plotting from OCEAN script in ADEXL

Hi all,

I am interested in learning how to issue plot commands from within an OCEAN script, basically extending the

already existing OCEAN measurement script. This is because in doing so I hope to get more control and uniformity

with respect to which windows get plotted, which curves on which graphs, colors, labels, what not.

I found that I keep tweaking and working at the way waveforms are plotted and could not really find a way of having this fixed once and for all.

[any suggestions appreciated, anyhow]

I have tried a simple plot( expression) from within the OCEAN measurement script, and that works fine.

However, the reason I am using XL is generally tied to

parametric/corner analyses. Here things change a bit and I probably do not understand the underlying concepts very well...

It may happen that the object I want to plot is a simple, single number, for each parameter point.

That is, the axlOutputResult() will return a single number per simulation point, and if I want to plot a curve vs. swept parameter

I have to RMB click on the name of the output and select "Plot All". This works OK.

Now, I would like to be able to have the same behavior, but use an OCEAN script.

The simple plot(my_result) function does not cut it, as the object passed (my expression) evaluates to a single number, not

something the software is keen on plotting.

Strangely enough, an ocnPrint(my_result) would return - on CIW - all the values!!

I have then tried to reproduce what happens when I "plot All" from the GUI

I can see a function _axlPlotAllOutput(...) - very promising - but I could not find any reference to it in the Help

Anybody knows where to search for it?

Anyhow, I am sure there are other, better ways to do that. But I am not aware of any ;-)

So, the issue at hand is how to "create" a waveform, maybe a set of (x,y) coordinates, from a set of outcomes from

parametric simulations ran by ADEXL

Another closely related topic would be, in case of multi-dimensional sweeps, how to slice the output results at will, similarly

to what happens with the YvsY and change sweep Var GUI buttons. 

But more in general, I would like to gain understanding on how to access these data, what are these? arrays?

Some More Specific Data - and a pseudo-workaround

What I do

I run a simulation with no sweeps inside ADEXL

In the Global Variables area, I then set one single sweep up (but I would likely extend that to more variables)

In the OCEAN results definition script, I calculate something like:

my_res = db(ih('hb "my_node" '(2 -1))))

[ this is coming from the Calculator directly ]

What I get

As said, if I RMB click my_res in the Outputs Pane --> Plot All, then I get what I would expect, the value of my_res Vs. my swept variable

If i do

ocnPrint(my_res)

I also get a list of values printed out in the CIW

If I try

plot(my_res)

I get as many "not a waveform object...deleted" WARNINGS as the points of the sweep (luckily, not many yet).

Some sort of workaround

Now, after much searching I found a tricky way, but again it's clear I'm against Nature because the plot isn't nice...

Here is what I came up with:

Leveraging on the fact that - besides for plot() - the variable "my_res" DOES contain all the points, I create a vector:

my_xv = drCreateVec( 'double 0)

my_yv = drCreateVec( 'double 0)

foreach(val list(my_res)

    drAddElem(my_yv val)

    drAddElem(my_xv i)

    i++

)

my_wave = drCreateWave(my_xv my_yv)

plotStyle('joined)

plot(my_wave)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Weird Things

The first super frustrating thing is that now I get a plot, but it is all isolated points!! No way to get a line connecting them...

Also, I get N curves, it looks like, as many as the swept points. So despite my vector creation and all, still I am not really getting

the waveform the way I would like it.

Second weird thing, but this is because I do not know the language, you may have noticed that I do not declare i and set it to 0

before the foreach loop. This is because, if I do, then i stays identically zero.

A very dirty workaround I found is that I set it to zero from the CIW, then refresh the results. Otherwise, i keeps increasing

from a refresh to the next (while I am trying things out)

I also tried to write i = 0 after the foreach loop, but the outcome is the same.

Hope this wasn't uselessly too long and somebody can shed some light...

Thanks in advance,

Michele