KMatplot








Mail all questions, suggestions and bug reports to the author or on the mailling list
Python module: Martin Wiechert
Version 0.4

KMatplot is a gnuplot-like tool for plotting data sets in either two or three dimensions. It can plot many types of 2d plots, including pixmaps and contours, and 3d surfaces. It offers a full WYSIWYG mode with multiple objects on a single page. See the screenshot section for more details.

As opposite to Gnuplot, KMatplot is very clickable, so easier to use for unexperienced users. It can be used instead of Gnuplot with Octave and Scilab - there are new dll functions installed in those packages, which communicate with KMatplot through an Unix socket. Those functions are named 'kplot', 'kimage', kmesh', ... and are similar to those found in Octave by default.




News:
19.March.2002 KMatplot 0.4 available !

Main changes:
  • new Qt-only GUI, it requires Qt 3.0.1,
  • new graph wizard.

Example kmatplot session screenshot (139 kB)


19.Jan.2002 KMatplot 0.3.1 available !

Main changes:
  • bugfixes,
  • new python module - functions to transfer data from Numeric Python programs to KMatplot, similar to those for Octave ( Martin Wiechert ),
  • pixmap buffering,
  • updated build system, it should work better under Suse and Debian,
  • examples, see the main menu under Help/Examples.

13.Dec.2001 KMatplot 0.3 available !

Main changes:
  • cut/copy/paste,
  • undo/redo,
  • group/ungroup objects,
  • multiple page documents,
  • axes can be freely added/removed from a graph,
  • formula parser ( still under development ),
  • surfaces and contours can display non-gridded data ( using Delunay triangulation ),
  • colored area under surface, v-gradient, plotting 4d data ( still under development ),
  • custom tics values,
  • fast selecting of graph elements by middle button click,
  • general data storing policy has changed - vectors are stored as columns,
  • many bug fixes.

Example kmatplot session screenshot (119 kB)

24.Jul.2001 - KMatplot crashes after startup on SuSE

See download section

17.Jul.2001 - binary packages for RedHat i386/Alpha

See download section

12.Jul.2001 - new screenshot !

Example kmatplot session screenshot (116 kB)

12.Jul.2001 - new CVS snapshot ( see a download section )

Changes
  • bugfixes: surfaces use row index, autorun from within Octave and Scilab, loads/saves arrow styles, no crashing when loading/saving or deleting objects, Scilab functions updated.
  • global data sheets.
  • rulers added to the page view
  • 3d scatter and trajectory plots

    • 16.Jun.2001 - new CVS snapshot

    		Changes
  • bugfix: surface plots use row index vector now.

    • 1.Jun.2001 - new CVS snapshot

    		Changes
  • exports plots as a pixmap,
  • loading/saving bugs fixed.


    • 17.May.2001 - new CVS snapshot

    		Changes
  • just one more try to remove compile time problems.

    • 15.May.2001 - new CVS snapshot

    		Changes
  • compile time problems ( hopefully ) fixed,
  • added pixmap and contour gradients,
  • smoother GUI,
  • prints pixmaps correctly,
  • other bugfixes.

    • 2.May.2001 - mailling list and CVS repository started !



    FEATURES

    Lets summarize all features:

    • 2D, 3D, pixmap and contour plots,
    • full page or single axes view mode,
    • easy, interactive label placing and editing,
    • zoom and locate tools,
    • XML-based native file format,
    • imports Matlab MAT1.0 and space separated ASCII data sets,
    • exports data in ASCII format,
    • optional OpenGL support for 3d plots ( although all functionality is available without it ),
    • Postscript printing,
    • Octave and Scilab support,
    • can plot large datasets,
    • worksheet,
    • formulas

    There is also a widget library, but currently it isn't distributed as a separate library. See online documentation.


    SCREENSHOTS

    Click on an choosen image below to see a full sized preview image. Some screenshots come with an example file. You can download it, but remember to ungzip any gzipped file before loading it into KMatplot.

    Gallery



    The list of avaliable tools consist of zoom, locate, label, arrow and rectangle.
    Version 0.2



    KMatplot displays RGB, grayscale or palette-based pixmaps.
    Version 0.2



    Contours
    Version 0.2



    Surface. In 3D modes you can change the viewpoint using
    horizontal (azimuth) and vertical (elevation) sliders.
    Version 0.2



    Simple figure drawn with OpenGL.
    Version 0.2



    Example KMatplot session
    Version 0.3



    KMatplot
    Version 0.4



    Example session
    Version 0.4



    Objects drawn with Qt have more OpenGL-like look, now.
    Version 0.4

    Other examples ( ungzip before use. )
    MAT 1.0 file surface.mat.gz (198 kB)
    ASCII file figure.txt.gz (8 kB)
    Native file spaceship.kmp.gz (59 kB)




    DOWNLOAD

    KMatplot is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later version.

    Version 0.4
    Requirements:

    • Qt 3.0.1,
    • MesaGL (3.4.1) or OpenGL library ( recommended, but not required ).

    Version 0.3.1
    Requirements:

    • KDE 2.2,
    • MesaGL (3.4.1) or OpenGL library ( recommended, but not required ).

    Notice that this code is in a development stage, contains bugs, you may have problems compilling it on your computer ( mine is i386 Red Hat Linux 7.2 ).

    Version 0.4
    Distribution Download URL Comments
    Source TAR.GZ kmatplot-0.4.tar.gz ( 940kB ) Installation:
    1. export QTDIR=/usr/local/qt
    2. ./configure --prefix=/usr/local
    3. make install
    Binary files kmatplot-0.4.bin.tar.gz ( 787kB ) Installation:
    1. Copy files to desired location,
    2. run KMatplot,
    3. choose Settings/Configure KMatplot from the main menu and change an install path.

    Program is linked dynamically to Qt library, it requires other libraries to be present too. Here is a LDD output:
    libqt.so.3 => /usr/local/qt/lib/libqt.so.3
    libpng.so.2 => /usr/lib/libpng.so.2
    libz.so.1 => /usr/lib/libz.so.1
    libjpeg.so.62 => /usr/lib/libjpeg.so.62
    libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6
    libresolv.so.2 => /lib/libresolv.so.2
    libGL.so.1 => /usr/lib/libGL.so.1
    libSM.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libSM.so.6
    libICE.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libICE.so.6
    libXext.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXext.so.6
    libXi.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXi.so.6
    libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2
    libGLU.so.1 => /usr/lib/libGLU.so.1
    libXmu.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXmu.so.6
    libstdc++-libc6.2-2.so.3 => /usr/lib/libstdc++-libc6.2-2.so.3
    libm.so.6 => /lib/libm.so.6
    libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6
    libXrender.so.1 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXrender.so.1
    libXt.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXt.so.6
    /lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2
    Version 0.3.1
    Distribution Download URL Comments
    Source TAR.GZ kmatplot-0.3.1.tar.gz ( 850kB ) Notes:
    1. Installing and running in a non-default directory ( example dir: ~/kmatplot )
      1. ./configure --prefix=~/kmatplot
      2. make install
      3. export LDLP=$LDLP:~/kmatplot/lib (LDLP stands for LD_LIBRARY_PATH)
      4. env KDEDIR=~/kmatplot ~/kmatplot/bin/kmatplot
    2. KMatplot will crash immediately after start if it doesn't find its resource files, so it is important to provide a correct KDEDIR (KDEDIRS on Suse) shell variable if the program is not installed in the default directory. Build system fails to detect a default KDE path sometimes, especially on Suse. You can pass KDE path to configure using --prefix option:
      ./configure --prefix=/opt/kde2
    3. If your gcc takes to much system resources when compilling projectxml.cpp file, you will have to stop compilation ( CTRL+C ), turn off all optimization flags, and start it again ( see below commands ):
      export CXXFLAGS="-O0"
      ./configure
      make
    4. SUSE 7.3 fails to compile the program returning error:
      ./aclocal.m4:2508: error: m4_defn: undefined macro: _m4_divert_diversion
      Look at offical Suse explanation. You will have to downgrade autoconf using old SUSE 7.2 packages.
    5. Tips for Debian compilation: Make sure you have the following packages:
      kdebase-dev
      libqt-gl-dev
      octave2.1 (and associates)
      configure with:
      "./configure --prefix=/usr --with-qgl-extension=/usr/lib/libqt-gl.a" The --prefix=/usr is there so that kmatplot goes in with all the other KDE apps and doesn't have any problems finding it's resources.
      (Tips from Timothy Harris)
    i386 RedHat 7.2 kmatplot-0.3.1-1.i386.rpm ( 1.2MB )
    kmatplot-octave-0.3.1-1.i386.rpm
    kmatplot-pyhon-0.3.1-1.i386.rpm
    SRC RedHat 7.2 kmatplot-0.3.1-1.src.rpm ( 1.2MB )
    debian sid kmatplot_0.3.1-1_i386.deb ( 769KB )
    kmatplot_0.3.1-1_i386.changes
    kmatplot_0.3.1-1.dsc     		Thanks to Laurent Jacques
    Suse 7.3 ftp.suse.com Thanks to Suse

    Previous version:

    Distribution Download URL Comments
    Source TAR.GZ kmatplot-0.3.tar.gz ( 850kB )
    Alpha RedHat 7.1 kmatplot-0.3-1.alpha.rpm ( 2.0MB ) Thanks to Laurent Jacques
    debian sid kmatplot_0.3-1_i386.deb ( 1.1MB )
    kmatplot_0.3-1_i386.changes
    kmatplot_0.3-1.dsc     		Thanks to Laurent Jacques



    LINKS

    Useful programs:
    • psedit - converts a postscript output to Xfig and many other formats.

    Other links:
    • KDE - a desktop for UNIX systems.
    • Octave - a freely available matrix language.
    • Scilab - another free scientific software package.


    SourceForge
    Last revision: 19.March.2002