The QtiPlot Handbook

Ion Vasilief

Roger Gadiou

Knut Franke

Copyright © 2004 - 2009 Ion Vasilief

Copyright © 2006 - june 2007 Roger Gadiou and Knut Franke

This document is a handbook for using QtiPlot, a program for two- and three-dimensional graphical presentation of data sets and for data analysis.

This manual is organized in several chapters:

-The first one describe the main concepts and terms which are used in QtiPlot.

- The second is a tutorial on how to obtain plots from different data sets. It is the one you need to read first to understand the basics of QtiPlot and to be able to draw plots.

- The three following chapters are descriptions of all the commands, buttons and dialogs used in QtiPlot. These chapters are the reference manual of QtiPlot.

- The two following chapters describe more deeply some specific possibilities of QtiPlot, that is the statistical and mathematical analysis of data, and the scripting.

Legal notice: Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts.

Table of Contents
1. Introduction
What QtiPlot does
Command Line Parameters
Specify a File
Command Line Options
General Concepts and Terms
Tables
Matrix
Plot Window
Note
Log Window
The Project Explorer
2. Drawing plots with QtiPlot
2D plots
2D plot from data.
2D plot from function.
3D plots
Direct 3D plot from a function
3D plot from a matrix
Multilayer Plots
Building a multilayer plot panel
Building a multilayer plot step by step
3. Command Reference
The File Menu
The Edit Menu
The View Menu
The Graph Menu
The Plot Menu
The Plot 3D menu
The Data Menu
The Analysis Menu
Commands for the analysis of data in tables
Commands for the analysis of curves in plots
The Table Menu
The Matrix Menu
The Format Menu
The Scripting Menu
The Window Menu
Customization of 3D plots
4. The Toolbars
The Edit Toolbar
The File Toolbar
The Plot Toolbar.
The Table Toolbar
The Column Toolbar
The Plot 3D Toolbar
5. The Dialogs
Add Custom Action
Add Error bars
Add Function
Add Layer
Add/Remove curves
Arrange Layers
Line Options
Column Options
Contour Curves Options
Plot Details
Custom curves for lines and scatter plots
Custom error bars
Plot Details for pie plots
Custom curves for box plots
Custom curves for pie histogram
Define surface plot
Export ASCII
Add/Remove curves
Fast Fourier Transform
Integrate dialog
The Fit Wizard
General Plot Options
Plot Wizard
Project Explorer
Preferences Dialog
Printer-setup
Set Column Values
Set Matrix Dimensions
Import ASCII files
Matrix Properties
Set Matrix Values
Surface plot options
Text options
6. Analysis of data and curves
Fast Fourier Transform
Correlation
Convolution
Deconvolution
The Fit Wizard
Fitting to specific curves
Fitting to a line
Fitting to a polynome
Fitting to a Bolzmann function
Fitting to a Gauss function
Fitting to a Lorentz function
Multi-Peaks fitting
Filtering of data curves
FFT low pass filter
FFT high pass filter
FFT band pass filter
FFT block band filter
Interpolation
7. Mathematical Expressions and Scripting
muParser
Python
The Initialization File
Python Basics
Defining Functions and Control Flow
Mathematical Functions
Accessing QtiPlot's objects from Python
Project Folders
Working with Tables
Working with Matrices
Stem Plots
2D Plots
Arranging Layers
Waterfall Plots
3D Plots
Data Analysis
Working with Notes
Using Qt's dialogs and classes
Using Qt Designer for easy creation of custom user dialogs
Task automatization example
8. Credits and License
GNU Free Documentation License
Preamble
Applicability And Definitions
Verbatim Copying
Copying In Quantity
Modifications
Combining Documents
Collections Of Documents
Aggregation With Independent Works
Translation
Termination
Future Revisions Of This License
A. Installation
How to obtain QtiPlot
Installation from binary packages
Compilation and Installation from sources
Requirements
Linux and Mac OS X
Windows
9. Frequently asked questions
List of Tables
4-1. Edit toolbar commands.
4-2. File toolbar commands.
4-3. Plot toolbar commands
4-4. Table toolbar commands.
4-5. Column toolbar commands.
4-6. 3D Plot toolbar commands.
7-1. Predefined Fundamental Physical Constants
7-2. Supported Mathematical Operators
7-3. Mathematical Functions
7-4. Non-Mathematical Functions
7-5. Supported Mathematical Functions
List of Figures
1-1. A typical QtiPlot session
1-2. The QtiPlot table
1-3. The QtiPlot matrix
1-4. An example of QtiPlot 2D graph
1-5. The QtiPlot Note Window
1-6. The QtiPlot Log window
1-7. The QtiPlot Project Explorer
2-1. A simple 2D plot: the table.
2-2. A simple 2D plot: the default plot.
2-3. A simple 2D plot: the plot finished.
2-4. A 2D plot with two Y axis.
2-5. Direct plot of a function.
2-6. Function plot: filling of the X column.
2-7. Function plot: filling of the Y column.
2-8. Example of a 3D Plots.
2-9. Definition of a new surface 3D plot
2-10. The 3D surface plot created by default
2-11. The 3D surface plot after customizations
3-1. The Smooth -> Savitsky-Golay... dialog.
3-2. The Smooth -> Moving Window Average... dialog.
3-3. The Smooth -> Lowess... dialog.
3-4. The FFT Filter -> Low Pass... dialog.
3-5. The FFT Filter -> High Pass... dialog.
3-6. The FFT Filter -> Band Pass... dialog.
3-7. The FFT Filter -> Band Block... dialog.
3-8. The Interpolate... dialog.
4-1. The QtiPlot Edit Toolbar
4-2. The QtiPlot File Toolbar
4-3. The QtiPlot Plot Toolbar
4-4. The QtiPlot Table Toolbar
4-5. The QtiPlot Column Toolbar
4-6. The QtiPlot Plot 3D Toolbar
5-1. The Add Custom Script Action... dialog box.
5-2. The Add Error Bars... dialog.
5-3. A plot with X and Y Error Bars.
5-4. The Add Function... dialog box: cartesian coordinates.
5-5. The Add Function... dialog box: parametric coordinates.
5-6. The Add Function... dialog box: polar coordinates.
5-7. The Add Layer dialog box.
5-8. The Add/Remove Curves... dialog box.
5-9. The Arrange Layers dialog: the geometry tab
5-10. Exemple of a vertical arrangement for two plots.
5-11. The Arrow options dialog: first tab
5-12. The Arrow options dialog: second tab
5-13. The Geometry dialog: third tab
5-14. The Column Options... dialog.
5-15. The Values tab.
5-16. The Colors tab.
5-17. The Contour Lines tab.
5-18. The Labels tab.
5-19. The Plot Details Dialog: Layer properties.
5-20. The Plot Details Dialog: Layer geometry.
5-21. The Plot Details Dialog: Layer Speed Mode.
5-22. The Plot Details Dialog: Plot Associations.
5-23. The Plot Details Dialog: assign axes.
5-24. The Plot Details Dialog: Line formatting.
5-25. The Plot Details Dialog: Symbol formatting.
5-26. The Plot Details Dialog: Labels formatting.
5-27. The Plot Details Dialog for error bars formatting.
5-28. The Plot Details Dialog for pies: pie segment formatting.
5-29. The Plot Details Dialog for pies: pie geometry.
5-30. The Plot Details Dialog for pies: pie labels formatting.
5-31. The Plot Details Dialog for box: pattern formatting.
5-32. The Plot Details Dialog for box: whiskers formatting.
5-33. The Plot Details Dialog for box: percentile formatting.
5-34. The Plot Details Dialog for histogram: pattern formatting.
5-35. The Plot Details Dialog for histogram: spacing formatting.
5-36. The Plot Details Dialog for histogram: data formatting.
5-37. The New -> New Surface 3D Plot dialog box.
5-38. The New -> New Surface 3D Plot dialog box.
5-39. Export of a selection in a table to an ASCII file.
5-40. The Add/Remove Curves... dialog box.
5-41. The FFT... dialog box for a curve.
5-42. The FFT... dialog box for a table.
5-43. The Integrate... dialog box.
5-44. The first step of the Fit Wizard... dialog box.
5-45. The second step of the Fit Wizard... dialog box.
5-46. The third step of the Fit Wizard... dialog box.
5-47. General plot options dialog: the scale tab.
5-48. General plot options dialog: the grid tab.
5-49. General plot options dialog: the axis tab.
5-50. General plot options dialog: General settings.
5-51. The plot wizard dialog box.
5-52. The project explorer panel.
5-53. The preferences dialog: general parameters for the application.
5-54.
5-55.
5-56. The preferences dialog: 2D plot options.
5-57. The preferences dialog: 3D plot options.
5-58. The preferences dialog: note options.
5-59. The preferences dialog: fitting options.
5-60. The Print dialog.
5-61. The Set Column Values... dialog.
5-62. The Set Dimensions... dialog for matrix.
5-63. The dialog box.
5-64. The Set Properties... dialog for matrix.
5-65. The Set Values... dialog for matrix.
5-66. The surface plot options dialog box.
5-67. The surface plot options dialog box with tab 5: aspect ratio.
5-68. The axis title options dialog.
5-69. The legend/text options dialog.
6-1. An example of a inverse FFT.
6-2. An example of a correlation between two sinus functions.
6-3. The results of the Fit Wizard....
6-4. The results of a Fit Linear.
6-5. The results of a Fit Polynomial..., showing the initial data, the curve added to the plot, and the results in the log panel.
6-6. The results of a Fit Bolzmann (sigmoidal).
6-7. The results of a Fit Gaussian.
6-8. The results of a Fit Lorentzian.
6-9. The results of a Fit Multi-peak ->Gaussian....
6-10. Signal after a FFT low pass filter
6-11. Signal after a FFT high pass filter
6-12. Signal after a FFT band pass filter
6-13. Signal after a FFT block band filter
6-14. Comparison of the three methods of interpolation
List of Equations
6-1. Fourier equation
6-2. Covariance function of two signals x(t) and y(t)
6-3. Bolzmann equation
6-4. Logistic dose response equation
6-5. Gauss equation
6-6. Lorentz equation
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  Introduction