Matplotlib

Plotting via matplotlib

The genie_python distribution of python includes a powerful plotting library called matplotlib.

Matplotlib is a highly customizable, general purpose plotting library capable of producing a wide variety of plot types.

Matplotlib documentation

• matplotlib.pyplot API reference
• Matplotlib tutorials
• Matplotlib examples

Quick-start

To import matplotlib

import matplotlib.pyplot as pyplot

To create (and show) an example plot

pyplot.plot(range(10))
pyplot.show()

To remove all plots and start with a completely clean screen

pyplot.close('all')

To plot a constantly-updating sin wave

from math import sin
from time import time, sleep
while True:
    pyplot.clf()
    pyplot.plot([sin(x/1000.0 + time()) for x in range(10000)])
    pyplot.draw()
    sleep(0.05)

Plotting spectra

genie_python includes commands to quickly plot the neutron spectra on an instrument.

Example usages:

# Open a single plot
g.plot_spectrum(1)

# Open a figure and add several spectra to it
graph = g.plot_spectrum(1)
graph.add_spectrum(2)
graph.add_spectrum(3, period=2)

Using matplotlib within the IBEX GUI

The IBEX user interface includes a python scripting window. When plotting graphs within IBEX, matplotlib is configured to display the plot within the IBEX gui.

Note: this is new functionality as of July 2018. If you prefer matplotlib windows to spawn separately from the main IBEX window, you can type the matplotlib command:

matplotlib.use('Qt4Agg')

This needs to be typed before any matplotlib functionality is used for it to take effect.