Creating and Printing Plots

Plots output by CUPLOT can be displayed on Tektronix 4014 or 4105 compatible devices. Users most often want 4014 mode plots as these can be printed on the Talaris or DEC PrintServer laser printers, so this manual focuses on that option. 4105 mode is useful for creating plots for MacDraw, and outputting to the color Tektronix printer HC0; see section 6.6. If you are already familiar with PPPL plot files, and the use of the logical variable PLOT, you can skip the remainder of this section.

To obtain a plot file that can be printed on one of the VAX laser printers (HL0, RT0, or UT0), use either of two techniques:

(1)

Before executing CUPLOT, set the logical variable PLOT. You can use any file name you want so long as the extension is ``.PLT''.     

 
	$ DEFINE PLOT CUPLOT.PLT

				routes output to the file CUPLOT.PLT only.

	$ DEFINE PLOT "CUPLOT.PLT,"

				routes output to your terminal with the option to save

				each page to the file if you type ``D'' at the beep.

				Note the comma inside the double quote.

	$ DEAS PLOT

				routes output to SYS$OUTPUT (your terminal for an

				interactive job).

If you output to a ``.PLT'' file while executing CUPLOT, you can print this after you exit with the PRINT command.  

 
	$ PRINT/QUE=RT0 CUPLOT.PLT

(2)

Use the CUPLOT commands PF (plot to file) and PT (plot to terminal). These have precedence over the definition of PLOT; they are described in section 6.6.

A batch job must define PLOT, or use the CUPLOT command to output to a file, to get any plot output. Some people define PLOT in their LOGIN.COM file.

If you generate plots interactively using VersatermPro on a Macintosh connected to a Laserwriter, you can obtain a hard copy by selecting the Print Graphics command under the File menu. Under Page Setup you should select landscape orientation (man sideways) and 100% resolution.

Another logical variable that affects plot output is TERMINAL_DASH. If you ``DEFINE TERMINAL_DASH YES'', dashed lines are output as solid lines with a dash code and the output device (terminal or printer) turns the line into the requested dash pattern. If you ``DEAS TERMINAL_DASH'' dashed lines are output as sequences of lines and blank spaces. Hardware dashed lines use less VAX CPU time, however the laser printers, and sometimes VersatermPRO, do a poor job of encoding dash patterns. Hardware dashed lines are also better if you plan to clip the plot from VersatermPRO into MacDraw; see section 6.7.