PV‑WAVE provides routines for plotting data in a variety of ways. These routines allow general X versus Y plots, contouring, mesh surface plots, perspective plotting, and data clipping in an extremely flexible manner without requiring you to write complicated programs. These plotting and graphic routines are designed to allow easy visualization of data during data analysis.

Optional keyword parameters and system variables allow straightforward customization of the appearance of the results: (i.e., specification of scaling, axis style, colors, etc.).

This chapter contains numerous examples of scientific graphics in which one variable is plotted as a function of another. The procedures that display three-dimensional data, CONTOUR and SURFACE, are explained in detail in Chapter 5: Displaying 3D Data. Procedures used to display and process images are discussed in Chapter 6: Displaying Images.

A list of the 2D plotting procedures described in this chapter is found in Chapter 1: Functional Summary of Routines in the PV‑WAVE Reference. In addition, a summary list of graphics procedures often used with the plotting procedures is listed.