This article discusses on how data plotting can be improved.
There are various programs out there, each has it's own pros and cons:
gtkwave: a great viewer for digital simulation data
gwave: analog waveform viewer
KJWaves: simulation frontend with plotting window
buildin plotting functions in ngspice
gnuplot / octave / scipy / ... or similar programs as postprocessing script languages
...
There have been various suggestions on the mailing lists about the feature a plotting program could have:
postprocessing: integrate, add, diff, fft, ...
view, examine: cursors, multiple windows, ...
data import, file format: circuit simulation data (gnucap, spice, ...) hdf5 , measured data from oscilloscopes, spectrum analysers, ...
data export, file format: hdf5, pictures (png, ps, ...), ascii
communication backends: dbus, ...
extension/scripting language
Are there any programs out there that can show and postprocess simulation data?
If yes, how can they be extended to work as a waveform viewer for the simulators (gnucap, ngspice)?
Some vague notes on how a new plotting application could be written.
This notes currently relate on python as programming language.
the GUI could be created with libglade
the data storage format could be hdf5 , maybe together with pytables
the plotting engine could be matplotlib (png, ps export included)
postprocessing could be done with scipy
the scripting language is python. Thus import filter to hdf5 can easily be written. Even an integrated python shell would be possible. Seen on MayaVi 2
Disadvantage: This configuration has a huge rucksack of additional required packages.
Update
There are now some programs out there, that use the python, numpy, matplotlib tool chain:
oscopy: http://repo.or.cz/w/oscopy.git
dataplot: http://www.h-renrew.de/h/dataplot/dataplot.html, http://repo.or.cz/w/dataplot.git
gsim: http://kiwiki.fmtnuni.sk/mediawiki/index.php/Description_of_gsim