Contour plot in Xmgrace

Question

I have a data file containing 3 columns. Now I want to have a contour plot with xmgrace as I use xmgrace mostly. But somehow, I am unable to do draw it now. Can anyone help me a bit? Thanks in advance. The data is in format shown below:

3.24 4.78 0.015776 3.24 4.80 0.011777 3.24 4.82 0.00986 3.24 4.84 0.010185 3.24 4.86 0.012515 3.26 4.78 0.009244 3.26 4.80 0.006368 3.26 4.82 0.005792 3.26 4.84 0.007121 3.26 4.86 0.010361 3.28 4.78 0.004666 3.28 4.80 0.0028 3.28 4.82 0.003017 3.28 4.84 0.005285 3.28 4.86 0.0095 3.30 4.78 0.001295 3.30 4.80 0.000557 3.30 4.82 0.001924 3.30 4.84 0.005266 3.30 4.86 0.010401 3.32 4.78 0 3.32 4.80 0.000233 3.32 4.82 0.002508 3.32 4.84 0.006666 3.32 4.86 0.012515 3.34 4.70 0.012943 3.34 4.72 0.006904 3.34 4.74 0.002791 3.34 4.76 0.000662 3.36 4.70 0.011024 3.36 4.72 0.005998 3.36 4.74 0.003063 3.36 4.76 0.001814 3.38 4.70 0.011203 3.38 4.72 0.007077 3.38 4.74 0.004755 3.38 4.76 0.004188 3.40 4.70 0.01263 3.40 4.72 0.009182 3.40 4.74 0.007685 3.40 4.76 0.007985

The final curve should be like as shown in the attachment.

Answer 1

A quick Google search reveals that xmgrace (a.k.a. Grace) does not support contour plots

There are a wealth of example scripts for contour plots using gnuplot, matplotlib, Origin and many more.

Here is a simple example for gnuplot using your data: Once you have saved your data as the 3-column data file data.dat save the following as a script file:

set parametric
set contour base
set view 0,0,1
unset surface
unset key
unset ztics
set dgrid3d
set title "Simple contour plot example" 
set xlabel "X" 
set ylabel "Y" 
set cntrparam levels 10
splot "data.dat" using 1:2:3 with line

and from the UNIX command line call gnuplot -persist scriptfile. This gives the following output:

So, it looks like you didn't use xmgrace, you used gnuplot, and that's why you can't work out how to remake the original plot in xmgrace again!