A.4 Plot Windows

This section describes the plotting windows introduced at TOPCAT version 4. These provide most of the same functionality as the old-style plot windows, but additionally much more flexibility, configurability, extensibility and better performance and capabilities for making visual sense of very large data sets.

TOPCAT has a number of windows for performing data visualisation of various kinds. These share various characteristics which are described in the first subsection below; the specific windows themselves are described in the later subsections.

Six plot windows are currently available:

• Histogram Plot
• Plane Plot
• Sky Plot
• Cube Plot
• Sphere Plot
• Time Plot

The rest of this section describes the plotting functions in detail.

• A.4.1 Differences From Old-Style Plot Windows
• A.4.2 Plot Window Overview
• A.4.2.1 Navigation
• A.4.2.2 Table Data Layer Controls
• A.4.2.3 Defining Subsets Graphically
• A.4.2.3.1 Subset from Visible
• A.4.2.3.2 Algebraic Subset From Visible
• A.4.2.3.3 Draw Blob Subset
• A.4.2.3.4 Draw Algebraic Subset
• A.4.2.4 Distance Measurement
• A.4.2.5 Plot Export Window
• A.4.3 Fixed Controls
• A.4.3.1 Frame Control
• A.4.3.2 Legend Control
• A.4.3.3 Axes Control
• A.4.3.4 Stilts Control
• A.4.3.5 Aux Axis Control
• A.4.4 Layer Controls
• A.4.4.1 Position Layer Control
• A.4.4.2 Pair Position Layer Control
• A.4.4.3 Quad Position Layer Control
• A.4.4.4 Healpix Layer Control
• A.4.4.5 Histogram Layer Control
• A.4.4.6 Area Layer Control
• A.4.4.7 Spectrogram Layer Control
• A.4.4.8 XYArray Layer Control
• A.4.4.9 Function Layer Control
• A.4.4.10 SkyGrid Layer Control
• A.4.4.11 SphereGrid Layer Control
• A.4.5 Plot Forms
• A.4.5.1 Mark Form
• A.4.5.2 Size Form
• A.4.5.3 SizeXY Form
• A.4.5.4 Vector Form
• A.4.5.5 SkyVector Form
• A.4.5.6 Error Bars Form
• A.4.5.7 XYEllipse Form
• A.4.5.8 SkyEllipse Form
• A.4.5.9 XYCorr Form
• A.4.5.10 SkyCorr Form
• A.4.5.11 Polygon Form
• A.4.5.12 Line Form
• A.4.5.13 Line3d Form
• A.4.5.14 Linear Fit Form
• A.4.5.15 Quantile Form
• A.4.5.16 Label Form
• A.4.5.17 Contour Form
• A.4.5.18 Grid Form
• A.4.5.19 SkyDensity Form
• A.4.5.20 Fill Form
• A.4.5.21 Histogram Form
• A.4.5.22 KDE Form
• A.4.5.23 KNN Form
• A.4.5.24 Densogram Form
• A.4.5.25 Gaussian Form
• A.4.5.26 Link2 Form
• A.4.5.27 Mark2 Form
• A.4.5.28 Poly4 Form
• A.4.5.29 Mark4 Form
• A.4.5.30 Area Form
• A.4.5.31 Central Form
• A.4.5.32 AreaLabel Form
• A.4.5.33 Lines Form
• A.4.5.34 Marks Form
• A.4.5.35 Handles Form
• A.4.5.36 YErrors Form
• A.4.5.37 XYErrors Form
• A.4.5.38 StatLine Form
• A.4.5.39 StatMark Form
• A.4.5.40 ArrayQuantile Form
• A.4.6 Shading Modes
• A.4.6.1 Flat Mode
• A.4.6.2 Translucent Mode
• A.4.6.3 Transparent Mode
• A.4.6.4 Auto Mode
• A.4.6.5 Density Mode
• A.4.6.6 Aux Mode
• A.4.6.7 Weighted Mode
• A.4.7 Colour Maps
• A.4.8 Histogram Plot Window
• A.4.8.1 Histogram Navigation
• A.4.8.2 Histogram Axes Control
• A.4.8.3 Bins Control
• A.4.9 Plane Plot Window
• A.4.9.1 Plane Navigation
• A.4.9.2 Plane Axes Control
• A.4.10 Sky Plot Window
• A.4.10.1 Sky Navigation
• A.4.10.2 Sky Axes Control
• A.4.11 Cube Plot Window
• A.4.11.1 Cube Navigation
• A.4.11.2 Cube Axes Control
• A.4.12 Sphere Plot Window
• A.4.12.1 Sphere Navigation
• A.4.12.2 Sphere Axes Control
• A.4.13 Time Plot Window
• A.4.13.1 Plot Zones
• A.4.13.2 Time Navigation
• A.4.13.3 Time Axes Control