Name

Synopsis

Description

Ploterps plots ERP data on the graphics device plot_device in a manner controlled by the ploterps commands contained in the ASCII commandfile (if present) or the command line options. If commandfile is "none", no explicit commands will be needed and plots will be generated via command line arguments alone, as discussed here. Detailed information on using ploterps with a command file can be found in the document "PLOTERPS Tutorial and Manual". To plot data with ploterps without using a command file, "none" must be specified as the commandfile, and the -files and -bins options must be specified. Note that the order of appearance of these options in the command line option list determines the method of plotting, as described below under the -files option. Various parameters controlling the format of the plot are set to default values, unless otherwise specified via additional command line option(s). The default parameters for this mode cause the plots to be drawn negative "up", with 5 uV calibration markers.

Plotting Devices

Some typical plotting devices are (the complete list can be found in /usr/local/erp/lib/graphicdevs):

xwin -- xwindow (640x480 pixels, landscape)

pxwin -- portrait xwindow (480x640 pixels)

xwinb -- xwindow (640x480 pixels, landscape), black background

hxwin -- huge xwindow (1024x768 pixels, landscape)

phxwin -- portrait huge xwindow (768x1024 pixels)

hxwinb -- huge xwindow (1024x768 pixels, landscape), black background

fortel -- HP LaserJet 5100tn laser printer, landscape mode

pfortel -- HP LaserJet 5100tn laser printer, portrait mode

hutel -- HP Color LaserJet 3800n color laser printer, landscape mode

phutel -- HP Color LaserJet 3800n color laser printer, portrait mode

pastel -- HP Business Inkjet 2280TN color printer, landscape mode

ppastel -- HP Business Inkjet 2280TN color printer, portrait mode

motel -- HP LaserJet 5M laser printer, landscape mode

pmotel -- HP LaserJet 5M laser printer, portait mode

pso -- Encapsulated Postscript Level 2 to stdout, landscape mode

ppso -- Encapsulated Postscript Level 2 to stdout, portrait mode

gv -- Encapsulated Postscript Level 2 to ghostview previewer, landscape

pgv -- Encapsulated Postscript Level 2 to ghostview previewer, portrait

psf -- Encapsulated Postscript Level 2 to file out.ps, landscape

ppsf -- Encapsulated Postscript Level 2 to file out.ps, portrait

pdff -- PDF (Portable Document Format) to file out.pdf, landscape

ppdff -- PDF (Portable Document Format) to file out.pdf, portrait

jpgf -- JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) to file out.jpg, landscape

pjpgf -- JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) to file out.jpg, portrait

save:file -- save to file (landscape), for subsequent use with multiplot

psave:file -- save to file (portrait), for subsequent use with multiplot

Options

Here are the currently implemented options:

-files file1 [file2 ...]

This option specifies the files to be used to plot data, and emulates the definefiles command. Files are referred to by number (the first file is number 0) in commands, thus using this option enables one to plot different sets of data with the same commandfile. When used in conjunction with the -bins option (described next) and "none" as the commandfile, it allows plotting data in a standardized manner without using any commands. In this case, if the -files option precedes the -bins option on the command line, all the specified bins are overlaid on a single page (or screen) for each file; if -bins precedes the -files option, data from all the specified files are overlaid on a single page (screen) for each bin specified. For these standardized plots, either different colors or different styles of lines (or both) are used to distinguish the data that are overlaid on each page, depending on the capabilities of the specific plot device in use. It is usually difficult to interpret plots having more than four traces overlaid, so this is the recommended limit for the number of overlaid traces.

-bins bin1 [bin2 ...]

This option is meaningless unless used with the -files option described above. The bins bin1, [bin2 ...] to be plotted are represented as integers between 0 and the number of bins in the file minus one. The order of bins is important and preserved, and the format in which the plots are drawn (all bins overlaid for each file, or vice versa) is determined by the order of appearance of the -bins and -files options in the command line, as explained above in the description for the -files option.

-scale uVolts

The -scale option determines the scaling that will be applied to the data when they are plotted from command-line options (-files and -bins). The argument uVolts is a floating point number which specifies the number of microvolts that span one half of the vertical space allotted to each data trace. It is the same as the argument to the position and chanlocations commands. The number should be positive, but the absolute value is used, as the polarity of the data is determined by the -cal option. The default scale is 10.0 microvolts.

-horzspace value

The -horzspace option determines the horizontal spacing that will appear around each data trace. The value argument is a floating point number that determines the fraction of the horizontal space allotted to each data trace that should be used for both left and right margins preceding and following the actual data trace. This is the same as the optional argument to the position and chanlocations commands.

-cal uVolts

This option specifies the size of the calibration bar that will accompany the data that are plotted. The argument uVolts is a floating point number that corresponds to the amplitude in microvolts that the bar will represent. Normally two such bars are drawn, one on each side of the baseline for the data. A negative value indicates that negative voltages should be plotted "up". The default value is -5.0 microvolts per side.

-ticks msec_per_tick

This option specifies the interval in milliseconds (msec_per_tick) between tick marks on the abscissa. It can be a floating point number or an integer.

-pause

This enables the pause command, such that ploterps will pause awaiting a press of the ENTER key whenever the pause command is encountered in a command file. If plotting is being performed using invocation line options alone (-files and -bins), the program will pause between pages as if a pause command had been encountered.

-smooth npts

Use a smoothing algorithm on all data before plotting it. A running average of npts before and after each data point will be used as the value of the data to plot. Note that smoothing can be turned on and off in the command files with the "smooth" command as well.

-filter filtertype cutoff [cutoff]

Filter the data before plotting it. filtertype may be "lp" for lowpass, "hp" for highpass, or "bp" for bandpass. cutoff is the cutoff frequency to use for the filter. If a bandpass filter is used, both a low and high cutoff frequency must be specified.

-grid

This option draws a "grid" of lines on the plot to help find coordinates in the ploterps coordinate system

-timewindow start_time end_time

This option specifies the epoch start time and end time (in ms). It is especially useful when plotting from the command line.

-baseline start stop

This option is used to alter the interval used to calculate the baseline voltage which is subtracted from every point in the data prior to plotting. start and stop are decimal integers which denote the beginning and ending latencies (in ms) of the portion of data which are to be averaged together to form the baseline voltage (note: prior to 2008-09-10 the data point corresponding to the stop latency was included in the baseline average; after 2008-09-10 it is excluded). They are relative to stimulus onset, so if one wanted to use the 50 ms prior to stimulus onset as the baseline interval, one would type "baseline -50 0". This option overrides any baseline (or nobaseline) specified in the command file. If no interval is specified, the default is to baseline using the presampling period to calculate the baseline voltage.

-nobaseline

This option specifies to not subtract a baseline voltage from the data prior to plotting. It overrides any baseline specified in the command file. The default is to baseline using the presampling period to calculate the baseline voltage.

Files

See Also

Diagnostics

Author

Table of Contents

• Name
• Synopsis
• Description
• Plotting Devices
• Options
• Files
• See Also
• Diagnostics
• Author