Vector Plots with Excel

[waterguy]

Does anybody know of any add-on tools that expand Excel's graphing capabilities to include the ability to generate vector plots and/or contour plots ? Alternatively are there any other programs (preferrably freeware) that is capable of plotting this type of information ?

Thanks.

 

[pmover]

by vector plots, are you referring to arrows from one point to another? like a vector diagram?
i've accomplished this by creating a series for each data point or vector. but creating the arrow is difficult or not possible as the series does not allow arrows.
i am not aware of any freeware/shareware either.
sorry!
-pmover

 

[GregLocock]

For vector plots - I assume you are trying to draw a 2d field of vectors of variable lengths. How much work are you prepare to put in? If you make an xy plot, but have blank rows in the series (assuming they are columns), then the lines will be separated.

If you need to add arrow heads then a little geometry is required to draw them, using the same trick.

You can do surface and contour plots directly, so long as your data is in a 2d matrix of heights. If you have a list of x,y points, or x,y,z values, then you need to turn it into a 2d matrix first. There are various ways, depending on your data.

You might want to look at Scilab, it is free, powerful, and ported to Windows. Google will find it, although i've also given the web adress in another post here.







Cheers

Greg Locock

 

[NOEd]

Another option is creating shape objects but these won't be linked to any data. Creat a simple object and then use a do-loop to add coordinates. You will have to scale to screen coordinates and you can stack and group the objects (including text blocks) to create complete diagrams.

 

[cbiber]

Greg,
I've only been able to do surface contour charts if the x and y axis intervals are evenly spaced. They're not values, they're categories. Have you found a way around that?

 

[bilou]

hi waterguy,
in excell spredsheet it is possible to make some macro with eventually Visual Basic . so if you excecute and recording of your drafting you can view the special formula to draft a line with an arrow at the end.
if you whish to draft with scale many lines , you will have to make a macro and organise your datas like position in x axis, y axis , determine a scale to fit your draft in the area reserved for this .
I have developped this sort of program under the antic MULTPLAN SPREDSHEET !!! in the 1983years.

at this moment this program run under excell , I use it to draft time schedule.