ControlPlots

Introduction

This package provides the following features:

• simple plots can be created with the plot() function
• an oscilloscope-like plot with multiple channels can be created with the plotx() function
• an XY plot can be created with the plotxy() function
• pan and zoom are supported
• LaTeX can be used for the labels
• the parameters of the plot commands are stored in a struct and returned
• this struct can be displayed again or stored in a file and loaded, the labels etc can be edited and a new plot can be displayed or exported

Planned features

TODO

• add support for PythonPlot
• allow changing of the caption
• the save() function should allow storing a plot as jld2, pdf or png file
• add bode plots

The goal of this package is to provide simple plots for control system developers and students.

Installation

Installation on Linux

On Linux

First, install matplotlib:

sudo apt install python3-matplotlib

If not done yet, create a project:

mkdir MyProject
cd MyProject
julia --project="."

and install ControlPlots

using Pkg
pkg"add ControlPlots"

Installation on Windows

On Windows

If not done yet, create a project:

mkdir MyProject
cd MyProject
julia --project="."

Install Python, matplotlib and ControlPlots

using Pkg
ENV["PYTHON"]=""
pkg"add ControlPlots"

Usage

Basic example

Launch Julia with julia --project. Then execute:

using ControlPlots, LaTeXStrings

X = 0:0.1:2pi
Y = sin.(X)
p = plot(X, Y, xlabel=L"\alpha = [0..2\pi]", ylabel="sin", fig="basic")

A plot window like this should pop up:

The package LaTeXStrings is only required if you want to use LaTeX for any of your labels like in the example above. You need to prefix LaTeX strings with the letter L.

You can now close the plot window. You can re-display the plot by typing:

p

You can also save the plot under a name of your choice:

save("plot.jld2", p)

Now you restart Julia and load it with:

using ControlPlots
p = load("plot.jld2")

The plot is automatically displayed.

Multi-channel plot

using ControlPlots

T = 0:0.1:2pi
Y1 = sin.(T)
Y2 = cos.(T)
p = plotx(T, Y1, Y2; ylabels=["Y1", "Y2"], fig="dual")

The optional parameter `ysize` can be used to change the size of the y-axis labels. The default value is 14 points.

XY-Plot

using ControlPlots

T = 0:0.05:2pi+0.1
X = sin.(T)
Y = cos.(3T)
p = plotxy(X, Y, xlabel="X", ylabel="Y", fig="xy")

n-in-one Plot

You can plot multiple time series in one plot, e.g. like this:

using ControlPlots

x   = 1.5*ones(11)
y   = 1:0.1:2
out = min.(x, y)
plot(1:11, [x, y, out]; labels=["input_a", "input_b", "output"], 
     fig="2-in-one")

Dual y-axis

using ControlPlots

T = 0:0.05:2pi+0.1
POS_Z = sin.(T)
VEL_Z = 5*cos.(T)
plot(T, POS_Z, VEL_Z; xlabel="time [s]", 
     ylabels=["pos_z [m]", "vel_z [m/s]"], 
     labels=["pos_z", "vel_z"], fig="dual_y-axis")

2D video

A video-like display of a particle system (points, connected by lines) can be created with the function plot2d. Example:

using ControlPlots

t = 0
x0 = 2.0
z0 = 0.0
for t in 0:0.1:5
    global x0, z0
    plot2d([[1,0,0], [x0,0,z0]], t; segments=1)
    x0 += 0.1; z0 += 0.1
    sleep(0.1)
end

When the function is called at t=0 the line, dot and text objects are created. Each time afterwords these objects are just moved/ updated. Therefore, the update is very fast and you can achieve a high frame rate. With 10 points you can achieve a framerate of 20 Hz or more, depending on the speed of your hardware.

Advanced usage

This library uses Matplotlib as backend, and you can change all settings of rcParams as you wish. Example: Using an already installed LaTeX installation for high-quality rendering of LaTeX labels and other text:

More beautiful LaTeX

rcParams = plt.PyDict(plt.matplotlib."rcParams")
rcParams["text.usetex"] = true

Just add this at the beginning of your script. You can change fonts, font sizes, colors etc.

More beautiful GUI

If you add the following line to your .bashrc file or to the script you use to start Julia:

export MPLBACKEND=qt5agg

you get a more beautiful GUI. This does not work on every PC, therefore it is not the default.