Special Features
- Wallpaper
If you've just completed adjusting a display to exactly the way you want
it you can save it for display in another session. But why wait? Use
the Edit/Set Wallpaper menu option to change the desktop wallpaper to
a centered image of what you see in gbPlot Enhanced.
- Slideshow Mode
Chose the Options/Slideshow menu option and watch gbPlot Enhanced cycle
endlessly through the complete list of equations. An approximate 2 second
delay is used between each image.
- Angled Startup
With gbPlot Enhanced you can have the image automatically rotated so
that you can see the 3D nature of the image. This feature saves you
a lot of time when you want to scroll through the equations, looking
for a particular image - by eliminating the need to use the mouse to
manually rotate each image.
- AutoSave Images
When you pick the File/Save Image to File menu option, the freeware version
of gbPlot saves the image to a file that is always named "gbPlot.bmp".
With gbPlot Enhanced you can have the image file automatically named to
"gbPlt001.bmp", with subsequent saves incrementing the filename as
"gbPlt002.bmp", "gbPlt003.bmp", ...
When the filename reaches "gbPlt999.bmp", it will recycle to "gbPlt001.bmp".
You can use this to capture many images in a sequence - such as when you're
automatically rotating the gbPlot Enhanced image and want to capture
several images to support building an Automated GIF of the rotation.
- Batch Load of User-Defined Equations
Do you have your own list of equations to add to gbPlot Enhanced?
gbPlot Enhanced will add a list of equations from a simple text file
(which must be named "batch.txt", and which is located in the gbPlot folder).
Use the Equations/Batch Load Equations menu option to add the contents of
the text file to the existing equation list. This can be much faster than
loading the equations one at at time within gbPlot Enhanced.
Don't forget to save the list when you exist (gbPlot Enhanced will
automatically remind you to save any changes made to the equation list)!
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Sample Equation Plots
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Main Window
gbPlot allows the user to create a 3D plot using equations of the form
z=f(x,y). A default list of equations is supplied with gbPlot
and the user may edit that list, including the plot boundary parameters.
The built-in spreadsheet may also be used to input the z values to
be plotted, or those values may be imported from an Excel spreadsheet.
VRML is used as the display file format. Every time a new image is displayed,
gbPlot creates a temporary file, 'gbPlot.wrl', which contains the VRML
code for that image. To save a particular display, simply rename the
gbPlot.wrl file to a name of your choice. Display of subsequent images
will recreate the gbPlot.wrl file as needed.
gbPlot consists of two windows, the Main window which contains the display
and a a Data window which contains the z values to be plotted (in a
spreadsheet format).
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Toolbar
You will spend most of your time using the toolbar, which consists of the
following functions:
- Save
- Copy Image
- New Equation
- Delete Equation
- Show Equations
- Show Data Window
- Up
- Down
- Left
- Right
- Increase XY Window
- Decrease XY Window
- Increase Scale Factor
- Decrease Scale Factor
- Set Scale Factor to 1
- Set Scale Factor to 0
- Set increment value (Delta)
- Show VRML Display Controls
- Apply Anti-aliasing
- Set Home Position
- Go To Home Position
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Menus
The menu options of the Main window are:
- File
- Save Equations
- Save Image to File
- Revert
- Print / Equations
- Print / Data
- Exit
- Edit
- Copy Image to Clipboard
- Set Wallpaper
- Equations
- Get Equation From Web
- Go To Equation Web Page
- Submit Equation
- New Equation
- Delete Equation
- Batch Load Equations
- Set to Default Values
- Next
- Prior
- Move to Top
- Move to Bottom
- Move Up
- Move Down
- Sort by Equation
- Sort by Description
- Randomize Equations
- Options
- Step Lock
- Verify Add/Delete
- Increment BMP Filenames
- Slideshow
- VRML
- Controls
- Anti-Aliasing
- AutoClipping
- Fog
- Headlight
- Angled Startup
- Viewer Type (Examiner/Fly/Walk/Plane)
- AutoHome
- Set Home
- Go To Home
- Source
- Help
- OnLine Help
- Function List
- Update gbPlot
- gbPlot Pro
- About
Additionally, right mouse clicking on the equation list will present
the following menu options which act on the equation list:
- New
- Delete
- Move To Top
- Move to Bottom
- Move Up
- Move Down
- Set To Default Values
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VRML Source Window
Each time the gbPlot display changes a file "gbPlot.wrl" is written with
the VRML code for the display. The VRML code is simple text and gbPlot uses
the Windows program Notepad to display the content of the file. To save
a copy of the .WRL file, simply use Notepad's 'File/Save As' menu function
to rename the file.
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Shortcut Keys
If you'd rather use the keyboard to get around gbPlot, these shortcut
keys are available:
- F1 HELP
- F3 Move to Next Equation in List
- F4 Move to Prior Equation in List
- F5 Move Equation to Top
- F6 Move Equation to Bottom
- F7 Move Equation Up One Position
- F8 Move Equation Down One Position
- F9 Retrieve equation from web site
- Ctrl+B - Batch load of user-defined equations
- Ctrl+C - Copy image to clipboard
- Ctrl+D - Set equations parameters to default values
- Ctrl+F - Show list of functions which may be used in equations
- Ctrl+G - Go to home position
- Ctrl+H - Set home position
- Ctrl+I - Turn on antialiasing of the VRML image
- Ctrl+N - Add new equation
- Ctrl+P - Print equation list (text format)
- Ctrl+R - Revert to saved equation list (lose changes)
- Ctrl+S - Save changes to equation list
- Ctrl+U - Update gbPlot
- Ctrl+W - Set wallpaper image
- Ctrl+X - Delete equation
- Ctrl+Y - Toggle slideshow mode
Home
This page provides the latest online Help information for gbPlot.
gbPlot provides a complete set of 3D equation plotting features.
