1PSCONTOUR(1) Generic Mapping Tools PSCONTOUR(1)
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6 pscontour - Contour xyz-data by direct triangulation [method]
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9 pscontour xyzfile -Ccptfile -Jparameters -Rwest/east/south/north[r] [
10 -A[-][labelinfo] ] [ -B[p|s]parameters ] [ -D[dumpfile] ] [
11 -Eazim/elev[+wlon/lat[/z]][+vx0/y0] ] [ -G[d|f|n|l|L|x|X]params ] [
12 -H[i][nrec] ] [ -I ] [ -K ] [ -Lpen ] [ -N ] [ -O ] [ -P ] [ -S ] [
13 -Tindexfile ] [ -U[just/dx/dy/][c|label] ] [ -V ] [ -W[+]pen ] [
14 -X[a|c|r][x-shift[u]] ] [ -Y[a|c|r][y-shift[u]] ] [ -ccopies ] [
15 -:[i|o] ] [ -b[i|o][s|S|d|D[ncol]|c[var1/...]] ] [ -m[flag] ]
16
18 pscontour reads an ASCII [or binary] xyz-file and produces a raw con‐
19 tour plot by triangulation. By default, the optimal Delaunay triangu‐
20 lation is performed (using either Shewchuk's [1996] or Watson's [1982]
21 method as selected during GMT installation; type pscontour - to see
22 which method is selected), but the user may optionally provide a second
23 file with network information, such as a triangular mesh used for
24 finite element modeling. In addition to contours, the area between
25 contours may be painted according to the color palette file.
26 xyzfile
28 Raw ASCII (or binary, see -b) xyz data to be contoured.
29 -C name of the color palette file. Must have discrete colors if
31 you want to paint the surface (-I). Only contours that have
32 annotation flags set will be annotated.
33 -J Selects the map projection. Scale is UNIT/degree, 1:xxxxx, or
35 width in UNIT (upper case modifier). UNIT is cm, inch, or m,
36 depending on the MEASURE_UNIT setting in .gmtdefaults4, but this
37 can be overridden on the command line by appending c, i, or m to
38 the scale/width value. When central meridian is optional,
39 default is center of longitude range on -R option. Default
40 standard parallel is the equator. For map height, max dimen‐
41 sion, or min dimension, append h, +, or - to the width, respec‐
42 tively.
43 More details can be found in the psbasemap man pages.
44 CYLINDRICAL PROJECTIONS:
46 -Jclon0/lat0/scale (Cassini)
48 -Jcyl_stere/[lon0/[lat0/]]scale (Cylindrical Stereographic)
49 -Jj[lon0/]scale (Miller)
50 -Jm[lon0/[lat0/]]scale (Mercator)
51 -Jmlon0/lat0/scale (Mercator - Give meridian and standard paral‐
52 lel)
53 -Jo[a]lon0/lat0/azimuth/scale (Oblique Mercator - point and
54 azimuth)
55 -Jo[b]lon0/lat0/lon1/lat1/scale (Oblique Mercator - two points)
56 -Joclon0/lat0/lonp/latp/scale (Oblique Mercator - point and
57 pole)
58 -Jq[lon0/[lat0/]]scale (Cylindrical Equidistant)
59 -Jtlon0/[lat0/]scale (TM - Transverse Mercator)
60 -Juzone/scale (UTM - Universal Transverse Mercator)
61 -Jy[lon0/[lat0/]]scale (Cylindrical Equal-Area)
62 CONIC PROJECTIONS:
64 -Jblon0/lat0/lat1/lat2/scale (Albers)
66 -Jdlon0/lat0/lat1/lat2/scale (Conic Equidistant)
67 -Jllon0/lat0/lat1/lat2/scale (Lambert Conic Conformal)
68 -Jpoly/[lon0/[lat0/]]scale ((American) Polyconic)
69 AZIMUTHAL PROJECTIONS:
71 -Jalon0/lat0[/horizon]/scale (Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area)
73 -Jelon0/lat0[/horizon]/scale (Azimuthal Equidistant)
74 -Jflon0/lat0[/horizon]/scale (Gnomonic)
75 -Jglon0/lat0[/horizon]/scale (Orthographic)
76 -Jglon0/lat0/altitude/azimuth/tilt/twist/Width/Height/scale
77 (General Perspective).
78 -Jslon0/lat0[/horizon]/scale (General Stereographic)
79 MISCELLANEOUS PROJECTIONS:
81 -Jh[lon0/]scale (Hammer)
83 -Ji[lon0/]scale (Sinusoidal)
84 -Jkf[lon0/]scale (Eckert IV)
85 -Jk[s][lon0/]scale (Eckert VI)
86 -Jn[lon0/]scale (Robinson)
87 -Jr[lon0/]scale (Winkel Tripel)
88 -Jv[lon0/]scale (Van der Grinten)
89 -Jw[lon0/]scale (Mollweide)
90 NON-GEOGRAPHICAL PROJECTIONS:
92 -Jp[a]scale[/origin][r|z] (Polar coordinates (theta,r))
94 -Jxx-scale[d|l|ppow|t|T][/y-scale[d|l|ppow|t|T]] (Linear, log,
95 and power scaling)
96 -R xmin, xmax, ymin, and ymax specify the Region of interest. For
98 geographic regions, these limits correspond to west, east,
99 south, and north and you may specify them in decimal degrees or
100 in [+-]dd:mm[:ss.xxx][W|E|S|N] format. Append r if lower left
101 and upper right map coordinates are given instead of w/e/s/n.
102 The two shorthands -Rg and -Rd stand for global domain (0/360
103 and -180/+180 in longitude respectively, with -90/+90 in lati‐
104 tude). Alternatively, specify the name of an existing grid file
105 and the -R settings (and grid spacing, if applicable) are copied
106 from the grid. For calendar time coordinates you may either
107 give (a) relative time (relative to the selected TIME_EPOCH and
108 in the selected TIME_UNIT; append t to -JX|x), or (b) absolute
109 time of the form [date]T[clock] (append T to -JX|x). At least
110 one of date and clock must be present; the T is always required.
111 The date string must be of the form [-]yyyy[-mm[-dd]] (Gregorian
112 calendar) or yyyy[-Www[-d]] (ISO week calendar), while the clock
113 string must be of the form hh:mm:ss[.xxx]. The use of delim‐
114 iters and their type and positions must be exactly as indicated
115 (however, input, output and plot formats are customizable; see
116 gmtdefaults).
117
119 No space between the option flag and the associated arguments.
120 -A Give - to disable all annotations. The optional labelinfo con‐
122 trols the specifics of the label formatting and consists of a
123 concatenated string made up of any of the following control
124 arguments:
125 +aangle
127 For annotations at a fixed angle, +an for line-normal, or
128 +ap for line-parallel [Default].
129 +cdx[/dy]
131 Sets the clearance between label and optional text box.
132 Append c|i|m|p to specify the unit or % to indicate a
133 percentage of the label font size [15%].
134 +d Turns on debug which will draw helper points and lines to
136 illustrate the workings of the quoted line setup.
137 +ffont Sets the desired font [Default ANNOT_FONT_PRIMARY].
139 +g[color]
141 Selects opaque text boxes [Default is transparent];
142 optionally specify the color [Default is PAGE_COLOR].
143 (See SPECIFYING COLOR below).
144 +jjust Sets label justification [Default is MC]. Ignored when
146 -SqN|n+|-1 is used.
147 +kcolor
149 Sets color of text labels [Default is COLOR_BACKGROUND].
150 (See SPECIFYING COLOR below).
151 +llabel
153 Sets the constant label text.
154 +Lflag Sets the label text according to the specified flag:
156 +Lh Take the label from the current multisegment
158 header (first scan for an embedded -Llabel option,
159 if not use the first word following the segment
160 flag). For multiple-word labels, enclose entire
161 label in double quotes.
162 +Ld Take the Cartesian plot distances along the line
164 as the label; append c|i|m|p as the unit [Default
165 is MEASURE_UNIT].
166 +LD Calculate actual map distances; append d|e|k|m|n
168 as the unit [Default is d(egrees), unless label
169 placement was based on map distances along the
170 lines in which case we use the same unit specified
171 for that algorithm]. Requires a map projection to
172 be used.
173 +Lf Use text after the 2nd column in the fixed label
175 location file as the label. Requires the fixed
176 label location setting.
177 +Lx As +Lh but use the headers in the xfile.d instead.
179 Requires the crossing file option.
180 +ndx[/dy]
182 Nudges the placement of labels by the specified amount
183 (append c|i|m|p to specify the units). Increments are
184 considered in the coordinate system defined by the orien‐
185 tation of the line; use +N to force increments in the
186 plot x/y coordinates system [no nudging].
187 +o Selects rounded rectangular text box [Default is rectan‐
189 gular]. Not applicable for curved text (+v) and only
190 makes sense for opaque text boxes.
191 +p[pen]
193 Draws the outline of text boxsets [Default is no out‐
194 line]; optionally specify pen for outline [Default is
195 width = 0.25p, color = black, texture = solid]. (See
196 SPECIFYING PENS below).
197 +rmin_rad
199 Will not place labels where the line's radius of curva‐
200 ture is less than min_rad [Default is 0].
201 +ssize Sets the desired font size in points [Default is 9].
203 +uunit Appends unit to all line labels. If unit starts with a
205 leading hyphen (-) then there will be no space between
206 label value and the unit. [Default is no unit].
207 +v Specifies curved labels following the path [Default is
209 straight labels].
210 +w Specifies how many (x, y) points will be used to estimate
212 label angles [Default is 10].
213 +=prefix
215 Prepends prefix to all line labels. If prefix starts
216 with a leading hyphen (-) then there will be no space
217 between label value and the prefix. [Default is no pre‐
218 fix].
219 -B Sets map boundary annotation and tickmark intervals; see the
221 psbasemap man page for all the details.
222 -D Dump the (x,y,z) coordinates of each contour to separate files,
224 one for each contour segment. The files will be named dump‐
225 file_cont_segment[_i].xyz, where cont is the contour value and
226 segment is a running segment number for each contour interval
227 (for closed contours we append _i.) However, when -m is used in
228 conjunction with -D a single multisegment file is created
229 instead.
230 -E Sets the viewpoint's azimuth and elevation (for perspective
232 view) [180/90]. For frames used for animation, you may want to
233 append + to fix the center of your data domain (or specify a
234 particular world coordinate point with +wlon0/lat[/z]) which
235 will project to the center of your page size (or specify the
236 coordinates of the projected veiw point with +vx0/y0).
237 -G Controls the placement of labels along the contours. Choose
239 among five controlling algorithms:
240 -Gddist[c|i|m|p] or -GDdist[d|e|k|m|n]
242 For lower case d, give distances between labels on the
243 plot in your preferred measurement unit c (cm), i (inch),
244 m (meter), or p (points), while for upper case D, specify
245 distances in map units and append the unit; choose among
246 e (m), k (km), m (mile), n (nautical mile), or d (spheri‐
247 cal degree). [Default is 10c or 4i].
248 -Gfffile.d
250 Reads the ascii file ffile.d and places labels at loca‐
251 tions in the file that matches locations along the con‐
252 tours. Inexact matches and points outside the region are
253 skipped.
254 -Gl|Lline1[,line2,...]
256 Give start and stop coordinates for one or more comma-
257 separated straight line segments. Labels will be placed
258 where these lines intersect the contours. The format of
259 each line specification is start/stop, where start and
260 stop are either a specified point lon/lat or a 2-charac‐
261 ter XY key that uses the justification format employed in
262 pstext to indicate a point on the map, given as
263 [LCR][BMT]. -GL will interpret the point pairs as defin‐
264 ing great circles [Default is straight line].
265 -Gnn_label
267 Specifies the number of equidistant labels for contours
268 line [1]. Upper case -GN starts labeling exactly at the
269 start of the line [Default centers them along the line].
270 -GN-1 places one justified label at start, while -GN+1
271 places one justified label at the end of contours.
272 Optionally, append /min_dist[c|i|m|p] to enforce that a
273 minimum distance separation between successive labels is
274 enforced.
275 -Gx|Xxfile.d
277 Reads the multi-segment file xfile.d and places labels at
278 the intersections between the contours and the lines inx‐
279 file.d. -GX will resample the lines first along great-
280 circle arcs.
281 In addition, you may optionally append +rradius[c|i|m|p] to set
283 a minimum label separation in the x-y plane [no limitation].
284 -H Input file(s) has header record(s). If used, the default number
286 of header records is N_HEADER_RECS. Use -Hi if only input data
287 should have header records [Default will write out header
288 records if the input data have them]. Blank lines and lines
289 starting with # are always skipped.
290 -I Color the triangles using the color palette table.
292 -Jz Sets the vertical scaling (for 3-D maps). Same syntax as -Jx.
294 -K More PostScript code will be appended later [Default terminates
296 the plot system].
297 -L Draw the underlying triangular mesh using the specified pen
299 attributes [Default is no mesh]. (See SPECIFYING PENS below).
300 -N Do NOT clip contours or image at the boundaries [Default will
302 clip to fit inside region -R].
303 -O Selects Overlay plot mode [Default initializes a new plot sys‐
305 tem].
306 -P Selects Portrait plotting mode [Default is Landscape, see gmtde‐
308 faults to change this].
309 -S Skip all input xyz points that fall outside the region [Default
311 uses all the data in the triangulation].
312 -T Give name of file with network information. Each record must
314 contain triplets of node numbers for a triangle [Default com‐
315 putes these using Delaunay triangulation (see triangulate)].
316 -U Draw Unix System time stamp on plot. By adding just/dx/dy/, the
318 user may specify the justification of the stamp and where the
319 stamp should fall on the page relative to lower left corner of
320 the plot. For example, BL/0/0 will align the lower left corner
321 of the time stamp with the lower left corner of the plot.
322 Optionally, append a label, or c (which will plot the command
323 string.). The GMT parameters UNIX_TIME, UNIX_TIME_POS, and
324 UNIX_TIME_FORMAT can affect the appearance; see the gmtdefaults
325 man page for details. The time string will be in the locale set
326 by the environment variable TZ (generally local time).
327 -V Selects verbose mode, which will send progress reports to stderr
329 [Default runs "silently"].
330 -W Select contouring and set contour pen attributes. If the + flag
332 is set then the contour lines are colored according to the cpt
333 file (see -C). (See SPECIFYING PENS below).
334 -X -Y Shift plot origin relative to the current origin by (x-shift,y-
336 shift) and optionally append the length unit (c, i, m, p). You
337 can prepend a to shift the origin back to the original position
338 after plotting, or prepend r [Default] to reset the current
339 origin to the new location. If -O is used then the default (x-
340 shift,y-shift) is (0,0), otherwise it is (r1i, r1i) or (r2.5c,
341 r2.5c). Alternatively, give c to align the center coordinate (x
342 or y) of the plot with the center of the page based on current
343 page size.
344 -: Toggles between (longitude,latitude) and (latitude,longitude)
346 input and/or output. [Default is (longitude,latitude)]. Append
347 i to select input only or o to select output only. [Default
348 affects both].
349 -bi Selects binary input. Append s for single precision [Default is
351 d (double)]. Uppercase S or D will force byte-swapping.
352 Optionally, append ncol, the number of columns in your binary
353 input file if it exceeds the columns needed by the program. Or
354 append c if the input file is netCDF. Optionally, append
355 var1/var2/... to specify the variables to be read. [Default is
356 3 input columns]. Use 4-byte integer triplets for node ids
357 (-T).
358 -bo Selects binary output. Append s for single precision [Default
360 is d (double)]. Uppercase S or D will force byte-swapping.
361 Optionally, append ncol, the number of desired columns in your
362 binary output file. [Default is 3 output columns].
363 -c Specifies the number of plot copies. [Default is 1].
365 -m When used in conjunction with -D a single multisegment file is
367 created, and each contour section is preceded by a header record
368 whose first column is flag followed by the contour level.
369 SPECIFYING PENS
371 pen The attributes of lines and symbol outlines as defined by pen is
372 a comma delimetered list of width, color and texture, each of
373 which is optional. width can be indicated as a measure (points,
374 centimeters, inches) or as faint, thin[ner|nest], thick[er|est],
375 fat[ter|test], or obese. color specifies a gray shade or color
376 (see SPECIFYING COLOR below). texture is a combination of
377 dashes `-' and dots `.'.
378 SPECIFYING COLOR
380 color The color of lines, areas and patterns can be specified by a
381 valid color name; by a gray shade (in the range 0-255); by a
382 decimal color code (r/g/b, each in range 0-255; h-s-v, ranges
383 0-360, 0-1, 0-1; or c/m/y/k, each in range 0-1); or by a hexa‐
384 decimal color code (#rrggbb, as used in HTML). See the gmtcol‐
385 ors manpage for more information and a full list of color names.
386
388 To make a raw contour plot from the file topo.xyz and drawing the con‐
389 tours (pen = 0.5p) given in the color palette file topo.cpt on a Lam‐
390 bert map at 0.5 inch/degree along the standard parallels 18 and 24, use
391 pscontour topo.xyz -R320/330/20/30 -Jl18/24/0.5i -Ctopo.cpt -W0.5p >
393 topo.ps
394 To create a color PostScript plot of the numerical temperature solution
396 obtained on a triangular mesh whose node coordinates and temperatures
397 are stored in temp.xyz and mesh arrangement is given by the file
398 mesh.ijk, using the colors in temp.cpt, run
399 pscontour temp.xyz -R0/150/0/100 -Jx0.1 -Ctemp.cpt -G -W0.25p > temp.ps
401
403 Sometimes there will appear to be thin lines of the wrong color in the
404 image. This is a round-off problem which may be remedied by using a
405 higher value of DOTS_PR_INCH in the .gmtdefaults4 file.
406
408 GMT(1), gmtcolors(5), grdcontour(1), grdimage(1), nearneighbor(1),
409 psbasemap(1), psscale(1), surface(1), triangulate(1)
410
412 Watson, D. F., 1982, Acord: Automatic contouring of raw data, Comp. &
413 Geosci., 8, 97-101.
414 Shewchuk, J. R., 1996, Triangle: Engineering a 2D Quality Mesh Genera‐
415 tor and Delaunay Triangulator, First Workshop on Applied Computational
416 Geometry (Philadelphia, PA), 124-133, ACM, May 1996.
417 www.cs.cmu.edu/~quake/triangle.html
418GMT 4.5.6 10 Mar 2011 PSCONTOUR(1)