Behavior of multiple plot_structure_2d() in one plt.figure

[sgbaird]

Not really a bug, just something I noticed. Due to (I think) the following line:

pymatviz/pymatviz/structure_viz.py

Line 180 in 9c42d70

ax = ax or plt.gca()

I get the somewhat unintuitive behavior where the plots overlap each other:

from pymatviz.structure_viz import plot_structure_2d
plots = train_structures.apply(plot_structure_2d)

plots then seems to be empty objects.

plots

146     AxesSubplot(0.1981,0.125;0.6288x0.755)
925     AxesSubplot(0.1981,0.125;0.6288x0.755)
1282    AxesSubplot(0.1981,0.125;0.6288x0.755)
Name: structure, dtype: object

plots.iloc[0]

<AxesSubplot:>

By itself works fine:

plot_structure_2d(train_structures.iloc[0])

[sgbaird]

Ok, this is more what I should be going for I think:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig, axes = plt.subplots(1, 3)
[plot_structure_2d(s, ax=ax) for s, ax in zip(train_structures.tolist(), axes)]

[janosh]

I don't think there's a way for plot_structure_2d() to be smart about this since it can't know how many structures there are to plot in total and what the figure's axes layout should be.

Ok, this is more what I should be going for I think:

Yes, that's the intended usage. There are 2 somewhat hidden examples of this:

pymatviz/dataset_exploration/matbench/perovskites/explore_perovskites.py

Lines 45 to 49 in 9c42d70

	fig, axs = plt.subplots(3, 4, figsize=(12, 12))
	for struct, ax in zip(df_perov.structure.head(12), axs.flat):
	ax = plot_structure_2d(struct, ax=ax)
	ax.set_title(struct.composition.reduced_formula, fontsize=14)

pymatviz/assets/_generate_assets.py

Lines 239 to 248 in 9c42d70

	df_phonons = load_dataset("matbench_phonons")
	n_rows, n_cols = 3, 4
	fig, axs = plt.subplots(n_rows, n_cols, figsize=(3 * n_rows, 3 * n_cols))
	for struct, ax in zip(df_phonons.structure.head(n_rows * n_cols), axs.flat):
	ax = plot_structure_2d(struct, ax=ax)
	spg_symbol, _ = struct.get_space_group_info()
	formula = struct.composition.reduced_formula
	ax.set_title(f"{formula} ({spg_symbol})", fontweight="bold")

Should probably add a multi-axes example to the plot_structure_2d() doc string to make it more discoverable.