The Plot Panel

This panel displays and controls aspects of plots generated from a simulation with the plot command. The plot window contains a row of buttons on the right side. The button presence is determined by the nature of the data plotted, as not all data support all features. The buttons that may be present are listed below.

Dismiss
Remove the plot from the screen.

Help
Bring up the help viewer with pertinent information.

Redraw
Redraw the graph. This would be necessary to see new colors if the colors are changed, with the Colors pop-up from the Tools menu of the Tool Control window.

Print
Bring up the printer control panel which controls hardcopy generation. The resulting hardcopy data from the plot can be sent to a printer or saved in a file.

Save Plot
The will save the plot data in a rawfile or Common Simulation Data Format (CSDF) file. Either file format can be read in with the load command to regenerate the plot. See the description of the write command (4.5.12) for information about the formats, and how they can be specified. The user is prompted for a name for the file.

Save Print
This will save the plot data in a file, in the same format as output from the print command. The user is prompted for a name for the file.

Points
If this button is active, the data points are marked with a glyph. This is mutually exclusive with the Comb button.

Comb
If this button, which is mutually exclusive with the Points button, is active, the data will be presented as a histogram. If neither of Points or Comb is selected, a (possibly interpolated) line drawing connecting the points will be presented.

Log X
If the data are consistent with a logarithmic scale of the x-axis, this button will appear. When active, a log scale will be used on the x-axis.

Log Y
If the data are consistent with a logarithmic scale of the y-axis, this button will appear. When active, a log scale will be used on the y-axis. Note that all traces must be consistent with a log scale, and all traces will use a log scale if this button is active.

Marker
When active, a marker will be attached to the cursor, and the scale factors of the plot will be replaced with the current position of the marker relative to the data. This is useful for actually obtaining numerical data from the plot. If button 1 is clicked, a reference mark will be left behind, and the readout will be relative to the values at the reference. Clicking with button 2 will remove the reference.

When using the marker in a polar or Smith plot, the display indicates the real, imaginary, radius, and angle in degrees of the current marker position. The radius and angle are shown in the lower left corner of the plot window. In Smith plots, a family of real and imaginary values are shown, corresponding to a set of values usually displayed along the x axis. For the imaginary contours, the values correspond to the values printed in left to right order. If mouse button three is used to zoom into a section of the Smith plot such that the x axis is invisible, the values corresponding to the displayed real contours are listed along the top of the plot window. These numbers correspond to the displayed real contours in left to right order. They also correspond to the imaginary contours, however depending on the location in the Smith chart, not all imaginary contours, or additional contours, may be visible. Ambiguity can be resolved through use of the marker.

Separate
When active, each trace will be assigned a portion of the overall vertical plot area, and a separate scale. The traces will be scaled so as to not overlap. Otherwise, the entire vertical area is used for each trace. The button will appear if there is more than one trace in the plot.

Single, Group
In the most general case, two buttons in a ``radio group'' control the y-axis scales of the traces. These buttons are labeled Single and Group. If neither button is active, each trace will have an independent ``best fit'' y scale. If Single is active, all traces will be plotted on the same ``best fit'' y scale. If Group is active, the traces are scaled according to their data type. The types are voltage, current, and other. Each group will have a separate ``best fit'' scale. If the trace is from a node voltage, then it will have type voltage, however functions of voltages will probably have type other. This is similarly true for currents.

The Single and Group buttons are prevented from being active at the same time. If there is only one trace, or the traces are all of the same type, the Group button will not appear. If there is only one trace, then the Single button will also not appear.