Multi-plot Help
Authors:
Karen Collins and John Kielkopf of the University of Louisville. AstroImageJ is
open source software and is distributed under the terms of the GNU General
Public License. Report problems to karen_dot_collins_at_insightbb_dot_com.
AstroImageJ is based on ImageJ and other open source software packages.
Multi-plot is a plotting module for AstroImageJ that provides an interface for plotting one or more datasets on a single plot. Multi-plot supports the following capabilities:
- a single row of controls corresponding to each plotted dataset in the Multi-plot Y-data window
- data scaling and shifting per dataset
- absolute plotting that corresponds to the Y-axis scale
- relative plotting that is arbitrarily scaled to fit on a specified portion of the plot (i.e. not corresponding to the Y-axis scale)
- binning support per dataset
- error-bar plotting per dataset
- operations on one dataset by another (divide, multiply, add, subtract, centroid distance)
- head and tail data trimming
- X- and Y-axis auto-scaling and manual scaling
- interactive selection/deletion of erroneous data using mouse pointer in plot window
- plot updates automatically when new data are added to the data table
- plotting in relative magnitude, with a user definable number of initial data points to be averaged as the reference level
- magnitude can be plotted as usual, or negated to match the sense of data not plotted in magnitude
- two vertical markers for identifying X-axis events
- plot with Y-axis in standard or inverted orientation
- save and recall plot settings
- drag and drop new datasets and/or plot configurations onto Multi-plot windows
- data format support includes AstroImageJ data tables and standard tab, comma, or space delimited files
- merge two data files by adding new rows or new columns
- save subsets of data columns for use with other tools
- save plots in any ImageJ supported file format
Use the
“Multi-plot Main” window to set plotting properties that pertain to the overall
plot and all datasets. A default X-axis dataset can be defined for Y-data that
does not require a special/different X-axis dataset. The plot title, subtitle,
X-axis label, Y-axis label, and legend properties are set on the main panel, as
well as X- and Y-axis data scaling that is applied to all plotted data. In
addition, the plot size and various plot format options, the number of relative
magnitude reference samples, and the vertical markers
can be set up on the main panel.
The
Multi-plot Y-data panel provides individual control over each dataset that is
plotted. Each row contains controls for a particular dataset including
additional scaling and shifting options on a per dataset basis. The preferences
menu in the main window allows the user to select a two-line format for
non-widescreen monitors, and the “Number of Y-datasets” option on the main
panel sets the number of Y-data rows to display. Non-obvious settings provide
“tool-tip” help after hovering the mouse over the item
for about a second.
When “Scale Rel” is not selected on a row, the “Y-data” specified on
the row are multiplied by the “Multi-plot Main” panel “Y-axis” factor of 10 multiplier, and are then multiplied by “Scale” and
then shifted by “Shift” before plotting to scale on the Y-axis. When “Scale Rel” is selected on a particular row, the corresponding
data is arbitrarily scaled to fit within a specified fraction of the plot area,
regardless of the Y-axis scale. In “Scale Rel” mode,
“Scale” and “Shift” values represent a percentage of the plot and the plotted
values do not correspond directly to the Y-axis scale. However, if the “Append
scaling factor to legend” and “Append shift factor to legend” options are
selected by clicking the tool icon next to the “Legend Type” label, the correlation
between the plotted data and the Y-axis scale can be recovered.