Routines (alphabetical) > Routines: P > POLYLINE

POLYLINE

The POLYLINE function plots a series of lines as an annotation to an existing IDL graphic.

Example

The following lines create the plot shown at the top of this topic.

im = IMAGE(FILEPATH('muscle.jpg', $

  SUBDIRECTORY=['examples','data']))

line1 = POLYLINE([265,252], [100,55], /DATA, $

  TARGET=im, COLOR=!COLOR.CHARTREUSE, THICK=3)

line2 = POLYLINE([400,365], [150,79], /DATA, $

  TARGET=im, COLOR=!COLOR.GOLD, THICK=3)

t1 = TEXT(230,110,'Sample 1', /DATA, TARGET=im, $

  COLOR=!COLOR.CHARTREUSE)

t2 = TEXT(372,160,'Sample 2', /DATA, TARGET=im, $

  COLOR=!COLOR.GOLD)

 

x = [23,67,108,125,112,66,219,220,242,264,260,242,30,40, $

  74,83,81,61,53]

y = [242,168,131,134,168,214,345,314,287,284,311,333,425, $

  390,347,376,413,424,399]

conn = [7,0,1,2,3,4,5,0,7,6,7,8,9,10,11,6,8,12,13,14,15, $

  16,17,18,12]

line3 = POLYLINE(x, y, CONNECTIVITY=conn, $

  COLOR=!COLOR.red, THICK=3, /DATA)

Additional Examples

See Annotations Examples for additional examples using the POLYLINE function.

Syntax

graphic = POLYLINE(X, Y, [, Z] [, Format] [, CONNECTIVITY=array] [, /DATA] [, /DEVICE] [, /NORMAL] [, TARGET=variable] [, Properties=value])

Keywords

[, CONNECTIVITY=array] [, /DATA] [, /DEVICE] [, /NORMAL] [, /RELATIVE] [, TARGET=variable]

Properties

Properties can be set as keywords to the function during creation, or retrieved or changed using the "." notation after creation.

ANTIALIAS, CLIP, COLOR, HIDE, LINESTYLE, NAME, THICK, TRANSPARENCY, UVALUE, WINDOW

Methods

Close  

ConvertCoord

CopyWindow

Delete

GetData

Order 

Print

Refresh

Rotate

Save

Scale

Select

SetData

Translate

Return Value

The POLYLINE function returns a reference to the created annotation. Use the returned reference to manipulate the annotation after creation by changing properties or by calling methods.

Arguments

X

Y

Z

The vertices of the polyline. The vectors X, Y, [and Z] must be of equal length. Unless Z is specified, a 2-D polyline is created.

Format

A string that sets line format properties using short tokens to represent color, linestyle, and thickness values. For example, to create a solid red line with a thickness value of 2, you would use the following:

p = POLYLINE(x, y, '-r2')

Tokens in the Format string represent values of the LINESTYLE, COLOR, and THICK properties. From one to three tokens can be present, and the tokens may be in any order. Tokens are case sensitive. For more information about the syntax of the Format argument, see Formatting IDL Graphics Symbols and Lines.

Keywords

Keywords are applied only during the initial creation of the graphic.

CONNECTIVITY

A vector defining individual polylines of the form: [n, i0, i1, ..., in-1, n, i0, i1, ..., in-1], where n is the number of vertices that define a polyline, and i0..in-1 are indices into a polyline vertex list. Connectivity allows you to insert multiple polylines with a single call. All of the polylines will share the same properties.

DATA

Set this keyword to 1 if the input arguments are specified in data coordinates. Setting this keyword inserts the polyline into the data space, otherwise the polyline is added to the annotation layer.

DEVICE

Set this keyword if values are specified in device coordinates (pixels) for the MARGIN and POSITION properties. (Normalized coordinates are the default for these properties.)

NORMAL

Set this keyword to 1 if the input arguments are specified in normalized ( [0, 1] ) coordinates (the default).

RELATIVE

Set this keyword to indicate that the input arguments are specified in normalized [0,1] coordinates, relative to the axis range of the TARGET's dataspace. If the TARGET keyword is not specified, then setting /RELATIVE is the same as setting /NORMAL.

Note: When using /RELATIVE, even though the coordinates are relative to the TARGET's dataspace, the graphic is added to the annotation layer, not to the dataspace.

TARGET

Set this keyword to the graphic object to use if points are specified in data coordinates. By default, the current graphic is used.

Properties

ANTIALIAS

By default anti-aliasing is used when drawing lines. Set this property to 0 to disable anti-aliasing.

CLIP

Set this property to 1 to clip portions of the graphic that lie outside of the dataspace range, or to 0 to disable clipping. The default is 1. This property is ignored unless the DATA property is set.

COLOR

Set this property to a string or RGB vector that specifies the color of the polyline. The default is "black".

HIDE

Set this property to 1 to hide the graphic. Set HIDE to 0 to show the graphic.

LINESTYLE

Set this property to an integer or string specifying the line style for the outline. The allowed values are:

Index String (case insensitive)
0 'solid' or '-'(dash)
1 'dot' or ':'(colon)
2 'dash' or '--' (double dashes)
3 'dash dot' or '-.'
4 'dash dot dot dot' or '-:'
5 'long dash' or '__' (double underscores)
6 'none' or ' ' (space)

NAME

A string that specifies the name of the graphic. The name can be used to retrieve the graphic using the brackets array notation. If NAME is not set then a default name is chosen based on the graphic type.

THICK

Set this property to a value between 0 and 10 that specifies the thickness of the polyline. A thickness of 0 displays a thin hairline on the chosen device. The default value is 1.

TRANSPARENCY

An integer between 0 and 100 that specifies the percent transparency of the polyline. The default value is 0.

UVALUE

Set this property to an IDL variable of any data type.

WINDOW (Get Only)

This property retrieves a reference to the WINDOW object which contains the graphic.

Version History

8.0 Introduced
8.1

Added the UVALUE property

The THICK property was changed to accept a value between 0 and 10

Added the following methods: Delete, GetData, SetData

See Also

PLOT, POLYGON, Using IDL Graphics

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