The following files are included for demonstration purposes (see below):
The following file is Simtel xml file. It is not required for using RtPlot.
Alternatively, you may load a previously saved configuration from XML file by checking the "Use XML configuration file" box. See Section "XML configuration files".
Once the all parameters are set in the initial dialog, click "OK" and a plot window opens with the data plotted. By default the program checks for data file updates about every 1 second. This can be changed by clicking Timer->Set and typing a different number of 1/10 second in the dialog box. For example, typing 1 in the dialog box will set the timer interval to 1/10 second. Setting the update interval to 0 stops checking for file updates. It is also possible to stop checking for updates by right-clicking anywhere on the plot window area and choosing "Freeze" from the floating pop-up menu. Selecting "Unfreeze" in the pop-up menu will re-enable data updates. Selecting "Update" forces an immediate data update no matter what the value of timer interval is.
Depending on the plotting program and the OS, there is a slight chance that RtPlot will try to read its data while the other program writes the data file. If that happens, increase the timer interval. If you are in control of the source code of the program that writes the data, you can add a file lock (e.g. by using the FileLock API) to the program. RtPlot would then wait for the OS to complete the writing of data.
For very large data files on slower computers, parsing the input may take too much CPU time. If that happens, decrease the frequency of the timer as needed.
The x, y ranges can be adjusted either by clicking Plot->Range->x-range (or y-range) in the main menu or "Modify" in the floating pop-up menu. Adjusting the number of x & y "ticks" is similar. Selecting "Line" in the pop-up menu opens sub menu from which it is possible to change color (default black), width (default 1) and style (default solid) of the line. The color is expressed in R-G-B (Re, Green, Blue) units. Each of R, G, B can be any number between 0,255. RGB=(0,0,0) is a black line, RGB=(255,0,0) is a red line, RGB = (0,255,0) is a green line and RGB=(0,0,255) is a blue line. If there are more than a single curve in the window a list of all curves is displayed and the user can select the appropriate curve.
Small data points are added by default to the plotted line. It is possible to change their size by selecting in the floating pop-up menu line->points and choosing the point size. Selecting 0 will eliminate the data points.
By default, RtPlot adds grid lines to its windows. To disable, click Plot in the menu and uncheck "Grid".To add a curve to a window, click plot->add curve from the menu bar. The Add file dialog will open. To delete a curve from a window containing more than a single curve use plot->delete curve. A dialog box will open with a list of curves in the window. Select the curve to delete. For each curve, its file name and the x-y columns it displays are listed.
Listed in the title bar of the plot window are (1) Time of most recent data update, (2) data file names, and (3) the data columns. The time of starting RtPlot appears in the application title bar.
It is possible to open any number of plot windows by clicking File->New Plot in the main menu.
DRAGGING: A useful feature is the ability to drag the plotted data in the plot window and to examine various portions of the plot. This is done by clicking the left mouse button and dragging the mouse while the button is pressed.If you need your plot in GIF format, you may use other tools such as the free command- line utility bmp2gif (downloadable from Simtel) to generate a GIF file from BMP.
To load a plot using an existing configuration file click File and in the "New Plot Information" dialog check the "use XML configuration file" box. A File dialog will open.
Alternatively, a plot defined by a XML configuration file can be loaded on startup using the command line option -x.
The configuration files may be edited using a text editor. RtPlot is somewhat sensitive to the correctness of the XML file. This will probably be improved in a future version. The best way to produce a configuration file is by using the File->Save configuration from the menu, and then edit it if necessary.
Most tags in a configuration file have either self-explanatory names or the same name as in RtPlot menus. The tag line_color has three comma separated values corresponding to RGB values of the color of curves. The line_style tag accepts the values SOLID, DASH, DOT, DASHDOT and DASHDOTDOT. The window_coordinates tag accepts 4 comma separated values: the first & second are the x & y coordinates of the upper left corner of the plot window (point (0,0) is the upper left corner of the workspace area). The other two values are the width & height of the plot window in pixels. If all four values are set to 0 (i.e. <window_coordinates>0,0,0,0</window_coordinates>), RtPlot ignores this tag and uses the Windows default values. Numbers appended to tag names correspond to the various curves in the window.
The package contains a small executable, plottest.exe. Running the executable will
produce three data files: testplot1.txt, testplot2.txt and tesplot12.txt. Initially,
the first two files include data for sin & cosine functions with zero phase and the third file
includes both the sine & cosine data in 3 columns. As time progresses the phase
is changing and the data in the files is updated every 1 second.
Loading files to RtPlot create "moving" sin & cosine plots.
To view the moving sine & cosine type the following two lines in a console window:
start /LOW /B plottest.exe
rtplot -x testplot12.xml
Note: Windows 95/98/ME does not accept the /LOW /B parameters to start. On these systems just omit these parameters in the first line.
You should see a single plot window with two curves (red & green) being updated every second. The first line starts the plottest program in the background. plottest generates the three data files and updates them about every 1/10 second. The second line loads the corresponding configuration files. You may try to reduce the time interval to see faster updates. If the plots are not moving, it is probably because you did not execute correctly the plottest.exe executable. To stop the updates right-click anywhere in the plot window area and select freeze from the popup menu. Selecting later unfreeze will restart the motion of the plots.
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This software cannot be sold or bundled with any commercial package without express written permission from Dov Bai, its author.
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