Graph Object

Multiplot graph objects are ubiquitous in AlliGator and are packed with many functionalities. Not all functions are available in al graphs (it wouldn’t make sense to fit a decay model to an intensity histogram, for instance), therefore custom function descriptions will be found in page manuals dealing with each specific graph object. The following will hold for most graphs, with some exceptions.

Graph Object Anatomy

A graph oject is comprised of:

a plot area
a plot legend
two or more graph scales
a graph palette
a scale legend
a cursor legend

Plot Area

The plot area is the rectangular region in which plots are displayed. In the example shown above, a single plot is displayed, but in general, more than one plot will be present. The list of available plots is found on the right in the plot legend.

The apparence of the plot area can be modified in the following manner:

by modifying the range of displayed values (using the X and Y scales directly, or using the graph palette)
by showing or hiding grid lines (using the graph custom menu or the scale legend)

The different actions will be discussed in the respective object’s subsections below.

Plot Legend

The plot legend lists the plots stored in memory. Plot names do not need to be different, but it is easier to distinguish them if they are, especially when the list is long. In that case, a scrollbar will appear on the righthand side of the legend. Move the scrollbar up and down using the mouse wheel to show the name of all plots. Alternatively, use the Index Display control above the legend to select the index of the plot at the top of the list (the first plot has index 0).

Long plot names will not show up fully in the legend, but hovering over a plot name with the mouse will reveal a ‘tooltip’ with the full name of the plot.

Plot names can be edited by clicking in them.

Each plot’s name is preceded by a checkbox, which defines whether or not the plot is actually displayed in the plot area. These checkboxes are also used as ‘selection’ checkboxes to perform custom actions on multiple plots at once, such as for instance saving the selected plots or changing their style. In other words, when performing an action on selected plots, the unselected plots are not visible in the graph.

The small image on the right of each plot name (plot icon) can be clicked on (right or left button) to give access to the standard plot menu.

Custom Graph Menu

The following custom menu (accessible by right-clicking anywhere in the graph except for the plot icons and the cursor table) is specific of the Decay Graph in AlliGator, but many of its items are common to most graphs.

The most common are described next.

Edit Plot: opens the Plot Editor window.
Select All Plots does as it says.
Deselect All Plots as well.
Invert Plots Selection allows rapidly inverting the selected and deselected plots.
Set Style of Selected Plots opens a dialog window to change the style of all selected plots at once.
Delete, Delete Selected Plots and Delete All Plots or Clear Graph are self-explanatory (and irreversible)
Save Plot, Save Selected Plots and Save All Plots allow saving plots as ASCII files (TAB separated columns of floating point numbers).
Load Plot(s) opens a file dialog window with which one or more such ASCII files can be selected and loaded.
Copy Data copies the Graph’s image to the clipboard.
Export: does the same thing as the Export submenu of the plot menu, that is, either export the selected plot data to the clipboard or to Excel
Visible Items

The Visible Items menu allows rapidly hiding/showing all objects except for the Plot Area and Plot Legend using the Tool Panels item (useful for instance to copy/paste the graph image to the Notebook without the Graph Palette, Scale Legend and Cursor Legend), or different objects of the graph individually.

The Grid item of that menu allows rapidly showing/hiding a grid in the Plot Area, rather than using the individual axes menu in the Scale Legend.

Graph Scales

Most graphs have a single X (horizontal) and Y (vertical) scale, but some may have two or more, on either side of the graph (top or bottom for the X scales and left or right for the Y scales).

The visible bounds (min and max) of each scale can be edited by clicking on their respective values. Likewise, the scale title can be modified by clicking on it and editing it.

Further modification can be performed using the Scale Legend.

Scale Legend

The Scale Legend comprises the scale title (editable), an autoscale lock button, a single-autoscale button and a scale options menu.

The autoscale lock enables the graph to adjust its range automatically when a plot is added, so that all selected plots are visible. If this is not desirable, click the button to disable the autoscale option.

The single-autoscale button allows applying autoscale once only.

Finally, the scale options menu shown below provides option to format the scale tick labels, set the displayed precision, and choose between linear and logarithmic scaling. It also enables hiding a scale or only its labels and select the grid color.

Graph Palette

The Graph Palette allows switching between tools to interact with the plot area:

cross: cursor manipulation
magnifying glass: zoom tools to adjust the plot area range(s)
hand: panning of the plot area

Cursor Legend

The Cursor Legend (or Cursor Table) shows the list of available cursors, to which individual cursors can be added (Create Cursor) or can be removed from (Delete Cursor).

The table also gives access to individual cursor properties (style, color, etc.) as well as associated plots, coordinates and plot value(s).

Finally, Bring to Center and Go to Cursor move the selected cursor to the center of the Plot Area or recenter the Plot Area on the selected cursor. The former provides a convenient way to locate a cursor and then fine-tune its location.