DRAW SYMBOL

DRAW SYMBOL

Diagrammatic Graphics Command

Draw characters at specified positions using the CHARACTER attributes.

On occasion, you may have a plot that utilizes a large set of MOVE and TEXT commands to provide annotation for the plot. The DRAW SYMBOL command provides an alternative method for doing this. Although this command provides the same functionality as the sequence of MOVE and TEXT commands, it may provide significantly better performance.

The basic syntax for this command is

DRAW SYMBOL XPOS YPOS TAG

where XPOS and YPOS are variables that denote the x and y coordinates and TAG is a variable that denotes an index value (from 1 to 100) for the CHARACTER command and the associcated attribute setting commands for CHARACTER (e.g., CHARACTER JUSTIFICATION, CHARACTER SIZE). For example,

LET XPOS = DATA 35 55
LET YPOS = DATA 40 55
LET TAG = DATA 1 2
CHARACTER - +
CHARACTER COLOR RED BLUE
DRAW SYMBOL XPOS YPOS TAG


will draw a "-" symbol in red at position (35,55) and a "+" symbol at position (40,55) in blue.

If one of the arguments is a parameter rather than a variable, the parameter value will be used for all rows.

You can specify screen or data coordinates in the standard way (e.g., DRAWDATA SYMBOL, DRAWSD SYMBOL).

These commands were motivated to provide performance improvements to the 10-step macros for 2-level full and fractional factorial designs. However, they may have use outside of that context. Specifically, if you have a number of symbols to add to a plot, using the DRAW SYMBOL command may be significantly faster than a series of MOVE and TEXT commands.

DRAWxx <xpos> <ypos> <tag>
where <xpos> is a number, parameter or variable that specifies the x coordinates;
            <ypos> is a number, parameter or variable that specifies the y coordinates;
            <tag> is a number, parameter or variable that specifies an index for the CHARACTER and its associated attribute setting commands;
and xx specifies a mix of screen and data units.

These agruments can be a mix of parameters and variables. However, all arguments specified as variables must be the same length. If an argument is specified as a parameter or a number, that value will be used for all rows.

The "xx" string is optional and consists of two characters where each character is either "S" to deonote screen units or "D" to denote data units. The first character specifies the units for the x coordinates and the second character specifies the units for the y coordinates. The "xx" can also be set to DATA in which case both the x and y coordinates specify data units.

For screen units, all values should be in the 0 to 100 range. Data units are in the units of the most recent plot.

The <tag> variable should contain integer values in the range 1 to 100.

DRAW SYMBOL XPOS YPOS TAG
DRAWSD SYMBOL XPOS YPOS TAG
DRAWDATA SYMBOL XPOS YPOS TAG

The actual character drawn is determined by the values of the CHARACTER command. The attributes for the character are determined by the various CHARACTER attribute setting commands.

Often when using the DRAW SYMBOL command, we need to set a specific CHARACTER or CHARACTER attribute setting without setting the entire list. For example, we may want to set the attributes for character trace 20 without setting or changing the attributes for traces 1 to 19. The LET PLOT command provides a convenient way to do this.

None

None

MOVE	=	Moves to a point.
TEXT	=	Writes a text string.
DRAW	=	Draw a line between two points.
CHARACTERS	=	Sets the types for plot characters.
CHARACTER ANGLE	=	Sets the angle for plotting characters with the text command.
CHARACTER AUTOMATIC	=	Specifies a variable to be used as the arguments to the CHARACTER command.
CHARACTER CASE	=	Sets the cases for plot characters.
CHARACTERS COLORS	=	Sets the colors for plot characters.
CHARACTER FILL	=	Sets the fill switches for plot characters.
CHARACTER FONT	=	Sets the fonts for plot characters.
CHARACTER HW	=	Sets the heights and widths for plot characters.
CHARACTER JUSTIFICATION	=	Sets the justifications for plot characters.
CHARACTER OFFSET	=	Sets the offsets for plot characters.
CHARACTERS SIZES	=	Sets the sizes for plot characters.
CHARACTER THICKNESS	=	Sets the thicknesses for plot characters.
CHARACTER WIDTH	=	Sets the widths for plot characters.
LET PLOT	=	Set values for the CHARACTER, LINE, SPIKE, BAR and REGION commands (and their associated attribute setting commands).

Plot Annotation

2018/03

 
. Step 1:   Generate an initial plot
.
plot x**2 for x = 1 1 9
.
. Step 2:   Now use draw symbol command
.
let x1  = data 2 4 6 8
let y1  = data 50 30 70 80
let tag = data 1 2 3 4
.
character blank all
let plot character 1 = A
let plot character 2 = B
let plot character 3 = C
let plot character 4 = D
character color blue red blue red
character font simplex all
character size 4 all
.
drawds symbol x1 y1 tag