Duplicate values set duplicate a Plot Menu Definition three times with a spacing of 1.5 characters between each plot group.
The first of the flowing two plots whose the plot obtained with no duplication. The second with duplication set according to the above menu. The starting time is output for each plot group.
| &larr Previous | TOC | HOME | Next &rarr | |
| Starting UDF Plot | Plot Def Menu |