MultiPlot manual

Choices


[ Choices | Fonts | Graph | Symbols | Lines | Colours | Load/Save | Printing | Miscellaneous | Additional note ]

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The choices... dialogue

The choices dialogue has a number of sections, accessed via the Tabs at the top of the window. This is shown below. Note that there may be a left or right arrow at the end of the tabs, which allows you to bring more options in to view.

At the bottom of the window there is a set of action buttons.

The actions available are:

Set
This will store the new settings, which will be used for all future operations. Note that graphs already displayed necessarily may not be changed, since the local settings for each graph display will override the choices settings.
Save
This will store the new settings, as in Set above, and will also save the settings to disc, so they will be used when MultiPlot is run in the future.
Cancel
Close the dialogue and ignore any changes made since it was opened.
Reload
Restore the settings to those pertaining when they were last saved.

Fonts tab

This tab allows a number of font details to be set.

You can choose which font MultiPlot will use for each of it's styles when labelling and annotating the graph. To change the font face, click on the menu button to the right of the font name. A standard font menu will result, from which the new font is chosen. The text size (in pt) can be adjusted using the bump icons to the right of the displayed size.


Graph tab

This section contains general settings for the graph display.

Default size
This determines the size of the window used to display a graph. Current sizes available are
  • A4 landscape
  • A4 portrait
  • A4 square
  • 640 × 480
  • 800 × 600
  • 1024 × 768
  • 1280 × 1024
  • Custom

If the option Custom is selected, then the x and y extents can be entered in the writable boxes Custom width and Custom height.

Background colour
If this is selected, then it is possible to set a background colour for the body of the graph using the menu button to the right of the patch showing the colour used for the graph background. This will result in a standard colour picker dialogue being shown. A new colour can be chosen. If this option is unselected, then the colour patch and menu button will be greyed out, and no background colour will be used.
Full box outline
When ticked, a box is drawn around the graph. If a box is chosen, then the other options become available.
With axis pips
When ticked, pips will be drawn on the box outline as well as on the axes.
X axis grid
When ticked, the x axis pips will be extended across the graph (vertically) between top and bottom of the box.
Y axis grid
When ticked, the y axis pips will be extended across the graph (horizontally) between the left and right of the box.
Dashed grid
When ticked, the grid lines (if present) will be drawn dotted. If unticked, a solid line will be drawn.
Axes linewidth/Grid linewidth
It is possible to set the line widths used when plotting the graph. The widths for the graph axes and the grid lines, can be set independently, using the appropriate bump icons to the right of the width values.
Axis pip type
You can set the pips to be inside, outside or straddle the axes. Make your selection from the popup menu button to the right of the display field.
Axis pip size
The length of the axis pips can be set in os units by means of the up/down bump arrows.
Use thin lines on vdu
Thin lines, as understood by the draw module are not supported directly, since the use of such lines can cause problems with e.g. high resolution printers, when the 1 pixel wide line effectively becomes invisible.

When using line widths of a fraction of a pt, the VDU display can sometimes look a little uneven, particularly with lines at an angle to the horizontal/vertical. In some cases, lines can completely disappear. This is where the option Use thin lines on vdu comes in. If this is selected, then the screen display will use 1 pixel wide lines for all the lines on the graph, but when saving draw files and printing will revert to the actual line widths as set in this dialogue. If this is not set, then MultiPlot will make the assumption that lines of less than about 0.80 pt should be displayed on screen as 'thin' lines, and thicker lines will be displayed at their configured thickness. (Why 0.8 pt? There are 72 pt to the inch, and the vdu display is nominally 90 pixels to the inch. Thus 1 px is about 0.8 pt).

See the graph layout options section for a fuller description and example images showing these settings.


Symbols tab

This tab allows the type of symbols used on the graph to be defined. The type of symbol (e.g. square, circle) is chosen from the popup menu. The size (specified in OS units) can be set using the bump icons. If Use colour for symbols is selected, then the range of colours as chosen in the Colours tab will be used. When loading a data file, the shapes and colours used for each data set will cycle through the configured values and then wrap around. Since the number of colours and symbol styles differ, it is unlikely that different data sets would end up with identical symbols.

The line width applies to symbols that are not filled shapes, but are drawn as lines, e.g. a cross or plus symbol. In this case the line width in pts used to draw the symbol can be set using the bump icons.


Lines tab

The settings in this tab apply to the data lines on the graph.

Default linewidth
The bump arrows can be used to set the width of the data lines on the graph (in pts).
Use dash patterns for lines
The data lines by default will be drawn as solid lines. If this option is ticked, then the data lines will be drawn as dashed lines, the actual dash patterns cycling through a range of different combinations of dots and dashes.
Use colour for lines
When selected, the range of colours as chosen in the Colours tab will be used, cycling through the range. If unticked, then all data lines will be black.

Colours tab

This tab allows the colours used when the graph is drawn to be set. Colour is only used if the option 'Use colour for ...' is set in the Symbols or Lines tab, otherwise lines or symbols will be drawn in black.

There are eight colours used for drawing the symbols or lines, and these can be set in the upper part of the tab. Clicking on the Menu button to the right of the colour patch will raise a standard colour picker dialogue to set the colour. When drawing a graph with more than one set of data points or lines the colours will cycle through the range.

It is also possible to set a colour for the graph axes, the axis label text, and the graph annotation. By default, these colours are set to black.


Load/Save tab

Revert to default settings on version 2 load
When a MultiPlot data set is saved in version 2 file format, all the graph layout settings may be saved with the data. This would allow the graph to be recreated in the same form as it was when saved, e.g. colours used, symbol styles used. If this option is ticked, then all this additional information is ignored when the file is reloaded, and the graph will take on all the default settings.
Save in version 2 file format
When this is ticked, then saving as a MultiPlot file will use the newer version 2 format file, which can save all the graph layout details as well as the graph data.

It is possible to fine tune the layout details that are saved with the data. This is set by ticking the appropriate options. These correspond to some extent to the various tabs described above and are

  • Font details
  • Graph layout data
  • Colours
  • Symbol and line styles
  • Axis scaling

The exact format of the format 2 file has changed a little between MultiPlot version 2.24, and MultiPlot version 3.00 and later. There is also an option, in case it is ever needed, to save the data in the older file version 2.00 format. MultiPlot version 3 can load both versions of file, but MultiPlot version 2.24 may not be able to load fully the latest version of file.

A description of the file formats is given here.


Printing tab

Print format
MultiPlot assumes that the printer uses A4 paper. Print format controls how MultiPlot arranges the print out. You are offered three options, accessed via the popup menu button.
A4 landscape
The printed graph will be formatted always to A4 landscape, whatever the format of the screen display.
A4 portrait
The printed graph will be formatted always to A4 portrait, whatever the format of the screen display.
Auto
With this setting, MultiPlot will attempt to print the graph in the format of the actual screen display, printing the graph in landscape or portrait mode as appropriate, and scaling down to fit the A4 size if necessary. Smaller sizes (e.g. 640 × 480) will be printed at a size determined by the setting Scale up small size graphs (see below).
Show printer margins on graph display
Most printers are not able to print to the edge of the paper. When the screen display is set to A4 portrait or landscape, MultiPlot will attempt to take account of the printer margins, and will not use the whole of the A4 sized display. If a printer driver is active, MultiPlot will read the configured printer margins from the printer driver. If there is no driver active, default values will be used until !Printers is loaded.

This option, when selected, will show the printer margins on the display in a mid grey colour.

Note that the printer margins are reread whenever the active printer is changed, so the graph margins will immediately reflect these changes.

Scale up small size graphs
If this option is unticked, any graph which is smaller than an A4 page will be printed without any scaling when the print format is set to Auto. If ticked, then small graphs (e.g. 640 × 480) will be scaled up to fit the A4 page when printed.

Miscellaneous tab

This has two options.

Auto launch FnPlotter
If this option is ticked, then FnPlotter will be launched when MultiPlot is started. If not ticked, then FnPlotter can always be started using the iconbar menu.
Quit FnPlotter when MultiPlot is quit
If this option is ticked, then FnPlotter (if running) will be quit when MultiPlot is quit. FnPlotter can be quit at any time using its own Quit option from its iconbar menu.

Additional note

Note that most of the above settings can be changed for individual graphs once they are being displayed (see the graph display options section for a fuller description and example images). Changes made in the Choices dialogue while one or more graph windows are already showing will not affect those windows. The graph options are inherited by a data set when that data set is first loaded, thus these changes will only affect new data sets.


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MultiPlot is © Chris Johnson, 2014
Email:chris@chris-johnson.org.uk

This document last modified on 15th August 2015