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0014837ParaView(No Category)public2014-07-02 20:252016-08-12 09:59
Alan Scott 
Utkarsh Ayachit 
normalminorhave not tried
closedmoved 
git-master 
5.1 
Sandia
incorrect functionality
0014837: Color legend log ranges - advanced
Here is an e-mail thread created about modifications to the min and max color ranges for log scaling. This should be implemented in 4.3.

I would like to propose a few changes in our log scaling algorithm for painting a dataset by a variable. I discussed this with Utkarsh, and he asked that I bounce it off the e-mail list. So, here goes.

Currently, when a user log scales a variable, if all data is positive, ParaView just uses the normal min and max. There are times when this is not proper – for instance when looking at the temperature or density of material in a supernova, or velocity of outbound gas. Another example is large data, with noise around zero. I would like to propose that we have a user selectable option to set the minimum at maximum*10^-q, where q is user defined but defaults to 4. In other words, the minimum would be set to 1*10^-4 of what the maximum is.

If all of the user’s data is negative, ParaView grumbles, and then seg faults using a current master git pull – not optimal behavior. In PV 4.1, it just sets min and max to 0. I would like to propose that ParaView calculate the log of the data, as follows: Index= -(log(abs(Var))). Then, just draw the color legend as normal – for instance, red at top, white in the middle and blue at bottom. Tick marks will be the reverse of positive log scaling – with the dense numbers, more negative numbers at the bottom and less dense, less negative numbers at the top.

The problem arises with data that spans positive and negative numbers. Since the log of 0 is infinity, we have to deal with very small numbers in a special way. I propose that we find maxVal = max(maximum, abs(minimum)). Then, we set the color bar to run from maxVal to –maxVal. We log scale the top half of the color legend, running from maxVal to maxVal*10^-4, and we reverse log scale the bottom half of the color legend, running from –maxVal*10^-4 to –maxVal. We calculate this negative range the same as the all negative data section above. All data between maxVal*10^-4 and -maxVal*10^-4 would remain white by default, or user selectable black.

User selectable functionality would be as follows:
• to allow/ not allow negative numbers (default allow)
• to be able to change the q exponent (i.e., 4 above) (default 4)
• to be able to change the painting color that is too small (default white)
• to clamp minimum to some number (such as q == 4 above). (default on).

Thoughts?

Alan




Reply to a question on negative numbers:

Regarding negative values, my bad - I was not clear. A vertical normal log scale bar, going from a 1e8 to 1e4 may have minor labels (working down) of 1e8, 1e7, 1e6, 1e5, and 1e4. I.e., each tick towards the top representing a change of 10 million units, each tick towards the top representing a change of a thousand units. Now, for the negative case, this would be reversed. The color bar remains colored as before (for default color map, red on top, blue on bottom). Since more positive numbers are always on top, we would run as follows (working down the minor labels): -1e4, -1e5, -1e6, -1e7 and -1e8. Units change by the thousands at the top of the color legend, and millions towards the bottom.

No tags attached.
related to 0006657closed Cory Quammen Feature: Add color for variables out of bounds 
related to 0014835closed Utkarsh Ayachit Color legend log minimum color is wrong 
Issue History
2014-07-02 20:25Alan ScottNew Issue
2014-07-02 20:26Alan ScottTarget Version => 4.3
2014-07-08 12:55Alan ScottRelationship addedrelated to 0014835
2014-07-08 12:56Alan ScottRelationship addedrelated to 0006657
2014-07-29 17:56Alan ScottRelationship addedrelated to 0014895
2014-07-29 17:56Alan ScottRelationship deletedrelated to 0014895
2014-11-14 22:52Utkarsh AyachitTarget Version4.3 => 4.4
2015-06-08 14:29Utkarsh AyachitAssigned To => David C. Lonie
2015-06-29 11:42Utkarsh AyachitAssigned ToDavid C. Lonie => Utkarsh Ayachit
2015-09-11 16:43Utkarsh AyachitTarget Version4.4 => 5.1
2016-08-12 09:59Kitware RobotNote Added: 0038589
2016-08-12 09:59Kitware RobotStatusbacklog => closed
2016-08-12 09:59Kitware RobotResolutionopen => moved

Notes
(0038589)
Kitware Robot   
2016-08-12 09:59   
Resolving issue as `moved`.

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