Welcome to Graphula MAxEd (Multiple Axes Edition), formerly known as Coordinate Plane Generator, by Biolizard89! Graphula MAxEd is a PHP-based function graphing program that outputs SVG, with some cool features. The main nice feature in Graphula MAxEd (as you can probably guess by my calling it "Multiple Axes Edition") is that it can handle more than 2 (or even 3) axes. That's right, in addition to standard 2D functions, you can now graph 3D functions.
Graphula MAxEd started out as a small project to avoid the hassle of drawing a coordinate plane by hand for every graphing assignment in my Trigonometry class. It grew, and grew, and grew, gaining new features like function graphing, and now multiple axes!
Graphula MAxEd is still being worked on, so there are still some missing features. Some features that were present in Coordinate Plane Generator (the 2D predecessor of Graphula MAxEd), like parametric and polar graphs, are not supported yet. Please be patient while waiting for me to add new features; I work on it in my free time, and I'm not getting paid for it.
Well, enough of my rambling; start using it, and have fun graphing!
After over a year of on-and-off work, Graphula MAxEd (Multiple Axes Edition) βeta 1 is finally here! As you can probably guess by what the name stands for, it's no longer restricted to just planes; you can now graph with as many axes as you want! Nearly everything is being rewritten to accomodate this, and while it's not even close to complete, it's usable in its present state, so why not release it?
The r(theta) grapher has now been rewritten to only plot defined points.
The parametric grapher has been rewritten to only plot points that are defined.
Rewrote the y(x) and x(y) graphers so that functions which are undefined at certain values don't screw up the graph. Now it will only plot points that are defined. Parametric and r(theta) functions will soon be rewritten with the new code as well.
Added r(theta) polar function graphing.
The sizes of the grid markers and their distance from the axes are now dynamically generated based on the grid line separation. This should fix all the problems with extreme scales.
Fixed problems with the axes and their labels in extreme scales. The grid markers still aren't fixed yet.
W00t! I've hit 2.0! This release replaces the <line>s in the functions with <path>s; this fixes the problems with small gaps in the function graphs when the graph changes direction. It also shortened a 57.1KB test graph down to 19.5KB.
Styling of all elements is now supported.
Parametric function graphing is now supported.
x(y) function graphing is now supported.
Function graphing! Knock yourselves out! Only y(x) functions are currently supported.
I decided to take up the project again and be more organized this time around. This release adds the ability to change the pixel size of the final image. Yes, I know SVG makes this unnecessary, but since some SVG plugins don't make zooming very intuitive, why not?
Fixed problems including transform bugs, positioning bugs, and axis bugs. I don't have details as I was rather unorganized during this period.
Initial release; still very buggy.
This was written by me, Biolizard89.
I could go into tons of detail, but basically, it's an object used in math that looks like graph paper, except that every line has a number, so every point has two numbers associated with it, the horizontal and vertical coordinates. I used to draw them by hand for class assignments, and it was very time-consuming. That's why I wrote this to make them for me.
Nope, it can't graph lines. All it does is generate a coordinate plane, and then optionally put SVG objects onto it. SVG 2.0 will support mathematical functions as <path>s; once it's released, you'll be able to use them. UPDATE: As of version 1.6, function graphing is supported!
It was written in SVG 1.1 and PHP, with Microsoft Notepad and Altova XMLSpy.
You probably don't have a browser that supports SVG. Download a plugin.
Type about:plugins into your Address Bar. If it doesn't show the SVG plugin, make sure you've installed the Adobe SVG Plugin 6.0 Preview, and search your computer for "NPSVG6.dll". Copy that file into your Mozilla Plugins directory. Restart your browser, and it should work.
Firefox 1.5's implementation of SVG is still very incomplete, and because of this, many SVG files generated by Graphula MAxEd will look weird. An example is that the axis labels may be missing. Luckily, there's a simple fix. Just install Adobe SVG Plugin 6.0 Preview (instructions are in the previous Q/A), and then disable Firefox's native SVG support by typing "about:config" in your Location Bar, and setting the pref "svg.enabled" to false by double-clicking it. You'll have to restart Firefox for it to work.
Because SVG 1.1 doesn't allow stuff to use the viewport coordinate system, only the user coordinate system. Since the user coordinate system is scaled so that the coordinates are by graph units, not pixels, that means that sometimes the axes and text will be scaled so that they look weird. This will be fixed by SVG 1.2. UPDATE: As of version 2.2, most, if not all, of the scaling problems should be fixed.
First of all, they need to start "y(x)=", "x(y)=", "x(t)=", "y(t)=", or "r(theta)=" (depending on the type of function), even if your axes are not named y and x. x(t)= and y(t)= functions must come in pairs, with the x(t)= function first. Each function must be on a separate line. You also need to be sure to not omit the "*", in other words, no invisble multiply operators. Math functions supported by PHP will work fine. So, for example, you might enter "y(x)=3*sin(x)".
This has changed dramatically in Graphula MAxEd. Take a look at the new context-sensitive help for info on this.
Decrease the Function Graph Increment value. This will make it plot more points, which will make curves look better.
The size of the function graphs section of the code varies inversely with the Function Graph Increment value. If the file size is too big, see if you can increase the Function Graph Increment value without hurting the quality too much.
In theory. I say "in theory" because there are practical limitations on it. First of all, because Graphula MAxEd currently doesn't make depth perceivable, that makes anything with more than 3 dimensions difficult to understand. It is also made difficult to understand by the fact that objects with more than 3 dimensions are usually rendered in motion, which, again, is not currently supported by Graphula MAxEd. Finally, the time taken to graph a function grows exponentially each time you add an independent variable. With 3 or more independent variables (which most graphs that involve more than 3 dimensions entail), calculations may take so long that they exceed the 60-second execution limit imposed by PHP. But other than that, yes, it's possible.
No. I worked very hard on Graphula MAxEd, and I don't want anyone else using my work for their own programs. Sorry.
No kidding, really? </sarcasm> I know there are loads of bugs and incomplete features. I wasn't planning to release this beta originally, but it ended up being released because I wanted to have the work that's already done on my resume (so you're lucky to be playing with it at all!). If you find a bug, feel free to report it, but there's a good chance I already know about it. And don't expect a quick fix for any bug reports.
Okay! Sphere, radius 4, centered at origin. Egg-shaped thingy (two semiellipsoids). Right circular cone. 3D sinusoid (hilly surface).
This is a list of features I'd like to add if I get bored. Don't expect to see all of them — heck, any of them — anytime soon.