suggestions for Grain Size Distribution chart

[RonHendrickson]

David, two things would be helpful on the grain size distribution chart:

1. Make the top X axis descriptions editable. We have many different stone and sand product specifications, calling for many different sieve sizes; it would be nice to be able to put the sieve size numbers on the top X axis that conform to the sieves called out in the specifications.
2. If I change the extents of the bottom X axis, making it smaller, the description rectangle stays the same size, making it stick out on the left and right sides of the chart. If you could make it editable, so that I could only show the size particles I am working with, it would make the chart look better. If one is using the chart to show only sand sizes, then it is much more readable to limit the extents of the X axis and open up the curves to see the difference between them.

I hope these suggestions make sense. The chart is very usable as is, so I don't see this as a big thing, but nice to have if you can do it.

Thanks again for the great program.

[DPlotAdmin]

Ron,
Thanks for your comments.

1. Make the top X axis descriptions editable. We have many different stone and sand product specifications, calling for many different sieve sizes; it would be nice to be able to put the sieve size numbers on the top X axis that conform to the sieves called out in the specifications.

I misunderstood your earlier mail - I thought you wanted to change the labels on the lower X axis (if you DO, that's definitely doable as well). For the above, please take a look at Options>Linear/Log Scaling>Grain Size Options and tell me if that's not what you want.

2. If I change the extents of the bottom X axis, making it smaller, the description rectangle stays the same size, making it stick out on the left and right sides of the chart. If you could make it editable, so that I could only show the size particles I am working with, it would make the chart look better. If one is using the chart to show only sand sizes, then it is much more readable to limit the extents of the X axis and open up the curves to see the difference between them.

I should have been called on this before... looks fairly nasty if you zoom in. This will be fixed in the next release.

[RonHendrickson]

David, you are correct on item #1, the options to change the sieves called out was exactly what I needed. I just didn't see the menu item.

The lower x axis labels are not as important to me. It would be nice, but I have no idea how hard it is to program it.

Thanks

[DPlotAdmin]

Ron,
Your #2 is taken care of now and with luck will be posted as a beta version by this time tomorrow.

It wouldn't be especially difficult to use different labels in place of "Cobbles", etc. - IF there's a different standard that I'm unaware of I could very easily add support for that. I'm a bit reluctant to allow arbitrary labels, though, simply because the labels could then just be plain wrong - Sand > 100mm, for example.

[DPlotAdmin]

Done. See http://www.dplot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=47

[RonHendrickson]

Great, just what I needed. Thanks for the change.

The labels along the bottom are fine. I don't need the capability to change them.

Ron

[jksmurf]

Small request:

Would it be possible to add it a future version British Standard (BS) Sieve sizes?

Thanks
Kristian

[DPlotAdmin]

Yes, I'll add this to the to-do list. I'll be using this as a reference unless you can provide a better one.

[jksmurf]

According to this

http://www.ukas.com/Library/downloads/p ... S%2045.pdf
the latest would be BS410-1 and BS410-2:2000 Smaller than that it's Hyrdometer.

Soooo, searching in that, this one looks good

http://www.endecotts.com/sieves/specifications.htm

k.

[DPlotAdmin]

Kristian,
With the limitation that "only" 27 sieve sizes will be shown (at least for the next release), these are tentatively the sieve sizes that will be available:

125 mm
50 mm
20 mm
10 mm
5 mm
2.5 mm
#8 (2 mm)
#10 (1.68 mm)
#14 (1.20 mm)
#16 (1.00 mm)
#22 (0.710 mm)
#25 (0.600 mm)
#30 (0.500 mm)
#35 (0.420 mm)
#44 (0.355 mm)
#52 (0.300 mm)
#60 (0.250 mm)
#72 (0.210 mm)
#85 (0.180 mm)
#100 (0.150 mm)
#120 (0.125 mm)
#150 (0.105 mm)
#170 (0.090 mm)
#200 (0.075 mm)
#240 (0.063 mm)
#300 (0.053 mm)
#350 (0.045 mm)

I have no attachment to any of the above. If there are substitutions you'd like to make, right now would be a good time

[DPlotAdmin]

For anyone else interested, here's a pic of new grain size options dialog:



With those options selected, you get a plot similar to:



One point, if you're not familiar with how the sieve selection works: If "Specify sieve size labels" is not checked, then DPlot attempts to draw labels and tick marks for all sieves shown. But it will not draw a label or the associated tick mark if a label would overlap the previously drawn label. If "Specify sieve size labels" is checked, all selected sieves, including "Other sizes", will be drawn regardless of whether they overlap or not.

Thanks to jksmurf for his input on this. One feature that's currently lacking: it is my understanding that Brits typically show the X axis increasing from left to right (no doubt just trying to be difficult!). That isn't possible with version 2.0.1.4, but will be soon.

[Probable1]

I have noted the progress made with the options and capabilities of DPlot to handle particle Size Distributions. However, as You Mr. Admin, you and I have communicated before, there is much more to this than meets the eye. You have added the British Screen set. However, will you allow to distinguish between U.S. and Tyler Screen sets? Also, to those "Crushers" out there who are happy down to 63 microns, we who "Pulverize" need the micron series (remember our talk of 2^.5 and 2^.25 series of micron sizing) able to go down to around 0.026 Microns. A commercial analyzer called a Microtrac, a laser light diffraction method of determining the distribution of powders, etc. uses the same 2^.25 series. The range on this device is 704 microns down to 0.026 Microns. I have however, found a crude way around the problem I had asked you about before, the Root of 2 series on the X-Axis, but not placed on a log scale. I converted most of the whole series of micron sizes of the 2^.25 series and assign them numbers, 1-95. I then use the Cummulative percent passing on the Y Axis using Probability Scale, the X-Axis will have the traditional Micron sizing, but each 2^.25 Micron size is plotted linear. major divisions are 2^.5 and the minor Divisions are 2^.25, and this has the effect of making pulverized materials give straight line segments with one or two breaks. It is much more useful than the log scale plot for finding errors in sampling or screening proceedure. So, I have two questions- How do I get a toolbar added just the same as Windows "Draw" Tools? So, I can draw lines and such on the graph. Second, is there a way to "load" or "preload" the micron points with their assigned labels? Doing it by hand with the current feature takes a lot of time when the scale can run from 125,000 microns, down to 0.026 (95 points total) microns or any 7 points or so in between? I will send a copy of the graph which is close to the way I need it. I would appreciate your thoughts.

Probable1

[DPlotAdmin]

So, I have two questions- How do I get a toolbar added just the same as Windows "Draw" Tools? So, I can draw lines and such on the graph.

Adding a generic drawing capability is on my to-do list, but way, way down on the list and it won't happen any time soon.

Second, is there a way to "load" or "preload" the micron points with their assigned labels? Doing it by hand with the current feature takes a lot of time when the scale can run from 125,000 microns, down to 0.026 (95 points total) microns or any 7 points or so in between? I will send a copy of the graph which is close to the way I need it. I would appreciate your thoughts.

If I understand what you want correctly you could do this with a series of XYLabel commands in a macro... only... bah! Now that I've mentioned this I see the command has somehow not been documented in the Help file. XYLabel is equivalent to using Text>X,Y Labels. Syntax is:

[XYLabel(XorY,location,offset,"text")]

XorY is the X or Y (dependent on the location parameter) value where the label will centered.

location: 0=X axis, bottom of plot
1=X axis, top of plot
2=Y axis, left side of plot
3=Y axis, right side of plot

offset = offset from associated axis in hundredths of inches

"text" = label to draw

[jksmurf]

One feature that's currently lacking: it is my understanding that Brits typically show the X axis increasing from left to right (no doubt just trying to be difficult!). That isn't possible with version 2.0.1.4, but will be soon.

David,

Any advances on this front The folks we are are sending these to are looking at us askance...

k.

[DPlotAdmin]

Tell them to print out the plots and stand in front of a mirror

No, sorry - this one slipped my mind. I'll add this to the next release. Instead of hardwiring it to the "Use British standard sieve sizes" option I'll make a separate option for reversed/not reversed.

[jksmurf]

Tell them to print out the plots and stand in front of a mirror

LOL..

I'll make a separate option for reversed/not reversed.

Excellent. That will do it very nicely (Presumably this will be able to be saved in the preferences file too ...)

k.

[DPlotAdmin]

Done. Licensed users can get the update with Help>Check for Updates.

Here's the list of changes since the last public release (2.0.3.3):

DPlot v2.0.3.8
Feb-23-2006

• Added "X axis increases left-to-right" option for Grain Size Distribution plots.
• Bug fix: If "Always auto-adjust scale factors on 3D plots" was checked, scale factors saved to DPlot files were ignored.
• Bug fix: Image formats saved by DPlot (BMP, GIF, etc., plus bitmaps copied to the clipboard) sometimes included an extra black line along the bottom and/or right sides of the image.
• File>Append works more consistently with DPlot files. You can now append multiple DPlot files to an existing plot. Settings within the appended plot which affect the entire plot (scaling, extents, tick mark intervals, title lines and axis labels, etc.) are ignored.

DPlot v2.0.3.7
Feb-22-2006

• Bug fix: File>Append presented a bogus error message if appending a DPlot file that contained user-specified tick mark intervals.
• Added NORMRAND function for Y=f(X) and other commands that generate data from an equation. NORMRAND returns a normally-distributed random number from a distribution with a specified mean and standard deviation.
• Bug fix: With new N1.85 scale, a dependent second X axis (for example, used for different units) was scaled incorrectly.
• Bug fix: For XY plots with gridlines across the plot and a second X axis related to the primary X axis by an equation, the labels for the second axis were prone to overlap for many unit conversions.

DPlot v2.0.3.6
Feb-18-2006

• For XY plots, when using Edit>Edit Data you may now use the mouse to edit existing points or add new points. Also, changes to the data are now automatically reflected in the graph. Taken together, these two new features enable you to "draw" a plot with your mouse. One consequence of this change is that you cannot Cancel the operation unless Undo is enabled. "Snap mouse" option rounds mouse-picked values to "nice" numbers, based on the current tick mark interval. Also added a Sort button, which sorts the data in ascending X order.
• Bug fix: It was possible to cause DPlot to crash if you attempted to plot a curve on a log Y scale when the curve had only 2 points and one of those points had Y=0.
• Better error reporting on image export options (BMP, GIF, etc.). Previous versions simply failed when an error was encountered, with no error message.
• When panning a zoomed plot, pressing the Ctrl key in combination with the arrow keys now pans the plot by 10% of the normal pan distance. (By default, the pan distance is one half of the plot extents. This fraction can be reset with a SetPanFraction macro command.)
• If the crosshair cursor is used, that cursor is now used during a Distance Between Points command. In previous versions the cursor reverted to the default arrow when any dialog box was opened.
• Point labels for invisible curves are not drawn.
• The Colors dialog for XY plots now includes curve legends in the label rather than the generic Curve 1, Curve 2, etc.
• Improved the new N1.85 scaling option a bit. Previous version did not allow X values equal to 0. This was simply to avoid math errors and not a physical limitation of the scale.
• Bug fix: DPlot crashed due to an integer overflow if you selected a tick mark interval smaller than either extent divided by about 2 billion (more precisely, 0x7FFFFFFF). This would commonly be a problem when working with calendar dates and a tick mark interval of 1 second or smaller.
• Bug fix: The default extents on XY plots often cut off portions of the data, if the magnitude of the X or Y values was much larger than the default tick mark interval
• Bug fix: Edit>Edit Data did not use a sufficient number of significant figures in some cases.
• Bug fix: Edit>Copy Data Values did not use a sufficient number of significant figures for XY plots with date/time groups on the X axis.

[jksmurf]

Added "X axis increases left-to-right" option for Grain Size Distribution plots.

File>Append works more consistently with DPlot files. You can now append multiple DPlot files to an existing plot. Settings within the appended plot which affect the entire plot (scaling, extents, tick mark intervals, title lines and axis labels, etc.) are ignored.

David,

1. I think the above two updates may have been added independently of each other ... can you also get it to ignore the plot direction (recently added) for the appending plot ... (I thought this may be because the appendees were from the old version and do not have that L-R parameter, but I opened and saved them with it, same thing, the L-R direction of the appendee controlled the master R-L).

2. I tried to append a couple of plots to the master simultaneously (correct me if I'm wrong, but you just added support for this i.e. append multiple plots simultaneously?), but it jumped out of the program with an error. Shall I send the examples to you for a look? I get an error in dplot.exe and ntdll.dll

3. Separate issue: Filenames; I looked in the help under filename, filename open and import but cannot find (probably missed) a section on limitations on length, path length or allowable characters. The issue is this:

I can open a file with the path:

C:\Documents and Settings\reg1\Desktop\DraftPapers KM+Billy\Paper5-RelativeCompactionTestMethods-CohesionlessSoils-REWalls\TypeI_IISelectedFill_ENVELOPE.grf

from an open Dplot Prgram. But I can't right click the file and open it (open with Dplot), as I get a FileOpen error ("error processing this command")

The same file, renamed and placed on the desktop

C:\Documents and Settings\reg1\Desktop\Type1.grf, opens OK with right click open with.

Sorry to be such a pain, requesting features then commenting on them after they arrive within 1/2hr...

k.

[DPlotAdmin]

1. I think the above two updates may have been added independently of each other ... can you also get it to ignore the plot direction ...

Change the 2nd quote to "Most settings within the appended plot..."

Yes, I'll fix that. But you've reminded me that I've glossed over many others that should be ignored as well. With luck I'll put another update up tomorrow night.

2. Append crash: Yes, please send examples.

3. The problem is the plus sign. This is a problem for historical reasons. In 8.3 days, and when '+' was not a legal character for a filename, you could specify multiple files on the command line with dplot.exe file1+file2+file3, etc. So DPlot in your case is looking for a file named "C:\Documents and Settings\reg1\Desktop\DraftPapers KM". I've needed to fix this for a while (w/o breaking that old capability, that's the trick), thanks for the reminder.

[jksmurf]

1.

With luck I'll put another update up tomorrow night.

Cool

2.

Append crash: Yes, please send examples.

Done.

3.

The problem is the plus sign. ... thanks for the reminder.

No worries, perhaps just a reminder in the help file until you get it done...

k.

[DPlotAdmin]

Once more, select Help>Check for Updates.

The list:

• Added "Font..." menu item to the right-click menu for numbers along the coordinate axes.
• Changed behavior when opening files from Explorer, the command line, or a FileOpen DDE command. In previous versions a '+' symbol was always interpreted as a delineator between filenames, so that you could specify multiple files to open on the command line. This is a remnant from DOS 8.3 filenames, when a '+' was not a legal filename character. The problem with this operation is that filenames containing a '+' character could not be opened from Explorer or any of the previously-mentioned methods. In this version, to use a '+' symbol to specify multiple files all filenames must have an extension. Likewise, you cannot open a file from Explorer if the filename contains a '.' character preceding any '+' character.
• Bug fix: DPlot failed to read data columns with values greater than the maximum magnitude of a single-precision floating point number (roughly 3.4E+38 ) either from multiple-column text files or text columns on the Clipboard. This is a remnant of DPlot using single-precision data many years ago.
• Bug fix: Jumped the gun on pronouncing File>Append working better in v2.0.3.8. This time it is actually true.

[jksmurf]

I haven't given it a grilling, but that seems to work extremely well !
Great stuff as usual David.

This thing just gets better and better. More folks should use it....

k.