.:cplot:home

Setup and Getting Started

CPLOT is a software program that quickly plots data from flights of the University of North Dakota's Citation research aircraft. CPLOT is written in IDL which is a commercial software development package. Anyone can run the program by downloading the cplot.sav file and using the IDL virtual machine. No IDL license is needed to run CPLOT.

FAQ

What is the difference between Cplot and Cplot2?

Download and Install

• Cplot/Cplot2 Downloading

1. Create a directory on your computer to save the "cplot.sav" file in, i.e. C:\Program Files\cplot or save it to your Desktop.
2. Download cplot.sav to your computer, i.e. c:\Program Files\cplot and/or the cplot2.sav program.

• Install the IDL virtual Machine (Necessary to run Cplot/Cplot2).

1. The IDL virtual machine can be downloaded from http://www.ittvis.com/Downloads/ProductDownloads.aspx. Please note that the download file is very large so it best to keep the install file for your organization. Run the IDL installation program (i.e. idl64.exe) to begin the installation process. When installing IDL select the following:

   Accept the license agreement (y)
   Select the following options, given in (), when prompted.
   Install IDL? (y)
   Install ENVI? (n)
   IDL Help files? (y)
   DICOM Network Services? (n)
   Install the above configuration? (y)
   Do you want to create the symbolic linkes in /usr/local/bin? (y)
   Do you want to run the License Wizard? (n)

• Running CPLOT/CPLOT2.

1. Right click on the cplot/cplot2 icon in file browser
2. Type in the following for the location (Assuming IDL6.4 was installed in the default location and the cplot.sav file was placed in c:\Program Files\cplot):
   c:\RSI\IDL64ubin\bin.x86\idlrt.exe -vm="c:\Program Files\cplot\cplot.sav"

How to Run cplot on Linux/UNIX

Two ways:

• Open a terminal:

1. Enter 'cplot' followed by the filename in which you wish to open. Note: Be in the directory of the file.

or

• Open a terminal:

1. Enter 'cplot', and hit enter.
2. Click on Browse on the graphical interface that shows up.
3. Enter the directory of the file that you want to bring up in cplot.
4. Double click on the directory and then click on the file that you want.
5. Click 'ok', 'open file'.

Walk Through

This section describes cplot and its various features.

To Make A Plot

1. Choose a unit for the x-axis of your plot.
2. Choose a unit for the y-axis of your plot.
3. Click on plot and then choose type of plot.

Note** Plotting more than one graph within the same file can be done by going to Edit > Options and checking the box next to New Window.

Adding additional lines to plot

1. Select the unit under the axis you wish to add.
2. Click on plot and then overlay.
3. Choose formatting and click ok.

To Change Background Color

1. Click edit and then settings.
2. Then move background slide bar under color palette. Note: 0 = Black and 225 = White.

To Change Foreground Color

1. Repeat Background process, but for the foreground slide bar.

To Edit Labels on Plot

1. Click edit and then text.
2. To edit the names of labels:

• Under "Plot Titles" type the edits into the corresponding section (x-axis, y-axis, main).

1. To edit the font size:

• Under "Plot Font Sizes" type desired size into corresponding boxes (overall, x-axis, y-axis).

To Change Values of x-axis and/or y-axis

1. Click edit and then axis.
2. You will be able to type your desired minimum and maximum values for the x-axis and y-axis.

• You can also change the type, grid-line, and style of each axis.

Additional eps output

1. Click on edit and then options.
2. On the bottom of the pop up window there will be an option to create eps file. Click on the box.
3. Replot the data that you want to be in the eps file.
4. To display the eps file before you save it type this into your terminal:

• evince cplot_latest.eps

To Gather Statistical Information for Box Plots ====

• In the terminal use the command:

  cplot stats outputstats time_min = time_max = r_para = X y_para = Y stats_file = <filename>.stats <Input file>

  i.e 'cplot stats outputstats time_min = 76854 time_max = 76989 y_para = 10 stats_file = filename.stats inputfile

• Where time_min and time_max indicate the start and end times
• Where r_para is used to indicate the use of a ratio of 2 variables
• Where y_para is the numerator value of the ratio, or simply the y parameter to be plotted

• To find a parameter number use the command 'listparas <filename>'
• To view the stats file use the command 'vi <filename.stats>

  the output file should display as below:

  StartTime EndTime Year Month Day ID Mean Std_Dev 5_percen 25_percen 50_percen 75_percen 95_percen

  76854.3900 76989.3500 2012.0000 7.0000 29.0000 10.0000 -0.1487 0.2362 -0.5050 -0.2900 -0.1700 0.0100 0.2700

Once the ***.stats_file is created it can be run in Cplot. If everything is right (17characters long before the .stats.*** file name) there will be a "boxplot" option in the plot menu.

Making Spectrum Plots

After selecting your input file:

1. Select the time interval using Control -> Time Interval
2. Go to Edit -> Axis and change the x-axis and y-axis values, tick marks, and y-axis type from Linear to Log
3. Edit -> Plot if you want symbols instead of a line. Change Line Style to None and Symbol to your choice of symbol
4. Edit -> Options -> Spectrum Mode and change to Normalized by Size Interval
5. Plot -> Spectrum
6. If comparing two values on one plot, keep the first plot open and change the Time Interval
7. Select Edit -> Overlay and change the Line and Symbol to your choice of line and symbol
8. Plot -> Overlay Spectrum
9. Because the units for the x-axis and y-axis titles will not both be correct, double-click the axes individually and change the 1m to µm

Masking Erroneous Data from being Plotted

1. Find the time interval of the data that has been marked erroneous

• Tools > Grab Time and draw a box through the erroneous data, only worrying about the width of the box (coverage along x-axis)
• Now, if desired, go to Plot > XY Graph to zoom the graph into the erroneous data (further refining of the time interval of the erroneous data is made easier this way).

2. Once your time interval is set, go to File > Add Edit, fill in the Editor Name and Edit Reason, and click Store Edit Information

3. Go to File > Apply Edit and a *.clean file will be generated/re-generated

4. Open the *.clean file and plot the edited variable to make sure erroneous data has been masked