Patterns & Hatches on Boxfill, Isofill

[chaosphere2112]

Looks like patterns and hatches work correctly for fillareas and isofill plots, but not for boxfill.

import vcs, cdms2

x = vcs.init()

f = cdms2.open(vcs.sample_data + "/clt.nc")
s = f("clt")

box = x.createboxfill()
box.fillareastyle = "hatch"
box.fillareacolors = [20, 50, 75]
box.fillareaindices = [5, 10, 15]
box.levels = [10, 50, 75, 100]
box.boxfill_type = "custom"

x.plot(s, box)
x.png("hatch_box.png")

isofill = x.createisofill()
isofill.fillareastyle = "hatch"
isofill.fillareacolors = [20, 50, 75]
isofill.fillareaindices = [5, 10, 15]
isofill.levels = [10, 50, 75, 100]

x.clear()

x.plot(s, isofill)
x.png("hatch_isofill")

Produces these two:

import vcs, cdms2

x = vcs.init()

f = cdms2.open(vcs.sample_data + "/clt.nc")
s = f("clt")

box = x.createboxfill()
box.fillareastyle = "pattern"
box.fillareacolors = [20, 50, 75]
box.fillareaindices = [5, 10, 15]
box.levels = [10, 50, 75, 100]
box.boxfill_type = "custom"

x.plot(s, box)
x.png("pattern_box.png")

isofill = x.createisofill()
isofill.fillareastyle = "pattern"
isofill.fillareacolors = [20, 50, 75]
isofill.fillareaindices = [5, 10, 15]
isofill.levels = [10, 50, 75, 100]

x.clear()

x.plot(s, isofill)
x.png("pattern_isofill")

Produces these two:

In addition, the performance of plotting the patterns/hatches for the isofill is pretty slow:

import datetime, vcs, cdms2

x = vcs.init()
f = cdms2.open(vcs.sample_data + '/clt.nc')
s = f('clt')

def t():
   return datetime.datetime.now()

isofill = x.createisofill()
isofill.fillareaindices = [1, 5, 10]
isofill.fillareacolors = [50, 100, 150]
isofill.levels = [0, 25, 75, 100]

for style in ("hatch", "pattern", "solid"):
   isofill.fillareastyle = style
   before = t()
   x.plot(s, isofill)
   after = t()
   print after - before

gives us these times:
0:00:03.027187 (hatch)
0:00:03.077247 (pattern)
0:00:00.559602 (solid)

So, that's some pretty serious overhead.

[aashish24]

@chaosphere2112 the performance will be slow because we need to add lot more steps for the pattern but its worth investigating more post 2.4

[sankhesh]

@aashish24 is right. The time performance is slow because of the whole set of tasks involved. It can be improved by reducing the size of the texture created per fill area. Currently, the size is 4 times the bounds of the polydata. However, reducing the size would reduce resolution of the patterns/hatches.

[aashish24]

@chaosphere2112 is this really critical? If yes, then @sankhesh let's reduce the size for now and we can think about a better solution for 3.0.

[chaosphere2112]

@sankhesh @aashish24 Well, the critical part is the first half of the bug report (where boxfill isn't getting patterns and hatches). Performance isn't super critical; I just tested it in the GUI, and it actually goes quite a bit faster than I was experiencing in the command line, so that's weird.

[aashish24]

thanks @chaosphere2112 that sounds reasonable. Roger that. That is weird.. may be try again?

[chaosphere2112]

@aashish24 @sankhesh Looks like specific patterns/hatches are the problem, not all of them.

Pattern Number	Pattern Time	Hatch Time
1	0:00:00.487568	0:00:00.414466
2	0:00:00.288609	0:00:00.295397
3	0:00:00.268531	0:00:00.402500
4	0:00:00.273018	0:00:00.271401
5	0:00:00.270258	0:00:00.271995
6	0:00:00.268783	0:00:00.271023
7	0:00:00.269698	0:00:00.279364
8	0:00:00.275035	0:00:00.288632
9	0:00:42.809225	0:00:42.989813
10	0:00:03.376930	0:00:03.116200
11	0:00:03.138273	0:00:03.060134
12	0:00:03.127413	0:00:03.048566
13	0:00:03.072687	0:00:03.132620
14	0:00:00.278787	0:00:00.271428
15	0:00:00.272481	0:00:00.278344
16	0:00:00.282526	0:00:00.280305
17	0:00:00.371303	0:00:00.366816
18	0:00:00.299080	0:00:00.298072

[aashish24]

Great.. this is very useful finding! thanks.

[sankhesh]

Ahh.. Thanks for sharing @chaosphere2112
I can look at why pattern number 9 generation takes so much time.

[chaosphere2112]

That's certainly the most urgent, yeah. If you could get 10-13 to be faster as well, that'd be cool.

[sankhesh]

For reference, here are all the patterns/hatches:
.

[sankhesh]

Update:

Custom boxfill plot:

Should non-custom boxfill plots also support patterns/hatches?

[chaosphere2112]

@sankhesh Nope, just the custom ones.

[doutriaux1]

@sankhesh non-custom never did support it because they do not use the filler attributes. I don't think we need to revise this. But now that I think of it we probably should update the attribute setting method to check if the type is custom and raise a warning if we set any of these.

[sankhesh]

Thanks @doutriaux1 @chaosphere2112

Created #1582 for boxfill patterns/hatches support.

Timing improvements to follow.