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Keyin Input for Plotting (obsolete)

This section describes the use of Keyin inputs to control the plotting functions. This has been superceeded by the control panel scheme of inputs, but the documentation will be retained until the capability is removed.

If the TERMINAL button is pressed on the plot control panel, SCHED reverts to Keyin style input from the main window in which it is running to control the plots. First, SCHED writes a description of the possible input parameters, which are also described below, and then prompts for KEYIN style input. The user should specify any desired quantities and then type a ``/''. If the user is on a machine with X windows graphics, simply taking all the defaults will cause a u-v plot of all sources and scans in the project to appear on the screen.

The inputs can be used to choose between u-v plots, xy, and Ra-Dec plots. For u-v plots, the scale can be specified and a station can be selected for which, on color displays, the baselines to that station will be highlighted (displayed in red). Also the source to be plotted can be specified. XY plots are a bit more complicated because they are more flexible. The quantity to plot on each axis can be selected, the scales specified and the station and source chosen to be one or all. See the details of the input parameters below. In addition, the plot can be restricted to scans that use one of the setup files. This can be useful for assessing band switching observations.

The input parameters are not reset between runs of the plotting. Thus the user need only specify those items that he/she wishes to change. Some of the built in KEYIN capabilities can be useful here. If you type SHOW, KEYIN will list the input variables and their current values. HELP generates a list of the variables. Also you can type SAVE filename and KEYIN will write a file with name filename in the default area containing the current parameter settings. Later, perhaps in another run of SCHED, you can type @filename to recover those parameters. The parameter file can be edited -- it is a normal KEYIN input file (actually any file can be read with the @filename construct, although only up to the first ``/'').

Plotting Input Parameters (Terminal):

The KEYIN inputs to the plotting section of SCHED are:

PLotfile

PLOTfile gives the output specification for the plot. As with any PGPLOT programs, it is in the form filename/device. For interactive devices, the filename need not be specified. The default device is /xs which is a good choice for X windows systems. Other devices most likely to be of interest are /ps for a postscript file and /cps for a color postscript file. See PGPLOT documentationPGPLOT documentation for other options (more will be listed here in the future). The device can be changed at any time. If it is changed, the old one will be closed and the new one opened. This allows the plot to be set up interactively, and then put out in postscript for printing.

SEtnum

When the plotting section is entered the first time, information is written to the screen about possible input options. Among the information presented is a numbered list of the setup files encountered in the input. With SEtnum, one of those setup files can be selected by number (avoids lots of typing since setup file names often include full paths and can be quite long). Then the plot will only show scans which use that setup file.

TYpe

TYpe is used to specify the type of plot. The option are UV, which is the default, XY, and RD. UV causes a plot of the spatial frequency coverage to be plotted. For now, the scale on the plot is km. An expected enhancement eventually is for this to optionally be in wavelengths. For XY plots, there are a variety of options which are specified with XAxis and YAxis, which independently specify the quatantity plotted on each axis. RD requests that the locations of the sources in the schedule be plotted in Ra and Dec.

XAxis

XAxis specifies the quantity to be plotted on the horizontal axis in a TYPE=XY plot. The options are el for elevation, az for azimuth, pa for paralactic angle (for polarization), ha for hour angle, ut for universal time, and gst for Greenwich Sidereal time.

YAxis

YAxis specifies the quantitiy to be plotted on the vertical axis in a TYPE=XY plot. The options are el for elevation, az for azimuth, pa for paralactic angle, and ha for hour angle. If xaxis=az and yaxis=el, the antenna horizons will be plotted along with the source tracks.

XLeft and XRight

XLeft and XRight specify the minimum and maximum for the X axis plot scale. If they are not set, or are set to -9999., the axis will be autoscaled. For u-v plots, it is only necessary to specify one value, say XMax, and it will be used for all 4 limits. If more than one are specified, they are used which allows off center plots. For XY plots, the limits should be specified in the units of the plots. For the time axis, the limits should be in the form hh:mm:ss where this is the time offset since the beginning of the first day of the experiment for UT or is the GST. Note for u-v plots, traditionaly, the plot has positive to the left so XLeft will be greater than XRight. For Ra-Dec plots, XLeft and XRight specify the RA range and should be in the form hh:mm:ss (eg. XL = 5:30:00).

YBottom and YTop

YBottom and YTop specify the minimum and maximum for the Y axis plot scale. If they are not set, or are set to -9999., the axis will be autoscaled. For Ra-Dec plots, YBottom and YTop specify the declination limits and should be in the form dd:mm:ss (eg. YB = -12:15:00).

SOurce

SOurce can be used to restrict the plots to a single source. The default, which can be specified at any time is ALL, which will cause all sources to be plotted.

STation

STation can be used to restrict TYPE=XY plots to one station. For TYPE=UV plots, all stations will be plotted, but all baselines to the specified station will be plotted in a contrasting color. The default, which may be specified at any time, is ALL, which will cause all stations to be plotted or not highlighted.

REstart

See the discussion above for details of the effect of REstart. In short, it causes the program to return to the beginning and reread the input, which may have changed.

FInish

FInish tells SCHED to close the plot files and produce the station specific output files. FInish is locked out after a REstart to make absolutely sure that the output files really correspond to what is in the schedule file. If REstart has been used, it will be necessary to EXit and rerun SCHED from scratch to get the station output files.

EXit

EXIT tells SCHED to close the plot files and exit. Antenna specific files will not be produced.


next up previous contents
Next: INFORMATION AND ADVICE ON Up: Plotting Previous: Plotting   Contents
Craig Walker 2014-04-14