Provided by: stilts_3.1.2-2_all bug

NAME

       stilts-plot2sphere - Draws a sphere plot

SYNOPSIS

       stilts plot2sphere [xpix=<int-value>] [ypix=<int-value>]
                          [insets=<top>,<left>,<bottom>,<right>]
                          [omode=swing|out|cgi|discard|auto] [storage=simple|cache|basic-cache]
                          [seq=<suffix>[,...]] [legend=true|false] [legborder=true|false]
                          [legopaque=true|false] [legseq=<suffix>[,...]] [legpos=<xfrac,yfrac>]
                          [title=<value>] [auxmap=<map-name>|<color>-<color>[-<color>...]]
                          [auxclip=<lo>,<hi>] [auxflip=true|false] [auxquant=<number>]
                          [auxfunc=log|linear|sqrt|square] [auxmin=<number>] [auxmax=<number>]
                          [auxlabel=<text>] [auxcrowd=<factor>] [auxwidth=<pixels>]
                          [auxvisible=true|false] [forcebitmap=true|false] [compositor=0..1]
                          [animate=<table>] [afmt=<in-format>] [astream=true|false] [acmd=<cmds>]
                          [parallel=<int-value>] [crowd=<number>] [frame=true|false]
                          [minor=true|false] [gridaa=true|false] [texttype=plain|antialias|latex]
                          [fontsize=<int-value>] [fontstyle=standard|serif|mono]
                          [fontweight=plain|bold|italic|bold_italic] [cx=<number>] [cy=<number>]
                          [cz=<number>] [scale=<number>] [phi=<degrees>] [theta=<degrees>]
                          [psi=<degrees>] [zoom=<factor>] [xoff=<pixels>] [yoff=<pixels>]
                          [zoomfactor=<number>] [leglabelN=<text>] [layerN=<layer-type> <layerN-
                          specific-params>]

DESCRIPTION

       plot2sphere  draws  plots  in  an  isotropic  3-dimensional  space  using  spherical polar
       coordinates. The plotting volume is a cube, which is viewed from the outside  and  usually
       bounded  by  a  wire  frame  annotated  by Cartesian coordinates. This viewing cube is not
       necessarily centered on the coordinate origin.

       This plotting geometry is like that used by plot2cube, but the  coordinate  unit  size  is
       always the same in the three dimensions, and the coordinates are specified differently.

       Positional coordinates are specified as lon, lat, r triples, e.g.: plot2sphere layer1=mark
       in1=survey.fits lon1=RA lat1=DEC r1=REDSHIFT

       Content is added to the plot by specifying one  or  more  plot  layers  using  the  layerN
       parameter.  The  N part is a suffix applied to all the parameters affecting a given layer;
       any suffix (including the empty string) may be used. Available layers for this  plot  type
       are: mark, size, sizexy, link2, mark2, label, contour.

OPTIONS

       xpix=<int-value>
              Size  of the output image in the X direction in pixels. This includes space for any
              axis labels, padding and other decoration outside the plot area  itself.  See  also
              insets.

       ypix=<int-value>
              Size  of the output image in the Y direction in pixels. This includes space for any
              axis labels, padding and other decoration outside the plot area  itself.  See  also
              insets.

       insets=<top>,<left>,<bottom>,<right>
              Defines  the  amount of space in pixels around the actual plotting area. This space
              is used for axis labels, and other decorations and any left  over  forms  an  empty
              border.

              The  size  and position of the actual plotting area is determined by this parameter
              along with xpix and ypix.

              The   value   of    this    parameter    is    4    comma    separated    integers:
              <top>,<left>,<bottom>,<right>.  Any  or  all  of these values may be left blank, in
              which case the corresponding margin will be calculated automatically  according  to
              how much space is required.

       omode=swing|out|cgi|discard|auto
              Determines how the drawn plot will be output, see SUN/256.

                * swing:  Plot  will be displayed in a window on the screen. This plot is "live";
                  it can be resized and (except for old-style plots) navigated around with  mouse
                  actions in the same way as plots in TOPCAT.

                * out:  Plot  will  be  written  to a file given by out using the graphics format
                  given by ofmt.

                * cgi: Plot will be written in a way suitable for  CGI  use  direct  from  a  web
                  server.  The  output  is  in  the  graphics format given by ofmt, preceded by a
                  suitable "Content-type" declaration.

                * discard: Plot is drawn, but discarded. There is no output.

                * auto: Behaves as swing or out mode depending on presence of out parameter

       storage=simple|cache|basic-cache
              Determines the way that data is accessed when constructing the plot. There are  two
              basic options, cached or not.

              If  no  caching is used (simple) then rows are read sequentially from the specified
              input table(s) every time they are required. This generally requires a small memory
              footprint (though that can depend on how the table is specified) and makes sense if
              the data only needs to be scanned once or perhaps if the table is very large.

              If caching is used (cache) then the required data is read once from  the  specified
              input  table(s)  and  cached  before  any plotting is performed, and plots are done
              using this cached data. This may use a  significant  amount  of  memory  for  large
              tables  but it's usually more sensible (faster) if the data will need to be scanned
              multiple times.

              The default value is cache if a live plot is being generated  (omode=swing),  since
              in  that  case  the  plot  needs  to  be  redrawn every time the user performs plot
              navigation actions or resizes the window, or  if  animations  are  being  produced.
              Otherwise (e.g. output to a graphics file) the default is simple.

       seq=<suffix>[,...]
              Contains  a  comma-separated list of layer suffixes to determine the order in which
              layers are drawn on the plot. This can affect which symbol are plotted on  top  of,
              and so potentially obscure, which other ones.

              When  specifying  a  plot,  multiple  layers may be specified, each introduced by a
              parameter layer<N>, where <N> is  a  different  (arbitrary)  suffix  labelling  the
              layer, and is appended to all the parameters specific to defining that layer.

              By  default  the  layers  are  drawn  on  the plot in the order in which the layer*
              parameters appear on the command line. However if this parameter is specified, each
              comma-separated  element  is interpreted as a layer suffix, giving the ordered list
              of layers to plot. Every element of the list must be a suffix with a  corresponding
              layer parameter, but missing or repeated elements are allowed.

       legend=true|false
              Whether  to  draw  a  legend  or not. If no value is supplied, the decision is made
              automatically: a legend is drawn only if it would have more than one entry.

       legborder=true|false
              If true, a line border is drawn around the legend.

       legopaque=true|false
              If true, the background of the legend is opaque, and the legend obscures  any  plot
              components behind it. Otherwise, it's transparent.

       legseq=<suffix>[,...]
              Determines  which  layers  are  represented in the legend (if present) and in which
              order they appear. The legend has a line for each layer label (as determined by the
              leglabelN  parameter). If multiple layers have the same label, they will contribute
              to the same entry in the legend, with style icons  plotted  over  each  other.  The
              value  of  this  parameter  is  a comma-separated sequence of layer suffixes, which
              determines the order in which the  legend  entries  appear.  Layers  with  suffixes
              missing from this list do not show up in the legend at all.

              If  no  value  is  supplied  (the  default),  the sequence is the same as the layer
              plotting sequence (see seq).

       legpos=<xfrac,yfrac>
              Determines the internal position of the legend on the plot. The value is  a  comma-
              separated  pair  of  values  giving  the X and Y positions of the legend within the
              plotting bounds, so for instance "0.5,0.5" will put the legend right in the  middle
              of  the  plot.  If  no  value  is supplied, the legend will appear outside the plot
              boundary.

       title=<value>
              Text of a title to be displayed at the top of the plot. If null,  the  default,  no
              title is shown and there's more space for the graphics.

       auxmap=<map-name>|<color>-<color>[-<color>...]
              Color map used for Aux axis shading.

              A  mixed  bag  of  colour  ramps  are  available:  inferno, magma, plasma, viridis,
              cubehelix, sron, rainbow, rainbow2, rainbow3, pastel,  accent,  gnuplot,  gnuplot2,
              specxby,  set1,  paired,  hotcold,  rdbu,  piyg, brbg, cyan-magenta, red-blue, brg,
              heat, cold, light, greyscale, colour,  standard,  bugn,  bupu,  orrd,  pubu,  purd,
              huecl,  hue,  intensity,  rgb_red, rgb_green, rgb_blue, hsv_h, hsv_s, hsv_v, yuv_y,
              yuv_u,  yuv_v,  scale_hsv_s,  scale_hsv_v,  scale_yuv_y,  mask,  blacker,   whiter,
              transparency. Note: many of these, including rainbow-like ones, are frowned upon by
              the visualisation community.

              You can also construct your own custom colour map by giving a  sequence  of  colour
              names  separated  by minus sign ("-") characters. In this case the ramp is a linear
              interpolation between each pair of colours named, using the  same  syntax  as  when
              specifying  a  colour  value.  So for instance "yellow-hotpink-#0000ff" would shade
              from yellow via hot pink to blue.

       auxclip=<lo>,<hi>
              Defines a subrange of the colour ramp to be used for  Aux  shading.  The  value  is
              specified as a (low,high) comma-separated pair of two numbers between 0 and 1.

              If the full range 0,1 is used, the whole range of colours specified by the selected
              shader will be used. But if for instance a value of  0,0.5  is  given,  only  those
              colours at the left hand end of the ramp will be seen.

              If  the null (default) value is chosen, a default clip will be used. This generally
              covers most or all of the range 0-1 but for colour maps  which  fade  to  white,  a
              small  proportion  of the lower end may be excluded, to ensure that all the colours
              are visually distinguishable from a white background. This  default  is  usually  a
              good idea if the colour map is being used with something like a scatter plot, where
              markers are plotted against a white  background.  However,  for  something  like  a
              density map when the whole plotting area is tiled with colours from the map, it may
              be better to supply the whole range 0,1 explicitly.

       auxflip=true|false
              If true, the colour map on the Aux axis will be reversed.

       auxquant=<number>
              Allows the colour map used for the Aux axis to be quantised. If an integer value  N
              is chosen then the colour map will be viewed as N discrete evenly-spaced levels, so
              that only N different colours will appear in the plot. This can be used to generate
              a contour-like effect, and may make it easier to trace the boundaries of regions of
              interest by eye.

              If left blank, the colour map is nominally continuous (though in practice it may be
              quantised to a medium-sized number like 256).

       auxfunc=log|linear|sqrt|square
              Defines  the  way  that  values  in the Aux range are mapped to the selected colour
              ramp.

              The available options are:

                * log: Logarithmic scaling

                * linear: Linear scaling

                * sqrt: Square root scaling

                * square: Square scaling

       auxmin=<number>
              Minimum value of the data coordinate on the Aux axis. This sets  the  value  before
              any  subranging  is  applied.  If  not  supplied,  the value is determined from the
              plotted data.

       auxmax=<number>
              Maximum value of the data coordinate on the Aux axis. This sets  the  value  before
              any  subranging  is  applied.  If  not  supplied,  the value is determined from the
              plotted data.

       auxlabel=<text>
              Sets the label used to annotate the aux axis, if it is visible.

       auxcrowd=<factor>
              Determines how closely the tick marks are spaced on the Aux axis, if  visible.  The
              default  value  is  1, meaning normal crowding. Larger values result in more ticks,
              and smaller values fewer ticks. Tick marks will not however be  spaced  so  closely
              that  the  labels  overlap  each other, so to get very closely spaced marks you may
              need to reduce the font size as well.

       auxwidth=<pixels>
              Determines the lateral size of the aux colour ramp, if visible, in pixels.

       auxvisible=true|false
              Determines whether the aux axis colour ramp is displayed alongside the plot.

              If not supplied (the default), the aux axis will be visible  when  aux  shading  is
              used in any of the plotted layers.

       forcebitmap=true|false
              Affects  whether  rendering  of the data contents of a plot (though not axis labels
              etc) is always done to an intermediate bitmap rather than,  where  possible,  being
              painted  using  graphics  primitives.  This  is  a  rather  arcane setting that may
              nevertheless have noticeable effects on  the  appearance  and  size  of  an  output
              graphics file, as well as plotting time. For some types of plot (e.g. shadingN=auto
              or shadingN=density) it will have no effect, since this kind of  rendering  happens
              in any case.

              When  writing to vector graphics formats (PDF and PostScript), setting it true will
              force the data contents to be bitmapped. This may make the  output  less  beautiful
              (round  markers  will  no  longer  be perfectly round), but it may result in a much
              smaller file if there are very many data points.

              When writing to bitmapped output formats (PNG, GIF, JPEG, ...), it fixes shapes  to
              be  the  same  as  seen  on  the screen rather than be rendered at the mercy of the
              graphics system, which sometimes introduces small distortions.

       compositor=0..1
              Defines how multiple overplotted partially transparent pixels are combined to  form
              a  resulting  colour.  The way this is used depends on the details of the specified
              plot.

              Currently, this parameter takes a "boost" value in the range 0..1. If the value  is
              zero,  saturation semantics are used: RGB colours are added in proporition to their
              associated alpha value until the total alpha is saturated (reaches 1), after  which
              additional  pixels  have  no further effect. For larger boost values, the effect is
              similar, but any non-zero alpha in the output  is  boosted  to  the  given  minimum
              value.  The  effect  of  this  is  that  even very slightly populated pixels can be
              visually distinguished from  unpopulated  ones  which  may  not  be  the  case  for
              saturation composition.

       animate=<table>
              If  not  null,  this  parameter  causes  the  command to create a sequence of plots
              instead of just one. The parameter value is a table with one row for each frame  to
              be  produced.  Columns  in  the  table are interpreted as parameters which may take
              different values for each frame; the column name is the  parameter  name,  and  the
              value  for  a  given  frame  is  its  value  from  that row. Animating like this is
              considerably more efficient than invoking the STILTS command in a loop.

              The location of the animation control table. This may take  one  of  the  following
              forms:

                * A filename.

                * A URL.

                * The  special  value  "-", meaning standard input. In this case the input format
                  must be given explicitly using the afmt parameter. Note that  not  all  formats
                  can be streamed in this way.

                * A  system  command  line  with  either  a  "<" character at the start, or a "|"
                  character at the end ("<syscmd" or "syscmd|"). This executes the given pipeline
                  and  reads  from its standard output. This will probably only work on unix-like
                  systems.
               In any case, compressed data in one of the supported  compression  formats  (gzip,
              Unix compress or bzip2) will be decompressed transparently.

       afmt=<in-format>
              Specifies  the  format  of  the  animation  control table as specified by parameter
              animate. The known formats are listed in SUN/256. This flag can be used if you know
              what  format  your  table  is in. If it has the special value (auto) (the default),
              then an attempt will be made to detect the format of the table automatically.  This
              cannot  always  be done correctly however, in which case the program will exit with
              an error explaining which formats were attempted.

       astream=true|false
              If set true, the animation control table specified by the animate parameter will be
              read  as  a  stream.  It  is  necessary  to  give  the afmt parameter in this case.
              Depending on the required operations and processing mode, this may cause  the  read
              to  fail  (sometimes  it  is necessary to read the table more than once). It is not
              normally necessary to set this flag; in  most  cases  the  data  will  be  streamed
              automatically  if  that is the best thing to do. However it can sometimes result in
              less resource usage when  processing  large  files  in  certain  formats  (such  as
              VOTable).

       acmd=<cmds>
              Specifies processing to be performed on the animation control table as specified by
              parameter animate, before any other processing has taken place. The value  of  this
              parameter  is one or more of the filter commands described in SUN/256. If more than
              one is given, they must be separated by semicolon characters (";"). This  parameter
              can  be  repeated  multiple  times  on  the same command line to build up a list of
              processing steps. The sequence of commands given in this way defines the processing
              pipeline which is performed on the table.

              Commands may alteratively be supplied in an external file, by using the indirection
              character '@'. Thus a value of "@filename" causes the file filename to be read  for
              a  list of filter commands to execute. The commands in the file may be separated by
              newline characters and/or semicolons.

       parallel=<int-value>
              Determines how many threads will run in  parallel  if  animation  output  is  being
              produced.  Only used if the animate parameter is supplied. The default value is the
              number of processors apparently available to the JVM.

       crowd=<number>
              Determines how closely tick marks are spaced on the wire frame  axes.  The  default
              value  is  1, meaning normal crowding. Larger values result in more grid lines, and
              smaller values in fewer grid lines.

       frame=true|false
              If true, a cube wire frame with labelled axes is drawn to indicate  the  limits  of
              the plotted 3D region. If false, no wire frame and no axes are drawn.

       minor=true|false
              If  true,  minor  tick  marks  are painted along the axes as well as the major tick
              marks. Minor tick marks do not have associated grid lines.

       gridaa=true|false
              If true, grid lines are drawn with antialiasing. Antialiased lines  look  smoother,
              but  may  take perceptibly longer to draw. Only has any effect for bitmapped output
              formats.

       texttype=plain|antialias|latex
              Determines how to turn label text into characters on the plot. Plain and  Antialias
              both  take  the  text  at  face  value, but Antialias smooths the characters. LaTeX
              interprets the text as LaTeX source code and typesets it accordingly.

              When not using LaTeX, antialiased text usually looks nicer, but can be  perceptibly
              slower  to plot. At time of writing, on MacOS antialiased text seems to be required
              to stop the writing coming out upside-down  for  non-horizontal  text  (MacOS  java
              bug).

       fontsize=<int-value>
              Size of the text font in points.

       fontstyle=standard|serif|mono
              Font style for text.

              The available options are:

                * standard

                * serif

                * mono

       fontweight=plain|bold|italic|bold_italic
              Font weight for text.

              The available options are:

                * plain

                * bold

                * italic

                * bold_italic

       cx=<number>
              Gives  the  central coordinate in the X dimension. This will be determined from the
              data range if not supplied.

       cy=<number>
              Gives the central coordinate in the Y dimension. This will be determined  from  the
              data range if not supplied.

       cz=<number>
              Gives  the  central coordinate in the Z dimension. This will be determined from the
              data range if not supplied.

       scale=<number>
              The length of the cube sides in data coordinates. This will be determined from  the
              data range if not supplied.

       phi=<degrees>
              First  of  the  Euler  angles,  in  the  ZXZ sequence, defining the rotation of the
              plotted 3d space. Units are degrees. This is the rotation around the initial Z axis
              applied before the plot is viewed.

       theta=<degrees>
              Second  of  the  Euler  angles,  in  the ZXZ sequence, defining the rotation of the
              plotted 3d space. Units are degrees. This is the rotation towards the viewer.

       psi=<degrees>
              Second of the Euler angles, in the ZXZ  sequence,  defining  the  rotation  of  the
              plotted 3d space. Units are degrees.

       zoom=<factor>
              Sets  the magnification factor at which the the plotted 3D region itself is viewed,
              without affecting its contents. The default value is 1, which means the  cube  fits
              into the plotting space however it is rotated. Much higher zoom factors will result
              in parts of the plotting region and axes being drawn outside of the plotting region
              (so invisible).

       xoff=<pixels>
              Shifts  the  whole plot within the plotting region by the given number of pixels in
              the horizontal direction.

       yoff=<pixels>
              Shifts the whole plot within the plotting region by the given number of  pixels  in
              the vertical direction.

       zoomfactor=<number>
              Sets the amount by which the plot view zooms in or out for each unit of mouse wheel
              movement. A value of 1 means that mouse wheel zooming has no effect. A higher value
              means that the mouse wheel zooms faster and a value nearer 1 means it zooms slower.
              Values below 1 are not permitted.

       leglabelN=<text>
              Sets the presentation label for the layer with a given suffix.  This  is  the  text
              which  is  displayed  in  the  legend, if present. Multiple layers may use the same
              label, in which case they will be combined to form a single legend entry.

              If no value is supplied (the default), the suffix itself is used as the label.

       layerN=<layer-type> <layerN-specific-params>
              Selects one of the available plot types for layerN. A plot consists of  a  plotting
              surface,  set  up  using the various unsuffixed parameters of the plotting command,
              and zero or more plot layers. Each layer is introduced by a parameter with the name
              layer<N> where the suffix "<N>" is a label identifying the layer and is appended to
              all the parameter names which configure that layer. Suffixes  may  be  any  string,
              including the empty string.

              This  parameter  may  take one of the following values, described in more detail in
              SUN/256:

                * mark

                * size

                * sizexy

                * link2

                * mark2

                * label

                * contour

              Each of these layer types comes with a list of type-specific parameters  to  define
              the details of that layer, including some or all of the following groups:

                * input table parameters (e.g. inN, icmdN)

                * coordinate params referring to input table columns (e.g. xN, yN)

                * layer style parameters (e.g. shadingN, colorN)

              Every parameter notionally carries the same suffix N. However, if the suffix is not
              present, the application will try looking for a parameter with the same  name  with
              no  suffix  instead. In this way, if several layers have the same value for a given
              parameter (for instance input table),  you  can  supply  it  using  one  unsuffixed
              parameter  to  save  having  to  supply  several parameters with the same value but
              different suffixes.

SEE ALSO

       stilts(1)

       If the package stilts-doc is installed, the full documentation  SUN/256  is  available  in
       HTML format:
       file:///usr/share/doc/stilts-doc/sun256/index.html

VERSION

       STILTS version 3.1-2-debian

       This  is  the  Debian  version  of Stilts, which lack the support of some file formats and
       network protocols. For differences see
       file:///usr/share/doc/stilts/README.Debian

AUTHOR

       Mark Taylor (Bristol University)

                                             Mar 2017                       STILTS-PLOT2SPHERE(1)