.:cplot:home

CPLOT

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.

To Download

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• Download the cplot.sav file.

1. Create a directory on your computer to save the "cplot.sav" file in, i.e. C:\Program Files\cplot.
2. Download | cplot.sav to your computer, i.e. c:\Program Files\cplot.

• Download and install the IDL virtual machine.

1. The IDL virtual machine can be downloaded from http://www.ittvis.com/Downloads/ProductDownloads.aspx
   NOTE: The download file is very large.
2. Run the IDL installation program, i.e. idl64.exe
3. Choose to install IDL.
4. When asked, choose to install the "IDL Virtual Machine", you don't need the full "IDL" development package.

• Create a shortcut on the desktop to start IDL.

1. Right click on the desktop background
2. Select New/shortcut
3. 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

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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.

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 edits into 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 Gather Statistic Information for Box Plots

• use the command:

  cplot stats outputstats r_para = X y_para = Y stats_file = <17 Characters Long>.stats <Input file>

• 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

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