The asciiplot Command

The asciiplot command generates a crude plot on a character mode device. It is not often used in modern environments, but is retained for compatibility with SPICE2.

asciiplot plotargs

The plotargs are vectors or expressions to be plotted, as with the plot command. The plot is sent to the standard output, so one can put it into a file by using redirection. The variables width, height, and nobreak determine the width and height of the plot, and whether there are page breaks, respectively, though if the asciiplot is printed on-screen or in a window, the plot width and height are determined by the window size.

There are problems if one tries to plot something with an X scale that is not monotonic, because asciiplot uses a simple-minded sort of linear interpolation. Also, most of the variables that the plot command recognizes aren't used by asciiplot. The scaling and other variables can be set with the set command as for the plot command. These variables can also be set with the Plot Options tool from the Tools menu of the Tool Control window.

The nointerp variable is used only by the asciiplot command. Normally asciiplot interpolates data onto a linear scale before plotting it. If this option is given this won't be done -- each line will correspond to one data point as generated by the simulation. Since data are already linearized unless from a transient analysis with steptype set to nousertp, setting this variable will avoid a redundant linearization.

Ordinarily, the first vector plotted has its values also printed in the first column. This can be suppressed by setting the variable noasciiplotvalue. When printing, the number of significant digits used can be set with numdgt variable.

This command is completely obsolete, but is retained for nostalgia for those who fondly remember punched cards and line printers.