The QtiPlot Handbook
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# Plot Details

This dialog is activated by selecting the Plot... from the Format Menu. It may also be activated either by a double click on a plot or by right-clicking on a plot and selecting Plot Details.... If there is more than one layer in the window, QtiPlot will select the layer which contains the plot under the mouse pointer. The exact contents of the dialog will vary depending upon how the dialog was invoked and on the type of plot selected.

Figure 5-20. The Plot Details Dialog: Layer properties.

The second tab defines the properties of the plot canvas: the background color/image and the frame around the canvas.

Figure 5-21. The Plot Details Dialog: Canvas with a solid background color.

Figure 5-22. The Plot Details Dialog: Canvas with a background image.

The third tab defines the geometry of the plot layer.

Figure 5-23. The Plot Details Dialog: Layer geometry.

The fourth tab can be used to customize the speed mode for the layer. This can be very useful when dealing with very large data sets. Speed mode uses the Douglas and Peucker algorithm, the purpose of which is to take a 'curve' composed of line segments (or points) and find a new curve with fewer points that is not too dissimilar from the original curve. The algorithm defines 'not too dissimilar' as a function of the maximum distance (tolerance) between the original curve and the new curve. The new curve then consists of a subset of the line segments (or points) that defined the original curve. When the speed mode is enabled, filtering of the data is activated only for the curves with more than the specified maximum number of data points.

Figure 5-24. The Plot Details Dialog: Layer Speed Mode.

The right part of the dialog box contains several tabs which depend on the kind of plot selected. They are described in the following subsections. The left part of the dialog window shows the curves which are plotted on the active layer. All modifications will be made to the selected curve. If the Plot Associations... button is visible, then you can change which columns are used by clicking it. This will open a dialog which can be used to select the columns of the table to be used as X and Y values.

Figure 5-25. The Plot Details Dialog: Plot Associations.

If the Worksheet button visible, it may be used to access to the table which contains the columns for the selected curve.

## Custom curves for lines and scatter plots

The first tab on the right side of the dialog window allows definition of the pair of axes to which a curve is attached. Attaching different curves on the layer to different X/Y axis pairs permits placing several curves with different x/y scales on the same plot layer.

Figure 5-26. The Plot Details Dialog: Assign Axes.

The second tab on the right side of the dialog window allows customizing the style of the plot line (color, line style, thickness). The connect button allows changing the style which is used to draw the selected curve (steps, droplines, etc). See the Plot menu to see the different types of plots available.

Figure 5-27. The Plot Details Dialog: Line formatting.

The third tab is activated to select the symbol, and to modify the size, color and fill color of the selected symbol.

Figure 5-28. The Plot Details Dialog: Symbol formatting.

The Labels tab is used if you want labels plotted at each data point in the plot. Options are provided to control the font, color, rotation angle and position of these labels.

Figure 5-29. The Plot Details Dialog: Labels formatting.

## Custom error bars

Figure 5-30. The Plot Details Dialog for formatting error bars.

## Plot Details for pie plots

These commands are available for pie plots. The first tab is used to customize the pie segments. The fields on the left are used to modify the border drawn around each segment. The color, type and width of line may be customized. The default is no border (line width = 0).

The fields on the right are used to define the fill style used for pie segments. The First color combo-box defines which color is used for the first segment. The remaining segments will be filled with colors that follow the order defined in the combo-box's list. The default value for this field is black, so segments 2, 3, ... will be red, green, etc.

The Pattern combo-box defines the fill pattern that will be used for all segments of the pie. The default value is solid fill.

Figure 5-31. The Plot Details Dialog for pies: Pie Segment Formatting.

Figure 5-32. The Plot Details Dialog for pies: Pie Geometry.

Figure 5-33. The Plot Details Dialog for pies: Pie Labels Formatting.

## Custom curves for box plots

Figure 5-34. The Plot Details Dialog for box: Pattern Formatting.

Figure 5-35. The Plot Details Dialog for box: Whiskers Formatting.

Figure 5-36. The Plot Details Dialog for box: Percentile Formatting.

## Custom curves for pie histogram

Figure 5-37. The Plot Details Dialog for histogram: Pattern Formatting.

Figure 5-38. The Plot Details Dialog for histogram: Spacing Formatting.

Figure 5-39. The Plot Details Dialog for histogram: Data Formatting.

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