A.4.5.3 SizeXY Form

The SizeXY form () plots a shaped marker whose width and height vary independently acoording to two supplied data coordinates. The marker shape can thus encode two additional dimensions of the plot.

The actual size of the markers depends on the setting of the Auto Scale option. If autoscaling is off, the basic dimensions of each marker are given by the input data values in units of pixels. If autoscaling is on, the data values are gathered for all the currently visible points, and scaling factors are applied so that the largest ones will be a sensible size (a few tens of pixels). This autoscaling happens independently for the X and Y directions. The basic sizes can be further adjusted with the Scale slider.

Currently data values of zero always correspond to marker extent of zero, negative data values are not represented, and the mapping is linear. An absolute maximum size on markers is also imposed. Other options may be introduced in future.

Note the scaling to size is in terms of screen dimensions (pixels). For sizes that correspond to actual data values, the Error form may be more appropriate.

Example SizeXY plot

SizeXY form configuration panel

The configuration options are:

Shading Mode

See Appendix A.4.6.

X/Y Size

For width and height respectively, the size coordinate data values. Fill in with a column name or expression from the table just like for the positional coordinates. The units are either pixels or arbitrary, according to the Auto Scale setting.

Shape

Marker shape from a list of options.

Thickness

Controls the line thickness used when drawing shapes. Zero, the default value, means a 1-pixel-wide line is used. Larger values make drawn lines thicker, but note changing this value will not affect all shapes, for instance filled rectangles contain no line drawings.

Scale

Scales the size of variable-sized markers. Adjusting the slider will make all markers larger or smaller. Alternatively you can enter a scale factor in the text field.

Auto Scale

Determines whether the basic size of variable sized markers is automatically scaled to have a sensible size. If checked, then the sizes of all the plotted markers are examined, and some dynamically calculated factor is applied to them all to make them a sensible size (by default, the largest ones will be a few tens of pixels). If unchecked, the sizes will be the actual input values in units of pixels.

If auto-scaling is off, then markers will keep exactly the same screen size during pan and zoom operations; if it's on, then the visible sizes will change according to what other points are currently plotted.