<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Navigation:  Problem Descriptor Reference > The Sections of a Descriptor > Monitors and Plots

The MONITORS section, which is optional, is used to list the graphic displays desired at intermediate steps while a problem is being solved.

The PLOTS section, which is optional, is used to list the graphic displays desired on completion of a problem or stage, or at selected problem times.  

PLOTS differ from MONITORS in that they are written to the permanent .PG8 record for viewing after the run is completed.

(For debugging purposes the global selector HARDMONITOR can be used to force MONITORS to be written to the .pg8 file.)

Plot statements and Monitor statements have the same form and function.

 

The basic form of a PLOT or MONITOR statement is:

 

display_specification ( plot_data )  display_modifiers

 

display_specification must be one of the known plot types, as described in the next section.

In some cases, multiple plot_data arguments may be provided.

There may be any number of display_modifiers, with meanings determined by the display_specification.  

The various display_modifiers supported by FlexPDE are listed in the "Graphic Display Modifiers" section.

 

An Exhortation:

 

The MONITORS facility has been provided to allow users to see immediate feedback on the progress of their computation, and to display any and all data that will help diagnose failure or misunderstanding.  Please use MONITORS extensively, especially in the early phases of model development!  Since they do not write to the .pg8 storage file, they can be used liberally without causing disk file bloat.  After the model is performing successfully, you can remove them or comment them out.  Many user pleas for help recieved by PDE Solutions could be avoided if the user had included enough MONITORs to identify the cause of trouble.

 

Examples:

Samples | Usage | Plotting | Plot_test.pde

 

Note: All example problems contain PLOTS and MONITORS.