Vvidget Builder User Manual
Graphs
A graph is a combination of Data Graphics with a graphic that displays attributes of the coordinate system which the data is embedded in. The figure below shows examples of graphs without any data on them.
You make a graph just like any other graphic, as explained in Standard Editing (by dragging it out or dragging it from a Palette) or by using Vvizards. A subsequent section (Getting Data On A Graph) explains how to get data onto the graph.
The following is a brief list and definitions of graph related sections:
| Graphs | |
| Single Coordinate Graph | A graph which defines only one coordinate. The coordinate can be of any type, linear, log, polar, nonuniform; however, there needs to be only one coordinate per point on the graph. |
| Multiple Coordinate Graph | A graph which defines several coordinates. For each point on the graph the coordinate representing that point is defined by a related parameter, the focused coordinate index. |
| Getting Data On A Graph | Explains how to get a Data Graphic on the graph. |
| Linear Axis | A single dimension of a coordinate of a graph is represented by an axis. The linear axis represents a linear dimension of a coordinate system. |
| Log Axis | A single dimension of a coordinate of a graph is represented by an axis. The log axis represents a log dimension of a coordinate system. |
| Date Axis | A single dimension of a coordinate of a graph is represented by an axis. The date axis represents a date dimension of a coordinate system. Note that date might imply a specific unit, but that is actually not the case. See the section on Date Axis for additional information. |
| Polar Axes | The polar axes represents a theta and r-oriented axis. |
| Autoscaler | Describes the autoscaler which is used in Vvidget Builder and sets parameters for other systems as well. |
| Label Mapping | Axis values are shown by their labels. Labels can be mapped into different representations in order to make the relationship between data and graph more understandable. It is the label mapping which defines this attribute. |
| Graphic Attributes | Almost all graphs have some common graphic-related attributes. This section describes them. |
| Non-Linear Graphs | Describes aspects of working with non-linear graphs. |
The following is a list of combinations of axis that can be made via the Graphic Selector in order to form 2 dimensional graphs.
| Axis Combinations That Form Standard Graphs | |
| X-Y Graph | This is the usual graph everyone knows about. It has an x-axis at the bottom and a y-axis on the left and both are linear-axis. |
| X-Date Y-Linear Graph | This graph has the usual y-axis on the left, but the x-axis is a date axis, which can have non-uniform tick placement if the date unit increments nonuniformly, such as for months (February has 28 days and January 31 days for example). |
| X-Linear, 2 Y-Linear Graph | This is the graph you would use if your data had a common x-axis unit, such as distance in meters, but the y-axis units are different, for example one data curve of pressure and the other of temperature. |
| X-Date, 2 Y-Linear Graph | Use this type of graph if the data has x-values in units of seconds since 1970 and there are two different data sets of different y-units. |
| X-Linear, Y-Log | The standard semi-log graph. |
| X-Log, Y-Linear | A semi-log graph where the log coordinate is the x-direction not the y-direction. |
| X-Log, Y-Log | Also known as the log-log plot. |
| X-Date, Y-Log | A date-graph where the amplitude (y-direction) is expressed in log units. |
| Polar | Also called a radar graph. This graph shows the x-axis in terms of angle about a point and the y-axis radially. The angle dimension is the independent variable dimension. |
| Log-R | Also called a log-polar graph. This graph shows the x-axis in terms of angle about a point and the y-axis radially as a log axis. The angle dimension is the independent variable dimension. |
The Vvidget system generalizes combinations of axis to form graphs, so the combinations of axis to form graph can become very large. Vvidget Builder constrains the combinations to the usual types (and in some instance perhaps some very unusual ones).