JKQtPlotter/examples/paramvectorfield/README.md

Example (JKQTPlotter): Vector Field Plot Example

This project (see paramvectorfield demonstrates the use of JKQTPParametrizedVectorFieldGraph to visualize a vector field with additional information encoded in the color of the vectors.

The source code of the main application is (see paramvectorfield.cpp.

Here is a short summary of the important parts of the code:

    // 1. setup a plotter window and get a pointer to the internal datastore (for convenience)
    JKQTPlotter plot;
    JKQTPDatastore* ds=plot.getDatastore();


    // 2. make up some arbitrary data to be used for plotting
    //    this generates a 2D grid of x/y-coordinates and then calculates dx=cos(y)*sqrt(x/3.0) and dy=sin(x)*sqrt(x/3.0)
    const auto columnXY=ds->addLinearGridColumns(NX, 0, 6, NY, -3, 3,"x","y");
    const auto columnDX=ds->addCalculatedColumnFromColumn(columnXY.first, columnXY.second, [](double x,double y) { return sin(y)*sqrt(x/3.0); });
    const auto columnDY=ds->addCalculatedColumnFromColumn(columnXY.first, columnXY.second, [](double x,double y) { return cos(x)*sqrt(x/3.0); });
    // now we also calulate a column that encodes some other information that can be color-coded
    const auto columnC=ds->addCalculatedColumnFromColumn(columnXY.first, columnXY.second, [](double x,double y) { return sqrt(fabs(y)); });


    // 3. create JKQTPVectorFieldGraph to display the data:
    JKQTPParametrizedVectorFieldGraph* graph1=new JKQTPParametrizedVectorFieldGraph(&plot);
    graph1->setXYColumns(columnXY);
    graph1->setDxColumn(columnDX);
    graph1->setDyColumn(columnDY);
    graph1->setColorColumn(columnC);
    graph1->setTitle(QObject::tr("$\\vec{f}(x,y)=\\bigl[\\sin(y)\\cdot\\sqrt{x/3}, \\cos(x)\\cdot\\sqrt{x/3}\\bigr]^\\mathrm{T}$"));

    // 4. add the graphs to the plot, so it is actually displayed
    plot.addGraph(graph1);

The result looks like this:

By default, the color of the drawn vector is determined from the color column provided to the graph object. But you can also choose to not provide a color column and instead set

        graph1->setVectorColorMode(JKQTPParametrizedVectorFieldGraph::ColorFromMagnitude);

Now the color encodes the actual length (or magnitude) of the vectors:

Alternatively

        graph1->setVectorColorMode(JKQTPParametrizedVectorFieldGraph::ColorFromAngle);

will color-encode the rotation angle (in radians, 3 o'clock is 0rad) of the vectors: