6.1.3 Basic 2D Plotting

2DPlotting

Creating a Graph Graph Templates

Statistics on Rows Quick Graphs with Graph Maker App

Summary

Origin's 2D plots are highly customizable. You can easily modify plot attributes, arrange layers, and select different datasets for each layer. This tutorial will teach you the basic plotting skills.

What you will learn

This tutorial will show you how to:

• Perform simple row statistics
• Create a graph and save as a template
• Plot into your template
• Use the Plot Setup dialog

Steps

Simple row statistics

1. Start with an empty worksheet. Select Help: Open Folder: Sample Folder... to open the "Samples" folder. In this folder, open the Curve Fitting subfolder and find the file Dose Response - No Inhibitor.dat. Drag-and-drop this file into the empty worksheet to import it.
   
2. Highlight columns 2 through 4 and select Statistics: Descriptive Statistics: Statistics on Rows. Make sure to check the Mean and Standard Deviation check boxes on the Quantities tab to output these results.
   
   
   
   
3. After you click the OK button, two new columns, Mean(Y) and SD(yErr) are added to the source worksheet. Here, yErr means that this is an error column and the data in this column can be used to plot error bars.
   
   Note: To simplify plotting, each column in an Origin worksheet has a plotting designation. To change a column's plotting designation, select the column and click on the Column menu. Alternatively, right-click on the column and choose Set As from the shortcut menu.
   
   

Create a graph and save as a template

1. Highlight the Mean(Y) and SD(yEr-) columns and select Plot > Basic 2D: Line+Symbol to create the plot:
   
   
   
2. Click on the X Axis, and select the Axis Scale button in the Mini Toolbar. Then in the Axis Scale dialog, check the Log checkbox and click OK button.
   
   
   
3. Select Graph: Rescale to Show All from the menu, which will rescale the X and Y axes of the graph. :
   
   
   
4. To edit the curve, double-click on any plot symbol to bring up the Plot Details dialog. Alternatively, right-click inside the graph and choose Plot Details from the shortcut menu. On the Line tab of right panel, select B-Spline as the connecting line type to get a smoother curve.
   
   
   Click the OK button to close the dialog.
   
   
5. When all modifications have been made and the graph looks the way you want it, you can use this graph to create a template, to be used in the future with similar data. Select File: Save Template as to open the Save Template dialog. In the Category drop-down list, select UserDefined; and then type a proper Template Name. In this example, we use MyTemplate. Click OK to save the template.
   

Plot into graph template with the Plot Setup dialog

1. Click the New Workbook button and import the file \Samples\Curve Fitting\Dose Response - Inhibitor.dat as above. Perform Statistics on Rows, calculating the Mean and SD of this worksheet as you did above, following the same steps.
   
   
2. Highlight column Mean(Y) and SD(yErr) in this sheet. Select Plot : My Template :MyTemplate to choose the user defined template to create a new plot.
   
   
   
   And then you will have: