views:

468

answers:

2

I have a follow up question to this question.

Is it possible to streamline the figure generation by having multiple python scripts that work on different parts of the figure?

For example, if I have the following functions:

FunctionA: Draw a histogram of something
FunctionB: Draw a box with a text in it
FunctionC: Draw a plot of something C
FunctionD: Draw a plot of something D

How do I go about reusing the above functions in different scripts? If I wanted, for instance, to create a figure with a histogram with a plot of something C, I would somehow call FunctionA and FunctionC from my script. Or, if I wanted a figure with the two plots, I'd call FunctionC and FunctionD.

I'm not sure if I'm explaining myself clearly, but another way of asking this question is this: how do I pass a figure object to a function and then have the function draw something to the passed figure object and then return it back to the main script to add other things like the title or something?

Thank you in advance! :)

A: 

Okey, I've figured out how to do this. It was a lot simpler than what I had imagined. It just required a bit of reading here with the figure and axes classes.

In your main script:

import pylab as plt  
import DrawFns  
fig = plt.figure()  
(do something with fig)  
DrawFns.WriteText(fig, 'Testing')  
plt.show()

In your DrawFns.py:

def WriteText(_fig, _text):  
[indent]_fig.text(0, 0, _text)

And that's it! And I can add more functions in DrawFns.py and call them from any script as long as they are included with import call. :D

aspade
This is the right idea, except generally the figure contains one or more axes and most of the action is in calling the axes methods to make your plots, so it's easier to make the figure, then the axes, and pass the axes (or some object within them) to the functions. See my answer for an example.
tom10
Sorry, I just saw this. Thanks for the tip. I'll change the code accordingly (offline). Thank you!
aspade
+3  A: 
tom10
@tom10 - Thanks! How do you format code like that?
aspade
You're welcome! To format the code, indent the whole code block by four extra spaces, and use spaces instead of tabs within your code. There's more on formatting here: http://stackoverflow.com/editing-help
tom10