MultiPlot manual

File format


Version 1 file format

Multiplot may be found to be useful for displaying graphical data produced by any suitable application. The x,y coordinate data need only be supplied in suitable CSV file format. In this case the graph will be drawn using the default choices settings.

File format

The data file should have the filetype aa0 (in hex) which has the filetype name 'MultiPlt'.

The first line of the data file must be simply PLOTDATA. This is then followed by the point and line data for each object in seqence in CSV format. It is not necessary for an object to have both point and line data. Finally the graph title and x and y axis titles complete the file. Thus a simple data file might look like the following.

PLOTDATA
1,1
2,2
3,3
4,4
5,5
END OF POINTS
END OF LINE
END OF PLOTDATA
This will produce a graph with just five points, but without a line. Note the first line PLOTDATA. This is essential, since MultiPlot uses this to confirm that the file is a MultiPlot file. This is then followed by the five data points, the x and y value separated by a comma, and each point on a new line. There then comes the token END OF POINTS. This signifies the end of the point data. There would now follow the data for the line associated with this set of points. As there is no line, the token END OF LINE follows immediately. There would now follow the next set of point and line data. However, there is no more, so the token END OF PLOTDATA immediately follows.

The following two examples show, on the left a file with one set of points and line, and on the right a file with three sets of points, but no lines. The data sets have been edited to reduce the size.

PLOTDATA
1,0.71
1.5,1.8
2,3.5
2.5,5.8
3,8.895
4,17
5,29
6,44
7,62.5
8,84
9,111
10,142
END OF POINTS
1,0.708
1.045,0.7841
1.09,0.864
1.135,0.9482
1.18,1.037
1.225,1.130
1.27,1.228
1.315,1.3305

(lots more data for the line)

9.595,128.74
9.64,130.14
9.685,131.54
9.73,132.95
9.775,134.37
9.82,135.800
9.865,137.236
9.91,138.681
9.955,140.134
10,141.596
END OF LINE
END OF PLOTDATA

PLOTDATA
1,2.20
2,2.40
3,2.59
4,2.79
5,3
6,3.20
7,3.40
8,3.59
9,3.79
10,4
END OF POINTS
END OF LINE
1,4.30
2,4.59
3,4.90
4,5.19
5,5.5
6,5.80
7,6.09
8,6.40
9,6.69
10,7
END OF POINTS
END OF LINE
1,6.40
2,6.80
3,7.19
4,7.59
5,8
6,8.39
7,8.80
8,9.19
9,9.60
10,10
END OF POINTS
END OF LINE
END OF PLOTDATA

The final data that can be included in a version 1 file are the details for the graph title and axis titles. This data is optional, but if present would take the following form. The data immediately follows the END OF PLOTDATA token. The data is in ASCII text format. The graph title consists of the token T: followed by the text. The x and y axis titles begin with the tokens X: and Y: respectively. For example, the end of the file might look like the following.

END OF LINE
END OF PLOTDATA
T:Breakdown curves for Thiophene, (C|D4|UH|D4|US)
X:energy/eV
Y:intensity/%

This data would result in the captions shown in the example below.

Note that the graph title includes subscripts, and the vertical text movements are implemented by the tokens |D and |U. The tokens implemented are as follows.

|UMoves the following text up by half a line height
|DMoves the following text down by half a line height
|NDisplays following text in plain text style
|BDisplays following text in bold text style
|IDisplays following text in italic text style
|SDisplays following text in symbol (greek) text style
||Used on the rare occasion when the pipe character (|) is required in the text


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MultiPlot is © Chris Johnson, 2014
Email:chris@chris-johnson.org.uk

This document last modified on 15th August 2015