Plotbd - plot bifurcation diagram.

Plotbd plots bifurcation diagrams with gnuplot.

Usage

plotbd [-h$\mathrm \vert$-i] [options ...] [cols] [ranges] (run$\mathrm \vert$pfile$\mathrm \vert$-) ...

	options		:		-bw $\mathrm \vert$ (-k name) $\mathrm \vert$ (-eps eps-name)
	cols		:		x:y[:z]
	ranges		:		"xrange" ["yrange" ["zrange"]]
	$($x$\vert$y$\vert$z$)$range		:		[a:b]

Switches

	-h		:		Display a usage message and exit with nonzero return value.
	-i		:		Interactive, do not exit from gnuplot, but prompt for input.

Arguments

	run		:		Read branch data of run with qualified run name run.
	pfile		:		Read branch data from p.*-file pfile.
	-		:		Read branch data from standard input.

Options

	-bw		:		Plot black and white.
	-k name		:		Keep, save gnuplot file as name.gp and data files
					as name*.dat, * = s, u, LP, BP, HB, PD, TR, UZ, RO.
	-eps eps-name		:		Plot to eps-file eps-name.eps instead of screen.

Detailed description

Plotbd uses gnuplot to plot a bifurcation diagram using the branch data from the runs or files specified on the command line. Exactly one `-' may be given to indicate standard input. A two or three dimensional bifurcation diagram is plotted depending on how many columns have been specified, default are the two columns 1 (PAR) and 2 (L2-NORM). The definition of columns and plotting ranges follows gnuplot's syntax, that is,

plotbd 1:8:2 "[-1:1]" "[]" "[1:10]"

...

uses columns 1, 8 and 2 as $x$, $y$ and $z$ axis and defines a plotting range for each coordinate, where "[]" stands for `automatic.' If you call plotbd with the -i switch gnuplot will prompt for input. You can then enter any gnuplot commands, for example, to change the plotting ranges or the view. Refresh the graphics with the gnuplot command replot. If mouse support is enabled you can zoom in or rotate the graphics interactively.

Plotbd uses green lines for stable and red lines for unstable parts of a branch. If you prefer a more traditional form of stability plot, then the option -bw will create a black-and-white plot with solid lines for stable and dashed lines for unstable parts.

The option -eps eps-name will direct the output to the encapsulated postscript file eps-name.eps. Note that eps-name may contain sub-directories, but should not contain the extension .eps. The figures created by plotbd are intended for quick inspection of computation results and for supporting the selection of restart points, but not for publication (except this one). However, the intermediate files created by plotbd may serve as a starting point for producing publishable pictures. If you specify the option -k name, then all intermediate files will be saved as files with a name matching name.*. Therefore, name should point to a sub-directory and should not contain any extension. For example,

plotbd -k bddata/bd -eps pics/bd

...

will save all intermediate files to the sub-directory bddata, which must be created before calling plotbd. The most important file in this set is bddata/bd.gp, which is the gnuplot file containing instructions for creating the data-files and, more importantly, the eps-file pics/bd.eps. You should move this gnuplot file to a different location to prevent accidental overwriting, and edit it to accommodate your ideas. Simply call `gnuplot gnuplot-file' to update pics/bd.eps.

Note that plotbd is quite powerful when used together with lsruns. A command like

plotbd 1:8:2 `lsruns "mu*"`

...

will create a three-dimensional bifurcation diagram using the data from all runs with qualified run names that match the pattern mu*.

Return values

Plotbd returns 0 on success and 1 if an error occurred or the -h switch was given. Error checking is quite sloppy. Plotbd will fail if called with incorrect options/arguments, but the issued error message might not be terribly helpful.