Provided by: gmt-manpages_3.4.4-1_all bug

NAME

       pscontour - Contour xyz-data by direct triangulation

SYNOPSIS

       pscontour      xyzfile     -Ccptfile     -Jparameters     -Rwest/east/south/north[r]     [
       -A[-][ffont_size][aangle][/r/g/b][o]]   ]   [   -Btickinfo   ]   [   -D[dumpfile]   ]    [
       -Eview_az/view_el  ]  [ -Ggap ] [ -H[nrec] ] [ -I ] [ -K ] [ -Lpen ] [ -M[flag] ] [ -N ] [
       -O ] [ -P ] [ -Tindexfile ] [ -U[/dx/dy/][label] ] [ -V ] [ -W[+]pen ]  [  -Xx-shift  ]  [
       -Yy-shift ] [ -ccopies ] [ -: ] [ -bi[s][n] ] [ -bo[s][n] ]

DESCRIPTION

       pscontour  reads  an  ASCII  [or  binary]  xyz-file  and  produces  a  raw contour plot by
       triangulation. By default, the optimal Delaunay triangulation is performed  (using  either
       Shewhuck's [1996]' or Watson's [1982] method as selected during GMT installation), but the
       user' may optionally provide a second file with network information, such as a  triangular
       mesh  used for finite element modeling. In addition to contours, the area between contours
       may be painted according to the color palette file.

       xyzfile
              Raw ASCII (or binary, see -b) xyz data to be contoured.

       -C     name of the color palette file. Must have discrete colors if you want to paint  the
              surface (-I). Only contours that have anotation flags set will be anotated.

       -J     Selects  the map projection. Scale is UNIT/degree, 1:xxxxx, or width in UNIT (upper
              case modifier).  UNIT is cm, inch, or m, depending on the MEASURE_UNIT  setting  in
              .gmtdefaults, but this can be overridden on the command line by appending the c, i,
              or m to the scale/width value.

              CYLINDRICAL PROJECTIONS:

              -Jclon0/lat0/scale (Cassini)
              -Jjlon0/scale (Miller)
              -Jmscale (Mercator - Greenwich and Equator as origin)
              -Jmlon0/lat0/scale (Mercator - Give meridian and standard parallel)
              -Joalon0/lat0/azimuth/scale (Oblique Mercator - point and azimuth)
              -Joblon0/lat0/lon1/lat1/scale (Oblique Mercator - two points)
              -Joclon0/lat0/lonp/latp/scale (Oblique Mercator - point and pole)
              -Jqlon0/scale (Equidistant Cylindrical Projection (Plate Carree))
              -Jtlon0/scale (TM - Transverse Mercator, with Equator as y = 0)
              -Jtlon0/lat0/scale (TM - Transverse Mercator, set origin)
              -Juzone/scale (UTM - Universal Transverse Mercator)
              -Jylon0/lats/scale (Basic Cylindrical Projection)

              AZIMUTHAL PROJECTIONS:

              -Jalon0/lat0/scale (Lambert).
              -Jelon0/lat0/scale (Equidistant).
              -Jflon0/lat0/horizon/scale (Gnomonic).
              -Jglon0/lat0/scale (Orthographic).
              -Jslon0/lat0/[slat/]scale (General Stereographic)

              CONIC PROJECTIONS:

              -Jblon0/lat0/lat1/lat2/scale (Albers)
              -Jdlon0/lat0/lat1/lat2/scale (Equidistant)
              -Jllon0/lat0/lat1/lat2/scale (Lambert)

              MISCELLANEOUS PROJECTIONS:

              -Jhlon0/scale (Hammer)
              -Jilon0/scale (Sinusoidal)
              -Jk[f|s]lon0/scale (Eckert IV (f) and VI (s))
              -Jnlon0/scale (Robinson)
              -Jrlon0/scale (Winkel Tripel)
              -Jvlon0/scale (Van der Grinten)
              -Jwlon0/scale (Mollweide)

              NON-GEOGRAPHICAL PROJECTIONS:

              -Jp[a]scale[/origin] (polar (theta,r) coordinates,  optional  a  for  azimuths  and
              offset theta [0])
              -Jxx-scale[l|ppow][/y-scale[l|ppow]] (Linear, log, and power scaling)
              More details can be found in the psbasemap manpages.

       -R     west,  east, south, and north specify the Region of interest. To specify boundaries
              in degrees and minutes [and seconds], use the dd:mm[:ss] format. Append r if  lower
              left and upper right map coordinates are given instead of wesn.

OPTIONS

       No space between the option flag and the associated arguments.

       -A     Several  anotation  formatting  options  can  be  set  to  modify  the  form of the
              annotation. Give - to disable all anotations.  Append  ffont_size  to  change  font
              size  [9],  append  /r/g/b  to  change  color of text fill box [PAGE_COLOR], append
              aangle to fix annotation angle [Default follows contour], and append o to draw  the
              outline of the surrounding text box [Default is no outline].

       -B     Sets map boundary tickmark intervals. See psbasemap for details.

       -D     Dump  the  (x,y,z)  coordinates  of  each  contour  to separate files, one for each
              contour segment. The files will be named dumpfile_cont_segment[_i].xyz, where  cont
              is  the  contour  value  and  segment  is a running segment number for each contour
              interval (for closed  contours  we  append  _i.)   However,  when  -M  is  used  in
              conjunction with -D a single multisegment file is created instead.

       -E     Sets  the  view  point  by specifying azimuth and elevation in degrees. [Default is
              180/90]

       -G     gap is distance between each annotation along the same contour [Default is 10c  (or
              4i)].

       -H     Input  file(s)  has  Header  record(s).  Number of header records can be changed by
              editing your .gmtdefaults file. If used, GMT default is 1 header record.

       -I     Color the triangles using the color palette table.

       -K     More PostScript code will be appended later [Default terminates the plot system].

       -L     Draw the underlying triangular mesh using the specified pen attributes [Default  is
              no mesh].

       -M     When  used  in  conjunction with -D a single multisegment file is created, and each
              contour section is preceeded by a header record whose first column is flag followed
              by the contour level.

       -N     Do  NOT  clip contours or image at the boundaries [Defaults will clip to fit inside
              region -R).

       -bo    Selects binary output. Append s for single precision [Default is double].

       -P     Selects Portrait plotting mode [GMT Default is Landscape, see gmtdefaults to change
              this].

       -T     Give  name  of  file with network information. Each record must contain triplets of
              node numbers for a triangle [Default computes these  using  Delaunay  triangulation
              (see triangulate)].

       -U     Draw  Unix  System time stamp on plot. User may specify where the lower left corner
              of the stamp should fall on the  page  relative  to  lower  left  corner  of  plot.
              Optionally,  append  a  label,  or c (which will plot the command string.). The GMT
              parameters  UNIX_TIME  and  UNIX_TIME_POS  can  affect  the  appearance;  see   the
              gmtdefaults man page for details.

       -V     Selects  verbose  mode,  which  will  send progress reports to stderr [Default runs
              "silently"].

       -W     Select contouring and set contour pen attributes. If the + flag  is  set  then  the
              contour lines are colored according to the cpt file (see -C).

       -X -Y  Shift origin of plot by (x-shift,y-shift).  Prepend a for absolute coordinates; the
              default (r) will reset plot origin.

       -c     Specifies the number of plot copies. [Default is 1]

       -:     Toggles  between  (longitude,latitude)   and   (latitude,longitude)   input/output.
              [Default is (longitude,latitude)].  Applies to geographic coordinates only.

       -bi    Selects  binary input. Append s for single precision [Default is double].  Append n
              for the number of columns in the binary file(s).  [Default  is  3  input  columns].
              Use 4-byte integer triplets for node ids (-T).

       -bo    Selects binary output. Append s for single precision [Default is double].

EXAMPLES

       To make a raw contour plot from the file topo.xyz and drawing the contours (pen = 2) given
       in the color palette file topo.cpt on a Lambert map at 0.5 inch/degree along the  standard
       parallels 18 and 24, try

       pscontour topo.xyz -R320/330/20/30 -Jl18/24/0.5i -Ctopo.cpt -W0.5p > topo.ps

       To  create  a  color  PostScript  plot of the numerical temperature solution obtained on a
       triangular mesh whose node coordinates and temperatures are stored in  temp.xyz  and  mesh
       arrangement is given by the file mesh.ijk, using the colors in temp.cpt, try

       pscontour temp.xyz -R0/150/0/100 -Jx0.1 -Ctemp.cpt -G -W0.25p > temp.ps

BUGS

       Sometimes  there  will appear to be thin lines of the wrong color in the image.  This is a
       round-off problem which may be remedied by using a higher value  of  DOTS_PR_INCH  in  the
       .gmtdefaults file.

SEE ALSO

       gmt(1gmt),    grdcontour(1gmt),   grdimage(1gmt),   nearneighbor(1gmt),   psbasemap(1gmt),
       psscale(1gmt), surface(1gmt), triangulate(1gmt)

REFERENCES

       Watson, D. F., 1982, Acord: Automatic contouring of raw data, Comp. & Geosci., 8, 97-101.
       Shewchuck, J. R., 1996, Triangle: Engineering a 2D Quality  Mesh  Generator  and  Delaunay
       Triangulator,  First  Workshop  on  Applied  Computational  Geometry  (Philadelphia,  PA),
       124-133, ACM, May 1996.
       www.cs.cmu.edu/~quake/triangle.html

                                            1 Jan 2004                               PSCONTOUR(l)