CorePlotting Library

A Qt-independent C++ library for spatial visualization of time-series data.

CorePlotting is the foundational library for the WhiskerToolbox plotting stack. It provides unified abstractions for visualizing spatial and temporal data, explicitly separating data & layout from rendering & interaction.

Key Features

  • Renderer Agnostic: Generates a pure data description of a scene (RenderableScene) consumed by OpenGL, SVG, or other backends.

  • Zero-Copy Mappers: Uses C++20 ranges to transform data directly into GPU-ready buffers without intermediate allocations.

  • Unified Layout Engine: Centralized logic for vertical stacking, raster rows, and spatial overlays.

  • Robust Interaction: Unified hit-testing and interaction controllers for manipulating glyphs (intervals, lines) in world space.

The “Big Idea”

The library solves the problem of coupling data structures to specific rendering widgets. Instead of a widget knowing how to draw a DigitalEventSeries, CorePlotting defines a pipeline:

  1. Layout: Determine where a series lives (Y-axis allocation).

  2. Map: Transform data points into world coordinates (x, y).

  3. Build: Assemble geometric batches (RenderablePolyLineBatch, RenderableGlyphBatch).

  4. Render: A thin OpenGL layer consumes the batches.

Getting Started

To use CorePlotting, you typically interact with the SceneBuilder and a specific Mapper:

// 1. Define Layout 
auto layout = LayoutEngine().compute(request);  

// 2. Build Scene using Mappers 
RenderableScene scene = SceneBuilder()     
  .setBounds(viewport_bounds)     
  .addGlyphs(         
      "events",          
      TimeSeriesMapper::mapEvents(my_event_series, my_time_frame, *layout.findLayout("events"))     
  )     
  .build();

Explore the documentation to learn more about the Architecture or specific modules like Mappers.