SciFigs library

1.0.0

SciFigs library gathers several C++/ Qt widgets containing 2D representation of curves, dots, cartesian grids, polar grids, ... with horizontal and vertical axis (QtbAxisWindow). Some other special objects are also available to display Text (QtbTextEdit), Color Palettes (QtbColorPaletteWidget), and bitmap images (QtbImageWidget).

SciFigs is not a professional library, but rather a series of tools that I developed during my Phd to achieve representations of scientific results. I tried to minimize the user actions necessary between the computation of results by any C++ or Fortran code and the production of high quality figures ready for publication.

All objects can be drawn on the screen as well as on any support: bitmap file (PNG, JPEG, BMP, ...), Postscript, high resolution printer, ... On the screen, all objects may appear on a sheet (QtbGraphicSheet) or as a child of other regular QWidget (e.g. in dialog box). Even when docked in a dialog box, the user can send the object to an external support. The printing properties (size and position counted in cm) are part of the object itself.

All properties of objects can be modified either by the developer inside the calculation code, by the user in an interactive way through dialog boxes, or by reloading existing ".mkup" files. ".mkup" files have an XML format and store all properties of objects. For QtbAxisWindow, the data part of the plot is not saved in such files. An extension to the ".mkup" format is provided by ".page" files which store both data and appearance. ".page" is the usual format for saving a whole sheet containing several objects.

QtbAxisWindow includes a simple but powerful layering mechanism. The content of graphs is made of layers. Each layer may be typed to plot curves, dots, cartesian grids, polar grids. Either the developer or the user can play with this layering to compare calculation results.

The application called "figue" shows a basic use of QtbGraphicSheet (see figure). It is also used to construct figures from a series of data plots grabbed here and there in calculation applications that uses the Scifigs library.

Snapshot of figue application with intensive use of SciFigs library

Download

SciFigs library is distributed with sesarray package available at http://www.geopsy.org/download.html . It depends upon other geopsy project like qtbdebugtools, qtbtools, and qtbguitools also distributed in sesarray package.

Platforms

Linux, Mac OS X and Windows were successfully tested. No tests were currently carried out for Unix platforms but according to Qt portability, this cannot be a real problem. The current version requires at least Qt 4.1.

Installation

See http://www.geopsy.org/download.html for all installation details.

figue application

figue application is not included in the library package but it is a usual complement. It is distributed in sesarray package. You can download it and get install instructions at http://www.geopsy.org/download.html

Author

All sources and documentation are written by Marc Wathelet.

Any comments and suggestions are pretty welcome, both about this document and about the library itself.

License

There is no particular restriction for GPL projects to include this library out of the terms of the version 2 of the GNU Public License. For commercial softwares with proprietary sources, the use of the GPL license is strictly forbidden. If requested, a commercial license of the same type of the Qt dual license may be elected.

SciFigs library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

SciFigs library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with SciFigs library; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA

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