print ignores object properties in 3d

[Ben Abbott]

Hi David,

I understand what you're seeing now.

I'm running gnuplot 4.3 and have no problem printing to a pdf file. I  
thought I had printed to pdf files when I was using 4.2.3 ... can  
someone else comment?

Regarding the zlabel for 3D plots, it appears that octave is not  
setting the zlabel rotation to the default 90 degrees. Unfortunately,  
even when I fix that gnuplot ignores it.

What I can offer you today is a work around. Rather than using  
zlabel("your zlabel"), try

	hz = text(1.15*min (get (gca, "xlim")), 1.15*max (get (gca, "ylim")),  
mean (get (gca, "zlim")), "my rotated zlabel");
	set (hz, "rotation", 90, "horizontalalignment", "center")

If you want to adjust the font size

	set (hz, "fontsize", 12)

Setting the (x,y) position correctly can be a pain if the perspective  
changes.

To fix this correctly, I think gnuplot should be patched so that 3D  
plots respect the specified axis label rotations.

Ben



On Nov 13, 2008, at 12:46 PM, David Donovan wrote:

> Hi Ben,
>
> Thanks for the response.
>
> First of all, my gnuplot is:
>
> octave-3.0.2:1> system("gnuplot --version")
> gnuplot 4.2 patchlevel 3
> ans = 0
>
>
> Secondly, I am having difficulty producing pdf's at all....  I get  
> this:
>
> -- BEGIN OUTPUT --
> octave-3.0.2:2> sombrero;
> octave-3.0.2:3> print -dpdf sombrero.pdf
>
> gnuplot> set terminal pdf color enhanced;
>                      ^
>         line 0: unknown or ambiguous terminal type; type just 'set
> terminal' for a list
>
>
> gnuplot> splot "-" using ($1):($2):($3):($4) title "" with pm3d  
> linestyle 1 ;
>               ^
>         line 0: use 'set term' to set terminal type first
>
>
> gnuplot> -8 -8 -0.083953080486421 -0.083953080486421
>         ^
>         line 0: invalid command
>
> -- END --
>
> Thirdly, my original question is that the default outer position (the
> plot limits within the drawing surface) are not large enough to
> contain a longish z-axis label in 3d plots.  For example:
>
> octave-3.0.2:5> sombrero;
> octave-3.0.2:6> zlabel("This is my z-label")
> octave-3.0.2:7> set(gca(), "outerposition", [0.1,0.1,0.9,.9])
>
> Will plot (on screen) the sombrero with enough space to see the z-axis
> label.  Now, if I print this to a file (postscript since my pdf isn't
> working):
>
> octave-3.0.2:6> print -deps sombrero.eps
>
> I get the attached plot, which has ignored my set(gca() ....) command
> and goes back to some other outerposition which is not large enough to
> show my z-axis label.
>
> Thanks for any help you might provide on these problems.
>
> Cheers,
> David Donovan
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 4:44 PM, Ben Abbott <bpabbott at mac.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Nov 12, 2008, at 2:19 PM, David Donovan wrote:
>>
>>> Hi All,
>>>
>>> I have what I believe to be a small problem that I hope someone can
>>> help me with.
>>>
>>> I'm trying to plot a 3d surface using Octave octave-3.0.2 for Mac  
>>> OS X
>>> (Octave.app), and my z-axis labels are getting cut off when I try to
>>> print to a file.
>>>
>>> I am able to make them look okay in the gnuplot display window by  
>>> using
>>>
>>> set(gca(), "defaultaxesouterposition", [0.1,0.1,0.9,0.9])
>>>
>>> However, print -deps "foo.eps" , simply ignores this option and  
>>> plots
>>> it in the default manner.
>>>
>>> Do hardcopy devices have some other hidden axis properties  
>>> somewhere?
>>> Am I missing something here?
>>>
>>> Forgive me if this comes up regularly, but my due diligence of
>>> searching the mailing list didn't turn anything up.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> David Donovan
>>
>>
>> I'm on Mac OSX as well and have been working on incorporating more  
>> of the
>> figure/axes properties into the gnuplot backend. Can  you provide a  
>> simple
>> example of the problem?
>>
>> Something like the following
>>
>>> sombrero;
>>> print -dpdf sombrero.pdf
>>
>> I'm able to run 3.03 and the developers sources. Each produce the  
>> correct
>> result.  Perhaps you are using a different -dDevice?
>>
>> For reference please tell us what version of gnuplot you have  
>> installed
>>
>>> system ("gnuplot --version")
>>
>> From the Octave prompt, I get "gnuplot 4.3 patchlevel 0"
>>
>> Ben
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Ben
>>
>>
>>
>>
> <sombrero.eps>