Origin 6.0 supports two kinds of Vector graphs:
- XYAM - X, Y, Angle and Magnitude
- XYXY - X, Y, X and Y
The first is useful where you want to keep the angles absolute regardless of the physical dimensions of your graph. The second type will fix the 'head' and 'tail' of the vectors in XY space - angles will change as the graph dimensions are changed.It sounds like what you need to do is transform your polar coordinates (radius, angle) into cartesian coordinates (X, Y). Recall that the equations for this are:
X = radius * COS(angle)
Y = radius * SIN(angle)
You will need to create new columns and set their values with the Set Column Values option in the Column menu. You can use the col( ) function to do this:
Col(NewX) = col(radius)*cos(col(angle))
Col(NewY) = col(radius)*sin(col(angle))
If your data is designed for XYXY (you have Radius,Angle,Radius,Angle data), you will need to do the transform for each pair.
Your worksheet should be organized as:
NewX(X) NewY(Y) Angle(Y) Magnitude(Y)
or
NewX(X1) NewY(Y1) NewX2(X2) NewY2(Y2)
For technical questions, try emailing Tech Support directly.
Note that Origin supports Radians (the default), Degrees and Gradians for angular units. Select the appropriate system in Tools : Options : Numeric Format.
[This message has been edited by Greg (edited 06-22-2000).]
