University of Applied Science Esslingen @ Scilab Conference 2018

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Copyright © ESI Group, 2018. All rights reserved.Copyright © ESI Group, 2018. All rights reserved.
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Implementation of a
converting toolbox
for Scilab for
transforming figures
from Scilab to
TikZ/LaTeX
Manuel-Tobias Csapo
10.11.2018

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Copyright © ESI Group, 2018. All rights reserved.
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What’s the motivation for a toolbox?
• Include graphs in scientific papers or articles
• LaTeX in scientific environment is de-facto standard
• MATLAB and Octave offer to convert figures to Tikz/LaTeX
• Scilab does not provide this functionality yet
Created toolbox prototype “xs2tikz” in Scilab
Project idea initiated by Professor Dr. Koch

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Agenda
1. Working Environment
• University of Applied Sciences Esslingen
• IT Designers Group
2. Target Software
• What’s LaTeX
• What’s PGFPlots
3. Converter Toolbox
• Implementation
• What’s currently there
• Examples
4. Outlook
• What’s missing / New features

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Working Environment
University of Applied Sciences Esslingen
• Established in 1868
• Located in Esslingen near Stuttgart
• 6000 students in majors like software engineering,
mechanical engineering and social work
• Cooperation with various companies in Stuttgart
• Cooperation via Steinbeis for technology transfer
Source: www.hs-Esslingen.de

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Working Environment
IT Designers Group
• Established in 1994 by Professor Dr. Joachim Goll from
University of Applied Sciences Esslingen via Steinbeis
• Located in Zell/Esslingen
• Nearly 150 employees
• Develops personalized software projects for customers
in automobile, finance, logistic and automation sector
• Provides support and setup of Application Lifecycle
Management

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Target Software
Components used
Source: de.wikipedia.org
• Typesetting language LaTeX
(Open Source)
• LaTeX package PGFPlots for creation of
plots; is based on PGF/TikZ (Open Source)
Source: pgfplots.sourceforge.net

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Target Software
About LaTeX
Source: de.wikipedia.org
• High-quality typesetting system
• Used in scientific and educational environment
• Well-suited for typesetting mathematical formulas
• Principle: writers should focus on content, not design
• As opposed to Microsoft Word ;-)
documentclass{scrartcl}
title{Awesome article is awesome}
author{Manuel Csapo}
begin{document}
maketitle
end{document}

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Target Software
About PGFPlots
• Plot creation package for LaTeX
• Based on PGF/TikZ
• Supports normal/logarithmic plots in two and three
dimensions
begin{tikzpicture}
begin{axis}[xlabel=x, ylabel=f(x)]
addplot coordinates {
(0, 1)
(2,4)
};
end{axis}
end{tikzpicture}
Source: pgfplots.sourceforge.net

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Target Software
About PGF/TikZ
• More elaborate graphics
• Use high-level
instructions for designing
image
Source: http://www.texample.net/tikz/examples/p2p-topology/

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Converter Toolbox
Graphic representation in Scilab
• Tree with graphic hierarchy
• Each element contains
handle reference to next
lower one
• Direct access or via
get()/set()

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Converter Toolbox
First Step: What’s out there?
• Matlab2Tikz package as base
• Has more functionality than needed
• E.g. Parsing additional arguments for creating more elements
• Quickly abandoned due single file provision with ~7000 lines of code, >
100 unprecise declared Functions
• Example: saveToFile()does gathering and calls functions for
generating of strings

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Converter Toolbox
Second Step: Designing
• Basic ideas taken: Gathering, Parsing, Writing to file
• Provide functionality as toolbox
• Solely written in Scilab
• gather_graphics_attributes for collecting figure data
• generate_tikz_strings for parsing data to PGFPlots
• xs2tikz provides simple interface

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Converter Toolbox
Visualisation

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Converter Toolbox
Third Step: Implementation of gather_graphic_attributes
• Traverse graphic hierarchy
• Collect necessary attributes
• Create cell for each type (figure, axes, polylines)
• Save them in struct attributes

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Converter Toolbox
Third Step: Implementation of generate_tikz_strings
• Add necessary environment information (begin/end)
• Generate axes with options
• Generate plots from polylines

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Converter Toolbox
Example (Calling sequence)
- -> cd /path/to/toolbox/xs2tikz
- -> exec builder.sce; exec
loader.sce;
- -> plot_example_simple_graph();
- -> xs2tikz(“example.tex”, true);
Create PDF (in Linux):
pdflatex example.tex

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Converter Toolbox
Example (Result as image)

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Converter Toolbox
Current state
• Toolbox structure done
• Basic conversion for 2D figures
• Help pages for functions
• Standalone file generation, titles, legends supported

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Outlook
Advantages
+ File is editable after conversion (unlike JPG, PNG, etc.)
+ Same quality of appearance as in LaTeX (fonts, drawing)
+ Consistent structure of file format for LaTeX
+ Elevates Scilab on same level as MATLAB or Octave

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Outlook
Next Steps
• Make subplots possible
• Use state machine in string generation
• Add 3D functionality through addplot3d
• More robust testing

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End of presentation
Thank you for your patience!

University of Applied Science Esslingen @ Scilab Conference 2018

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