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mcplot / mxplot family

Three related tool groups live under tools/Python/mcplot, sharing a loader/matching layer:

• mcplot / mxplot — plot one simulation's monitors
• mcplotdiff / mxplotdiff — plot the difference a - b between two simulations (2 datasets only)
• mccoplot / mxcoplot — overlay 2 or more simulations' monitors on the same axes

Each has three rendering variants: html, matplotlib, pyqtgraph. Plain mcplot additionally has a plopp variant and a legacy matlab variant (see bottom of this page).

mcplot / mxplot

mcplot-html / mxplot-html

Option	Description
simulation	file or directory to plot
-n, --nobrowse	do not open a web browser
-l, --log	enable log scale
--autosize	expand plot to window size on load
--libpath PATH	path to js library files (default: copy locally)
-o, --output FILE	output .html file
-W, --width N	iframe width
-H, --height N	iframe height

mcplot-matplotlib / mxplot-matplotlib

Option	Description
simulation	file or directory to plot
-t, --test	data-loader test run (print plot graph structure)
--html	save to html via mpld3 (Linux only)
--format FMT	save to pdf/png/eps/svg... without opening a window
--output FILE	output file (extension may set format)
--log	start with log scale
--backend NAME	matplotlib backend to use

mcplot-pyqtgraph / mxplot-pyqtgraph

Option	Description
simulation	file or directory to plot
-t, --test	data-loader test run
--invcanvas	invert canvas background (black → white)

mcplot-plopp / mxplot-plopp

Requires scipp and plopp (plus ipympl and jupyterlab for the interactive UI). Without -o, opens a JupyterLab UI.

Option	Description
simulation	output dir, mccode.sim, a monitor file, or mccode.h5 (NeXus) (default: .)
-o, --output FILE	write a static png/pdf/svg instead of opening the UI
--log	log intensity scale
--source COMP	event data (NeXus, McStasToX): name of the source component
--sample COMP	event data (NeXus, McStasToX): name of the sample component

mcplotdiff / mxplotdiff

Compares exactly two datasets: diff = a - b.

mcplotdiff-html / mxplotdiff-html

Option	Description
a	first simulation (minuend)
b	second simulation (subtrahend)
-A, --label-a NAME	short label for a in titles/filenames
-B, --label-b NAME	short label for b in titles/filenames
-n, --nobrowse	do not open a web browser
-l, --log	also produce log-scale plot (single-file mode)
-D, --no-dat	do not write McCode-format .dat/mccode.sim alongside the html
-o, --output DIR	output directory
--autosize	expand plot to window size on load
--libpath PATH	path to js library files
-W, --width N / -H, --height N	iframe dimensions

mcplotdiff-matplotlib / mxplotdiff-matplotlib

Option	Description
a / b	the two simulations to diff (a - b)
-A, --label-a NAME / -B, --label-b NAME	short labels for titles/filenames
-t, --test	plot graph structure test/print
--html	save to html via mpld3 (Linux only)
--format FMT / --output FILE	save to file without opening a window
--log	start with log scale
--backend NAME	matplotlib backend to use

mcplotdiff-pyqtgraph / mxplotdiff-pyqtgraph

Option	Description
a / b	the two simulations to diff (a - b)
-A, --label-a NAME / -B, --label-b NAME	short labels for titles
-t, --test	data-loader test run
--invcanvas	invert canvas background

(2D diff monitors use a diverging blue/white/red colour map; press c to cycle colour maps as usual.)

mccoplot / mxcoplot

Overlays 2 or more datasets (unlike mcplotdiff, not limited to two).

mccoplot-html / mxcoplot-html

Option	Description
datasets	2+ simulation files/directories to overlay
-L, --labels A,B,C	comma-separated short labels, one per dataset (default: derived from each path)
-C, --colours c1,c2,...	comma-separated overlay colours, one per dataset
--no-legends	do not draw the on-plot legend box (the compact A/B/C/... letters)
--no-titles	do not draw the in-plot title and the "A=.../B=..." dataset identity line
-n, --nobrowse	do not open a web browser
-l, --log	also produce log-scale plot (single-file mode)
-o, --output DIR	output directory
--autosize	expand plot to window size on load
--libpath PATH	path to js library files
-W, --width N / -H, --height N	iframe dimensions

mccoplot-matplotlib / mxcoplot-matplotlib

Option	Description
datasets	2+ simulation files/directories to overlay
-L, --labels A,B,C	comma-separated short labels per dataset
-C, --colours c1,c2,...	comma-separated overlay colours per dataset
--no-legends	do not draw the per-panel legend (the compact A/B/C/... letters)
--no-titles	do not draw the panel titles and the figure-level dataset identity note
-t, --test	print matched monitor groups before plotting
--html	save to html via mpld3 (Linux only)
--format FMT / --output FILE	save to file without opening a window
--log	start with log scale
--backend NAME	matplotlib backend to use

mccoplot-pyqtgraph / mxcoplot-pyqtgraph

Option	Description
datasets	2+ simulation files/directories to overlay
-L, --labels A,B,C	comma-separated short labels per dataset
-C, --colours c1,c2,...	comma-separated overlay colours per dataset
--no-legends	do not draw the per-panel legend (the compact A/B/C/... letters)
--no-titles	do not draw the panel titles and the on-canvas dataset identity header
-t, --test	print matched monitor groups before plotting
--invcanvas	invert canvas background

(Legends always show compact letters A, B, C, ...; the full dataset identity is shown separately in the title/header.)

mcplot-matlab / mxplot-matlab (legacy Matlab/Octave/iFit variant)

A second, older implementation of plain mcplot (single-simulation plotting only — no mcplotdiff/mccoplot equivalent exists for this variant), living under tools/matlab as a bash wrapper around a .m script rather than Python. Runs under Matlab, Octave, or iFit (a Matlab-compiler-based standalone runtime, see https://ifit.mccode.org) — the wrapper auto-detects whichever is available, preferring Matlab, then iFit, then Octave, and falls back to the plain Python mcplot if none of the three are found.

Option	Description
FILE|DIR	monitor file or simulation directory to plot (default: current directory)
-m	explicitly request Matlab (skip auto-detection)
-o	explicitly request Octave
-i	explicitly request iFit
-h	show wrapper usage and exit
-png, -jpg, -fig, -eps, -pdf	(parsed by mcplot.m itself, not the wrapper) export each plotted monitor to the given format instead of just displaying it

(-m/-o/-i/-h are wrapper-level flags and must come first; the export-format flags are forwarded as-is to the underlying .m script.)

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Last Modified: Tue Nov 3 18:52:15 2026