[R] to draw a smooth arc

[Paul Murrell]

Hi


Paulo Barata wrote:
> Dr. Snow and Prof. Ripley,
> 
> Dr. Snow's suggestion, using clipplot (package TeachingDemos),
> is maybe a partial solution to the problem of drawing an arc of
> a circle (as long as the line width of the arc is not that large,
> as pointed out by Prof. Ripley). If the arc is symmetrical around
> a vertical line, then it is not so difficult to draw it that way.
> But an arc that does not have this kind of symmetry would possibly
> require some geometrical computations to find the proper rectangle
> to be used for clipping.
> 
> I would like to suggest that in a future version of R some function
> be included in the graphics package to draw smooth arcs with
> given center, radius, initial and final angles. I suppose
> that the basic ingredients are available in function "symbols"
> (graphics).


Just to back up a few previous posts ...

There is something like this facility already available via the
grid.xspline() function in the grid package.  This provides very
flexible curve drawing (including curves very close to Bezier curves)
based on the X-Splines implemented in xfig.  The grid.curve() function
provides a convenience layer that allows for at least certain
parameterisations of arcs (you specify the arc end points and the angle).

These functions are built on functionality within the core graphics
engine, so exposing a similar interface (e.g., an xspline() function)
within "traditional" graphics would be relatively straightforward.

The core functionality draws the curves as line segments (but
automatically figures out how many segments to use so that the curve
looks smooth);  it does NOT call curve-drawing primitives in the
graphics device (like PostScript's curveto).

In summary:  there is some support for smooth curves, but we could still
benefit from a specific arc() function with the standard
centre-radius-angle parameterisation and we could also benefit from
exposing the native strengths of different graphics devices (rather than
the current lowest-common-denominator approach).

Paul


> Thank you very much.
> 
> Paulo Barata
> (Rio de Janeiro - Brazil)
> 
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Prof Brian Ripley wrote:
>> On Tue, 1 May 2007, Greg Snow wrote:
>>
>>> Here is an approach that clips the circle you like from symbols down to
>>> an arc (this will work as long as the arc is less than half a circle,
>>> for arcs greater than half a circle, you could draw the whole circle
>>> then use this to draw an arc of the bacground color over the section you
>>> don't want):
>>>
>>> library(TeachingDemos)
>>> plot(-5:5, -5:5, type='n')
>>> clipplot( symbols(0,0,circles=2, add=TRUE), c(0,5), c(0,5) )
>> I had considered this approach: clipping a circle to a rectangle isn't 
>> strictly an arc, as will be clear if the line width is large.
>> Consider
>>
>> clipplot(symbols(0, 0 ,circles=2, add=TRUE, lwd=5), c(-1,5), c(-1,5))
>>
>> Note too that what happens with clipping is device-dependent.  If R's 
>> internal clipping is used, the part-circle is converted to a polygon.
>>
>>
> 
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-- 
Dr Paul Murrell
Department of Statistics
The University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019
Auckland
New Zealand
64 9 3737599 x85392
paul at stat.auckland.ac.nz
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