Metadata-Version: 2.1
Name: plot-antenna
Version: 1.7
Summary: Antenna plotting program for plotting antenna simulation results
Home-page: https://github.com/schlatterbeck/plot-antenna
Author: Ralf Schlatterbeck
Author-email: Ralf Schlatterbeck <rsc@runtux.com>
License: MIT License
Project-URL: Homepage, https://github.com/schlatterbeck/plot-antenna
Project-URL: Bug Tracker, https://github.com/schlatterbeck/plot-antenna/issues
Platform: Any
Classifier: Development Status :: 5 - Production/Stable
Classifier: License :: OSI Approved :: MIT License
Classifier: Operating System :: OS Independent
Classifier: Programming Language :: Python
Classifier: Intended Audience :: Science/Research
Classifier: Intended Audience :: Other Audience
Requires-Python: >=3.7
Description-Content-Type: text/x-rst
Provides-Extra: test
License-File: LICENSE

Antenna Plotting Program
========================

:Author: Ralf Schlatterbeck <rsc@runtux.com>

.. |--| unicode:: U+2013   .. en dash
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This is a program to plot antenna-related data resulting from an antenna
simulation. It can read the text output produced by nec2c_ and my
python mininec port pymininec_. Most notably it can plot antenna
far-field pattern in both 2D (Azimuth and Elevation) and 3D (as a 3D
graphic that can be rotated and zoomed). It supports a local display
program (using matplotlib_) and a HTML output version that displays
everything using javascript (using plotly_). The program features a
``--help`` option. If the program called with ``--help`` does not
display a ``-H`` or ``--export-html`` option, you most likely do not
have a recent version of plotly_ installed. In that case only the
matplotlib_ variant is available. For the plotly variant to work you
need both, a recent version of plotly_ as well as pandas_ installed.

The program started out as a companion-program to my pymininec_
project and is now an independent program.

The plot program can also display output files of nec2c_, not only
from pymininec_.

Standalone Plotting with Matplotlib
-----------------------------------

The default is to plot all available
graphics, including an interactive 3d view. In addition with the
``--azimuth`` or ``--elevation`` options you can get an Azimuth
diagram::

    plot-antenna --azimuth test/12-el-1deg.pout

.. figure:: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/schlatterbeck/plot-antenna/master/test/12-el-azimuth.png
    :align: center

or an elevation diagram::

    plot-antenna --elevation test/12-el-1deg.pout

.. figure:: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/schlatterbeck/plot-antenna/master/test/12-el-elevation.png
    :align: center

respectively. Note that I used an output file with 1-degree resolution
in elevation and azimuth angles not with 5 degrees as in the example
above. The pattern look smoother but a 3D-view will be very slow due to
the large number of points. The plot program also has a ``--help``
option for further information. In particular the scaling of the antenna
plot can be selected using the ``--scaling-method`` option with an
additional keyword which can be one of ``linear``, ``linear_db``, and
``linear_voltage`` in addition to the default of ``arrl`` scaling. You
may consult Cebik's [1]_ article for explanation of the different
diagrams. The ``linear_voltage`` option is not explained by Cebik, it is
in-between the ``linear`` and ``linear_db`` scaling options.

The latest version accepts several plot parameters, ``--elevation``,
``--azimuth``, ``--plot3d``, ``--plot-vswr``, and ``--geo`` which are
plotted into one diagram. The default is to plot the first four graphs.
With the ``--output`` option pictures can directly be saved without
displaying the graphics on the screen. Note that unfortunately the
geometry display with the ``--geo`` option does not perform very well
because matplotlib_ has poor support for panning and scaling in 3D
plots.

The latest version has key-bindings for scrolling through the
frequencies of an antenna simulation. So if you have an output file with
a simulation of multiple frequencies (either with pymininec_ or
nec2c_) you can display diagrams for the next frequency by typing
``+``, and to the previous frequency by typing ``-``. For newer versions
of matplotlib_ you can display a scrollbar for the frequencies with
the ``--with-slider`` option.

Other keybindings switch the scaling for the antenna plots, ``a``
switches to ``arrl`` scaling, ``l`` switches to linear scaling, ``d``
switches to linear dB scaling, and ``v`` switches to linear voltage
scaling.

Finally the ``w`` key toggles display of the 3d diagram from/to
wireframe display. Note that the wireframe display may not be supported
on all versions of matplotlib_ and/or graphics cards.

Plotting for the Browser with Plotly
------------------------------------

All the plot supported for matplotlib_ are also supported with plotly_.
These are ``--elevation``, ``--azimuth``, ``--plot3d``, ``--plot-vswr``,
and ``--geo``. The plots can be either exported to a .html file using
the ``-H`` or ``--export-html`` option (with an additional filename to
export to) or injected into a running browser using the ``-S`` or
``--show-in-browser`` option.

Unlike for matplotlib_, each plot selected with an option is either
shown in a separate window in the browser or exported to a separate
file. If exporting to a file, additional output options can be selected
with the ``--html-export-option`` setting. The default is to export the
file with all javascript included (adds about 3MB to the file size).
With ``--html-export-option=directory`` the javascript is not included
and a ``plotly.min.js`` file is expected in the same directory as the
exported file. This file ships with the plotly_ distribution. When
exporting to a file, the plot name is appended to the file name given,
this allows export to several different plots in one program invocation.

The scaling variants selected with the ``--scaling-method`` option
cannot currently be changed at runtime with the plotly_ plots. As with
matplotlib_, the default is ``arrl`` scaling.

All plots are interactive. For the far-field pattern
plots (Azimuth, Elevation, 3D) frequencies can be selected in the legend
to the right of the plot. With mouse-over you can see the current angle
(Elevation or Azimuth with the 2D plots and both for the 3D plot) and
the gain at that point. For the 2D variants, more than one frequency can
be selected for plotting. This allows comparison of pattern between
different frequencies. For the 3D plot, the frequencies in the legend
act like radio-buttons, only one at a time can be selected.

With the ``--geo`` option you get a display of the antenna geometry.
Unfortunately plotly_ seems to have limitations on the zoom depths, so
for large antennas it is not possible to see the plot in deep detail. As
of this writing not all geometry details are displayed. In particular 2D
patches in NEC, transmission lines in NEC, and visualization of loaded
segments (e.g. with a capacity) are not shown.

.. [1] L. B. Cebik. Radiation plots: Polar or rectangular; log or linear.
    In Antenna Modeling Notes [2], chapter 48, pages 366–379. Available
    in Cebik's `Antenna modelling notes episode 48`_
.. [2] L. B. Cebik. Antenna Modeling Notes, volume 2. antenneX Online
    Magazine, 2003. Available with antenna models from the `Cebik
    collection`_.

.. _`Cebik collection`:
    http://on5au.be/Books/allmodnotes.zip
.. _`Antenna modelling notes episode 48`:
    http://on5au.be/content/amod/amod48.html
.. _nec2c: https://packages.debian.org/stable/hamradio/nec2c
.. _pymininec: https://github.com/schlatterbeck/pymininec
.. _matplotlib: https://matplotlib.org/
.. _plotly: https://github.com/plotly/plotly.py
.. _pandas: https://pandas.pydata.org/

Release Notes
-------------

v1.7: Add Smith charts, optionally show impedance and band in VSWR plots

Many of the changes in this and several previous versions were suggested
by Rob Banfield, DM1CM: Adding the bands and impedance to the VSWR plot
are his idea as well as adding a Smith chart. Due to his attention to
detail this release corrects a lot of rough edges of previous versions.
Thanks Rob!

- The aspect ratio in 3D plotly plots is now correct. It used to be a
  little too wide in the X direction
- Add Smith chart display
- Options to add the impedance (either as real/imag or \|Z\|/phi (Z)) in
  the VSWR plot
- Option to show the ham radio bands in the VSWR plot
- Show loads and excitation(s) in geo plot, add ground to geo plot
- Margin of 3D plots in plotly are much wider now by default and can be
  configured with an option
- The style how the gain is displayed in the plotly 3D color bar can now
  be configured to save space (either relative or absolute gain in dB or
  dBi, the default is both)
- When there is only one frequency in the 3D plot, remove the frequency
  legend
- Add LICENSE file and pyproject.toml for newer install mechanisms in
  python
- Add tests for plotly output
- Use ppm images for the tests, the previously-used png images did
  contain the matplotlib version and thus were different for each
  version -- the ppm images do not have that problem, there are still
  many differences with different matplotlib versions

v1.6: More SWR plot changes

- Make SWR-plot vertical line colors configurable
- Rename elevation-angle and azimuth-angle options to angle-elevation
  and angle-azimuth so that we can again request an elevation/azimuth
  plot with shortened options like --ele or --azi
- Sort options lexicographically on --help

v1.5: Allow target SWR frequency in VSWR plot

- Add command-line option --target-swr-frequency
- Draw user-specifed target frequency in red, best (minimum) swr in grey

v1.4: Reset button and VSWR-Plot improvements

- Add grid and minimum-SWR vertical line to VSWR plot
- Remove display of frequency in mouse-over (in polar plots and 3D plot)
- Make polar reset button reset more parameters

v1.3: Add a reset button to plotly polar plots

- The polar plots, when zoomed in, could only be reset to the unzoomed
  view with a double-click. All other plots do have a reset button, add
  one for the polar plots, too.

v1.2: Allow specification of title (legend) font size in plotly version

- For some application (e.g. when using the plotly graphics inside a
  html iframe) the title (or we may want to call it legend) of the
  graphics may collide with the graphics itself. We can now specify the
  font size with ``--title-font-size``. This option currently works only
  with plotly graphics.

v1.1: Specification of azimuth / elevation angle

- Now we can specify an azimuth angle for elevation plot and an
  elevation angle for azimuth plots.
- Bug-fix in computation of maximum gain azimuth direction: If the
  maximum gain in theta direction goes up or down, the azimuth angle
  would be computed incorrectly because all gain values at that theta
  angle are the same for all azimuth angles.
- Sort options: Since there are some options that only exist when some
  packages are installed we sort options instead of trying to add them
  in the correct order.

v1.0: Initial Release
