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plotrectanglesxmgrace

rectangles on Grace plots

I have been using Grace (xmgrace) plotting for many years. I recently had an important idea for my work, and it involves rectangles on my plots. Grace supports rectangles (called "boxes"), but when I use a filled "box" it blocks my data curves. I want the curves to show over the filled rectangles. This is driving me nuts. Does anyone know how to put the filled rectangles in the background so they don't block data curves? Thanks.

Solution

  • Unfortunately there is no option in the xmgrace graphical interface that allows you to modify the z order of drawing objects such as boxes:

    enter image description here

    I also saved the graph as an .agr file and viewed it in a text editor. There doesn't seem to be any flag within the file format to modify z position, either. Same story if you save a parameter file and check it in a text editor.

    So it looks like it is really not possible in xmgrace.

    One workaround would be to print to a postscript, EPS or SVG file and open it inside a vector graphics program such as Inkscape (results vary, you might need to experiment with filetypes to see which works best). Then you can easily alter the z order of objects.