8.3.1.3 System Templates

System templates are stored in the Origin software folder. By default, it is these templates that are called by the Plot menu commands and various graphing toolbar buttons. If you customize a system template and save the template with the same name to your User Files Folder (UFF) (you are not allowed to overwrite the system templates in your Origin software folder), the template becomes your new default template for this plot type. Your customized template then becomes the template associated with the Plot menu commands and graphing toolbar buttons.

Origin supports over 100 plot types plotted from these system templates. Origin's 2D graphs are plotted from Worksheet data. Origin's 3D graph are plotted from Worksheet data (XYY, XYZ), a worksheet arrangement we refer to as a Virtual Matrix or from Matrix data.

Since Origin 2022, you can hover your cursor on the graph type icon to view the data requirement for current system template in the tooltip.

Data Requirement for Built-in Plot Type.png

To view Origin's built-in system templates,

Select Plot menu and expand the sub-panels with different category names. These built-in system templates are categorized as below:

Note: For the user templates and pre-shipped extended templates, you can use and manage them in the Template Library.