Re: Contour plots

[Brooks Moses <bmoses@stanford.edu>]

(Apologies for the rather out-of-date reply, but I just came across this
when clearing out my inbox.)

On Fri, Jan 28, 2005 at 01:07:14PM -0800, Jeffrey A. Edlund wrote:
> I just started using ePiX.  I've read through most of the manual and
> looked at the sample document.  I was wondering if ePiX can generate
> contour plots from datasets.
>
> I have a 25x25 data set x,y,z and I need to plot the curves of constant
> z.  I know that gnuplot and a few other programs can do this but I'd
> rather have the superior quality and LaTeX integration of ePiX.

You might find my "metacontour" code useful as a starting point.  It
integrates with Metapost, not ePiX, but it should be straightforward to
convert it into something that would work with ePiX -- the logic will
all be the same, and it's just a matter of changing the "draw a line"
routines.  It is still rather a work in progress, though; the most
notable omission at this point is a means of reading input files.

The latest version, along with a TUGboat article introducing it (and
describing how it integrates with Metapost), is available on CTAN, here:
  http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/graphics/metaplot/examples/

(Also, Andy, if you do want to put contour-plot capabilities into ePiX,
feel free to borrow whatever of my code is useful; it's all GPL.)

- Brooks