Overview
This section describes the graphics devices that are currently supported and then briefly describes the commands in each of the graphics functional modules.
Graphics Devices
There are two graphics "devices" currently supported.
- XWINDOWS is a general windowing system running on most
- high-resolution, bit-mapped graphics workstations.
- SGF is a general purpose device driver representing a
- large class of actual physical devices.
Each device is described in more detail below.
XWINDOWS (or X for short) is a windowing scheme developed under the industry-financed Athena project at MIT. X employs what is called a network model, where a single process or server controls the screen display. Other programs send requests to this server when they want to modify part of the screen. X is widely used on the graphics workstation and offers one of the best frameworks for developing portable window-based applications. (A problem with backward compatibility on many platforms is that the location of the X11 libraries may change.)
Beginning with v101.5, after an image has been displayed on the terminal using X11, command SAVEIMG can be used to create a high-definition Postscript or PDF file of the displayed image. See SAVEIMG for details.
SGF stands for SAC Graphics File. A SAC Graphics File contains all the information needed to generate a single plot on any graphics device. (Using the current computer jargon, these are called graphics "metafiles.") Each plot is stored in a separate file. The file names are of the form "Fnnn.SGF" where "nnn" is the plot number, beginning with "001". You can control some features of this file name using the SGF command. The program SGFTOPS can convert a SGF file to postscript, and scrpts are provided to print the files and/or convert them to PDF format. See sac/utils/README_utils for details.
Graphics Control Module
These commands control device selection and certain aspects of the display.
| BEGINDEVICES: | selects one or more graphics devices for plotting and |
|---|---|
| ENDDEVICES: | deselects plotting to those devices. |
| ERASE: | erases the graphics display area, |
| VSPACE: | controls the maximum size and shape of plots, and |
| SGF: | controls certain options for the SAC Graphics File device. |
Graphics Action Module
The commands in this module are mostly action-producing ones that create plots in various formats.
| PLOT: | plots each signal in memory on a separate plot. |
|---|---|
| PLOT1: | plots a set of signals on a single plot with a common x axis and separate y axes. |
| PLOT2: | plots a set of signals on a single plot with common x and y axes (i.e. an overlay plot). |
| PLOTPK: | produces a plot for the picking of arrival times, seismic phases, coda, etc. The format is similiar to that of PLOT1. A cursor is used to do the picking. The picks go into the header and can also be written into a HYPO pick file (OHPF) or an alphanumeric pick file (OAPF). |
| PLOTPM: | generates a "particle-motion" plot on pairs of signals. |
| FILEID: | controls the display of a file identification and |
| FILENUMBER: | controls the display of file numbers on the sides of plots. |
| PICKS: | controls the display of time picks on these plots. |
| SETDEVICE: | lets you select a default graphics device to be used when plotting. |
| PLOTC: | notates SAC plots and creates figures using cursor. |
| PLOTALPHA: | reads alphanumeric data files on disk into memory and plots the data to the current output device. |
| PLOTDY: | creates a plot with error bars. |
| PLOTXY: | plots one or more data files versus another data file. |
| PRINT: | prints most recent .sgf file in memory. |
| SAVEIMG: | saves displlayed image in one of several formats. |
Graphics Environment Module
The commands in this module are mostly parameter-setting ones that control various parts of the plots produced by the Graphics Action Module.
| XLIM: | control the plot limits for the y axes. |
|---|---|
| YLIM: | control the plot limits for the x axes |
| XVPORT: | control the location of the plot within the plotting area |
| YVPORT: | control the location of the plot within the plotting area |
| TITLE: | specify a title (TITLE) |
| XLABEL: | x axes labels |
| YLABEL: | y axes labels |
| PLABEL: | set of general plot labels |
There are several commands that control the displaying of the data itself:
| LINE: | controls linestyle selection and fill options |
|---|---|
| SYMBOL: | controls symbol plotting, and |
| COLOR: | controls color selection. |
| GTEXT: | controls the quality and font of text used in plots and |
| TSIZE: | controls the text size attributes. If you are using a multi-windowing workstation, you can use the WINDOW command to set the location and shape of the graphics windows and the |
| BEGINWINDOW: | command to select a specific graphics window for plotting. |
| BEGINFRAME: | turns off automatic new frame actions between plots and |
| ENDFRAME: | resumes automatic new frame actions. Combined with other graphics commands (especially XVPORT and YVPORT), these two commands can be used to create fairly complicated plots. |
| XLIN: | set the x axis to linear scaling |
| XLOG: | set the x axis to logarithmic scaling |
| YLIN: | set the y axis to linear scaling |
| YLOG: | set the y axis to logarithmic scaling |
| LINLIN: | to set the scaling for both axes, x-linear, y-linear |
| LINLOG: | to set the scaling for both axes, x-linear, y-log |
| LOGLIN: | to set the scaling for both axes, x-log, y-linear |
| LOGLOG: | to set the scaling for both axes, x-log, y-log |
| XDIV: | control the spacing between labeled divisions |
| YDIV: | control the spacing between labeled divisions |
| XFUDGE: | change the "fudge factors" on the x axis |
| YFUDGE: | change the "fudge factors" on the y axis |
| AXES: | control the location of labeled axes |
| TICKS: | control the location of tick marks. |
| GRID: | control the plotting of grid lines |
| BORDER: | control the plotting of a surrounding border. |
| XGRID: | that let you independently control gridding on the x axis |
| YGRID: | that let you independently control gridding on the y axis |
| QDP: | allows one to speed up plotting by NOT plotting each data point. |
There are several commands which control the display of logarithmic axes:
| XFULL: | control the plotting of full logarithmic decades, |
|---|---|
| YFULL: | control the plotting of full logarithmic decades, |
| LOGLAB: | controls the plotting of secondary labels, and |
| FLOOR: | puts a minimum value on logarthimically scaled data. |
| LOADCTABLE: | allows the user to select a new color table for use in image plots. |
| WAIT: | tells SAC whether or not to pause between plots. |
| WIDTH: | controls line-width selection for graphics devices. |
| NULL: | controls the plotting of null values. |