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Plotting with BornAgain

To plot simulation results (possibly along with experimental data), different methods are viable:

  • Export simulated data to files, and plot them with some external tool;
  • Convert simulated data to NumPy arrays, and plot them with any Python-based tool;
  • Plot simulated data with MatPlotLib under Python, using utility functions provided by BornAgain.

In the following, we will explain the last of these three methods.

Overview

BornAgain’s MatPlotLib-based plotting functions are available directly from the bornagain Python package:

import bornagain as ba

The same import also provides MatPlotLib’s pyplot module as ba.plt, so a typical BornAgain plotting script needs no second import.

The main functions are

ba.plot_datafield(result, **plotargs)       # plot one Datafield
ba.plot_array(array, frame, **plotargs)     # array with physical axes
ba.plot_multicurve(results, **plotargs)     # several 1D Datafields
ba.plot_specular_curves(curves, ...)        # curves with error bars
ba.plot_material_profile(profiles, z_unit, ...) # one or more SLD profiles
ba.plot2d_to_grid(results, ncol, **plotargs)  # 2D Datafields in a grid
ba.plot2d_to_row(results, **plotargs)       # 2D Datafields in a row

where result is a Datafield as returned by simulation.simulate(), array is a NumPy array, frame supplies its physical axes, and results is a list of Datafields.

To finalize a plot, call one of

ba.plt.show()          # display the plot in a MatPlotLib window
ba.export(**plotargs)  # write the plot to an image file

Further reading

See

Code location

The functions remain organized in the importable implementation module ba_plot. User scripts should call them through ba, so that their imports do not depend on the package’s internal module layout.

If our plot functions are not versatile enough for your needs, then copy, rename, and modify them.