Scientific & Enginnering Data Visualization on Linux 


Linux offers a variety of applications for scientific data visualization. First that should be mentioned is Gnuplot. It is a command-line (no GUI) driven data and function plotting utility. Excelent alternative for 2D and 3D plotting in Linux (KDE) is a LabPlot software package. This is a full GUI application for visualizing scientific data in 2D or 3D. It incorporates several data manipullation functions as well. Another plotting application for visualization of scientific data and functions is a Kst. This application has a GUI, but is restricted to 2D plots.

For visualizing extra large data sets, one could use VisIt software package. VisIt is a free interactive parallel visualization and graphical analysis tool for viewing scientific data. Users can quickly generate visualizations from their data, animate them through time, manipulate them, and save the resulting images for presentations. VisIt contains a rich set of visualization features so that you can view your data in a variety of ways. It can be used to visualize scalar and vector fields defined on two- and three-dimensional (2D and 3D) structured and unstructured meshes. VisIt was designed to handle very large data set sizes in the terascale range and yet can also handle small data sets in the kilobyte range.  

Gnuplot


GnuplotGnuplot  is a portable command-line driven interactive data and function plotting utility for UNIX, IBM OS/2, MS Windows, DOS, Macintosh, VMS, Atari and many other platforms. The software is copyrighted but freely distributed (i.e., you don't have to pay for it). It was originally intended as to allow scientists and students to visualize mathematical functions and data. It does this job pretty well, but has grown to support many non-interactive uses, including web scripting and integration as a plotting engine for third-party applications like Octave. Gnuplot has been supported and under development since 1986.

Gnuplot supports many types of plots in either 2D and 3D. It can draw using lines, points, boxes, contours, vector fields, surfaces, and various associated text. It also supports various specialized plot types. Gnuplot supports many different types of terminals: interactive screen terminals (with mouse and hotkey functionality), pen plotters (like hpgl), printers (including postscript and many color devices), and printings to output file as vectorial pseudo-devices like LaTeX, metafont, pdf, svg, or bitmap png. Gnuplot is easily extensible to include new devices.

Veusz


VeuszVeusz  is a GUI scientific plotting and graphing package. It is designed to produce publication-ready Postscript or PDF output. SVG, EMF and bitmap export formats are also supported. The program runs under Unix/Linux, Windows or Mac OS X, and binaries are provided. Data can be read from text, CSV or FITS files, and data can be manipulated or examined from within the application. In Veusz plots are created by building up plotting widgets with a consistent object-based interface. The program also provides a command line and scripting interface (based on Python) to its plotting facilities. It can also act as a Python plotting module. Veusz is Free Software and is licenced under the GPL (version 2 or greater).

SciDAVis


ScidavisSciDAVis is a free interactive application aimed at data analysis and publication-quality plotting. It combines a shallow learning curve and an intuitive, easy-to-use graphical user interface with powerful features such as scriptability and extensibility. SciDAVis runs on GNU/Linux, Windows and MacOS X. SciDAVis has been started as a fork off of QtiPlot with the aim of introducing some changes in design and establishing an open and friendly community. SciDAVis will soon deviate considerably from QtiPlot with the move towards a modular design and a less Origin-like interface. SciDAVis is similar in its field of application to proprietary Windows applications like Origin and SigmaPlot as well as free applications like QtiPlot, Labplot and Gnuplot. What sets SciDAVis apart from the above is its emphasis on providing a friendly and open environment (in the software as well as the project) for new and experienced users alike.

ParaView


ParaViewParaView is an open-source, multi-platform data analysis and visualization application. ParaView users can quickly build visualizations to analyze their data using qualitative and quantitative techniques. The data exploration can be done interactively in 3D or programmatically using ParaView's batch processing capabilities. ParaView contains a very rich set of visualization features so that data can be viewed and analyzed in a variety of different ways. It can be used to visualize scalar and vector fields defined on two- and three-dimensional (2D and 3D) structured and unstructured meshes. ParaView can read data files in variety of formats.

It was originally developed to analyze extremely large datasets using distributed memory computing resources. It can be run on supercomputers to analyze datasets of terascale as well as on laptops for smaller data.

VisIt


VisitVisIt is a free interactive parallel visualization and graphical analysis tool for viewing scientific data on Unix and PC platforms. Users can quickly generate visualizations from their data, animate them through time, manipulate them, and save the resulting images for presentations. VisIt contains a rich set of visualization features so that you can view your data in a variety of ways. It can be used to visualize scalar and vector fields defined on two- and three-dimensional (2D and 3D) structured and unstructured meshes. VisIt was designed to handle very large data set sizes in the terascale range and yet can also handle small data sets in the kilobyte range.

VisIt’s visualization capabilities are primarily grouped into two categories: Plots are used to visualize data and include boundary, contour, curve, label, mesh, pseudocolor, scatter, streamline, subset, surface, tensor, vector, and volume; Operators consist of operations that can be performed on the data prior to visualization. Some examples include slice, index select, iso-surface, onion peel, reflect, threshold, and part selection. VisIt handles 2D and 3D data equally well. VisIt also has the ability to animate data, allowing users to see the time evolution of their data. VisIt is also a powerful analysis tool. It provides support for derived fields, which allow new fields to be calculated using existing fields. For example, if a dataset contains a velocity field, it is possible to define a new field that is the velocity magnitude.

VisIt’s graphical user interface (GUI) allows novice users to quickly get started visualizing their data, as well as allowing power users access to advanced features. VisIt automatically creates time-based animations from data sets that contain multiple time steps. In addition, it also has a keyframe animation capability that allows users to create sophisticated animations. VisIt's on-line help system contains a hyperlinked version of the User’s Manual. VisIt allows users to pan, zoom, and rotate objects interactively using the mouse. It also gives users the ability to interactively size and position geometric objects such as planes and spheres.

LabPlot


LabPlotLabPlot is a program for two- and three-dimensional graphical presentation of data sets and functions. LabPlot allows you to work with multiple plots which each can have multiple graphs. The graphs can be produced from data or from functions. All settings of a complete set of plots can be saved in a project files. These project files may be opened by command line parameters, using the File menu, or by drag and drop. Every object (title, legend, axes, axes label) can be dragged with the mouse. A double click on an object opens the corresponding dialog to change the options of the object. The settings of a plot/graph may also be changed using the Appearance menu. With the Edit menu additional data sets and functions (graphs) can be included which can be displayed in the same as well as in different plot.

2D and 3D data and function plotting includes: flexible data reading and writing in different formats (including cdf, netcdf, audio, binary, images, databases) / reading and writing of images and compressed data / extensive parser for creating 2D, 3D functions / support for all GNU Scientific Library (GSL) functions and constants / creating surface, polar, ternary, and pie plots from function and data files / flexible 3D plot with rotation / multiple plots per worksheet / data set operations / speed mode for large data sets and data mode for inspecting data points.

KST


KSTKst is a real-time data viewing and plotting tool with basic data analysis functionality. Kst project contains many powerful built-in features and is expandable with plugins and extensions. Kst is a KDE application. It can plot: - x-y plots - power spectra - histograms - equations (including equations of data streams). - data in files which are being updated as data is being logged, in which case it can act as a plotter for a chart recorder. - much more You can use the mouse to rapidly zoom into interesting parts of the plots. In addition to a complete GUI, kst has a convenient command line interface for rapid access to plotting data in files. kst can read data from stdin. It provides a DCOP interface for remote manipulation, and supports several file formats in use in scientific projects around the world.