Python - Real Time Plotting - python

I wrote a simple python script that display my sensor data (read from Serial).
I wish to understand why the figure crashes when I'm clicking anywhere...
Is there any - simple way, if possible - to avoid the script to crash if I try to do something else on the computer?
Moreover, if I want to develop a simple GUI, has someone an example to learn how to do it? Does it will avoid this problem ?
import serial
import re
import numpy as np
import time
from matplotlib import pyplot as plt
SERIAL_PORT = 'COM3'
BAUDRATE = 9600
BUFFER_SIZE = 30
print("initialisation ...")
ser = serial.Serial(SERIAL_PORT, BAUDRATE)
buffer = []
plt.ion()
fig = plt.figure()
ydata = [0]*BUFFER_SIZE*2
prevBuf = [0]*BUFFER_SIZE*10
ax1=plt.axes()
line, = plt.plot(prevBuf)
plt.ylim([2000,10000])
def clean_serial():
i=0
while i<=5:
data = ser.readline()
print data
i+=1
ser.flush()
def extract_number(rawdata):
return float(re.sub("[^0-9.]", " ", rawdata))
def process_buffer(buf):
prevBuf[len(prevBuf)-BUFFER_SIZE:] = buf
line.set_xdata(np.arange(len(prevBuf)))
line.set_ydata(prevBuf)
ydataMax = max(prevBuf)+10
ydataMin = min(prevBuf)-100
plt.ylim([ydataMin,ydataMax])
plt.draw()
prevBuf[:] = prevBuf[BUFFER_SIZE:]+buf
print("cleaning serial")
clean_serial()
print("reading value from serial")
while True:
data = extract_number(ser.readline())
buffer.append(data)
if len(buffer)>= BUFFER_SIZE:
process_buffer(buffer)
buffer=[]
ser.close()
which output : script crashing
Thank you !


I wrote a Python app that could be useful for you:
###################################################################
# #
# PLOTTING A LIVE GRAPH #
# ---------------------------- #
# EMBED A MATPLOTLIB ANIMATION INSIDE YOUR #
# OWN GUI! #
# #
###################################################################
import sys
import os
from PyQt4 import QtGui
from PyQt4 import QtCore
import functools
import numpy as np
import random as rd
import matplotlib
matplotlib.use("Qt4Agg")
from matplotlib.figure import Figure
from matplotlib.animation import TimedAnimation
from matplotlib.lines import Line2D
from matplotlib.backends.backend_qt4agg import FigureCanvasQTAgg as FigureCanvas
import time
import threading
def setCustomSize(x, width, height):
sizePolicy = QtGui.QSizePolicy(QtGui.QSizePolicy.Fixed, QtGui.QSizePolicy.Fixed)
sizePolicy.setHorizontalStretch(0)
sizePolicy.setVerticalStretch(0)
sizePolicy.setHeightForWidth(x.sizePolicy().hasHeightForWidth())
x.setSizePolicy(sizePolicy)
x.setMinimumSize(QtCore.QSize(width, height))
x.setMaximumSize(QtCore.QSize(width, height))
''''''
class CustomMainWindow(QtGui.QMainWindow):
def __init__(self):
super(CustomMainWindow, self).__init__()
# Define the geometry of the main window
self.setGeometry(300, 300, 800, 400)
self.setWindowTitle("my first window")
# Create FRAME_A
self.FRAME_A = QtGui.QFrame(self)
self.FRAME_A.setStyleSheet("QWidget { background-color: %s }" % QtGui.QColor(210,210,235,255).name())
self.LAYOUT_A = QtGui.QGridLayout()
self.FRAME_A.setLayout(self.LAYOUT_A)
self.setCentralWidget(self.FRAME_A)
# Place the zoom button
self.zoomBtn = QtGui.QPushButton(text = 'zoom')
setCustomSize(self.zoomBtn, 100, 50)
self.zoomBtn.clicked.connect(self.zoomBtnAction)
self.LAYOUT_A.addWidget(self.zoomBtn, *(0,0))
# Place the matplotlib figure
self.myFig = CustomFigCanvas()
self.LAYOUT_A.addWidget(self.myFig, *(0,1))
# Add the callbackfunc to ..
myDataLoop = threading.Thread(name = 'myDataLoop', target = dataSendLoop, args = (self.addData_callbackFunc,))
myDataLoop.start()
self.show()
''''''
def zoomBtnAction(self):
print("zoom in")
self.myFig.zoomIn(5)
''''''
def addData_callbackFunc(self, value):
# print("Add data: " + str(value))
self.myFig.addData(value)
''' End Class '''
class CustomFigCanvas(FigureCanvas, TimedAnimation):
def __init__(self):
self.addedData = []
print(matplotlib.__version__)
# The data
self.xlim = 200
self.n = np.linspace(0, self.xlim - 1, self.xlim)
a = []
b = []
a.append(2.0)
a.append(4.0)
a.append(2.0)
b.append(4.0)
b.append(3.0)
b.append(4.0)
self.y = (self.n * 0.0) + 50
# The window
self.fig = Figure(figsize=(5,5), dpi=100)
self.ax1 = self.fig.add_subplot(111)
# self.ax1 settings
self.ax1.set_xlabel('time')
self.ax1.set_ylabel('raw data')
self.line1 = Line2D([], [], color='blue')
self.line1_tail = Line2D([], [], color='red', linewidth=2)
self.line1_head = Line2D([], [], color='red', marker='o', markeredgecolor='r')
self.ax1.add_line(self.line1)
self.ax1.add_line(self.line1_tail)
self.ax1.add_line(self.line1_head)
self.ax1.set_xlim(0, self.xlim - 1)
self.ax1.set_ylim(0, 100)
FigureCanvas.__init__(self, self.fig)
TimedAnimation.__init__(self, self.fig, interval = 50, blit = True)
def new_frame_seq(self):
return iter(range(self.n.size))
def _init_draw(self):
lines = [self.line1, self.line1_tail, self.line1_head]
for l in lines:
l.set_data([], [])
def addData(self, value):
self.addedData.append(value)
def zoomIn(self, value):
bottom = self.ax1.get_ylim()[0]
top = self.ax1.get_ylim()[1]
bottom += value
top -= value
self.ax1.set_ylim(bottom,top)
self.draw()
def _step(self, *args):
# Extends the _step() method for the TimedAnimation class.
try:
TimedAnimation._step(self, *args)
except Exception as e:
self.abc += 1
print(str(self.abc))
TimedAnimation._stop(self)
pass
def _draw_frame(self, framedata):
margin = 2
while(len(self.addedData) > 0):
self.y = np.roll(self.y, -1)
self.y[-1] = self.addedData[0]
del(self.addedData[0])
self.line1.set_data(self.n[ 0 : self.n.size - margin ], self.y[ 0 : self.n.size - margin ])
self.line1_tail.set_data(np.append(self.n[-10:-1 - margin], self.n[-1 - margin]), np.append(self.y[-10:-1 - margin], self.y[-1 - margin]))
self.line1_head.set_data(self.n[-1 - margin], self.y[-1 - margin])
self._drawn_artists = [self.line1, self.line1_tail, self.line1_head]
''' End Class '''
# You need to setup a signal slot mechanism, to
# send data to your GUI in a thread-safe way.
# Believe me, if you don't do this right, things
# go very very wrong..
class Communicate(QtCore.QObject):
data_signal = QtCore.pyqtSignal(float)
''' End Class '''
def dataSendLoop(addData_callbackFunc):
# Setup the signal-slot mechanism.
mySrc = Communicate()
mySrc.data_signal.connect(addData_callbackFunc)
# Simulate some data
n = np.linspace(0, 499, 500)
y = 50 + 25*(np.sin(n / 8.3)) + 10*(np.sin(n / 7.5)) - 5*(np.sin(n / 1.5))
i = 0
while(True):
if(i > 499):
i = 0
time.sleep(0.1)
mySrc.data_signal.emit(y[i]) # <- Here you emit a signal!
i += 1
###
###
if __name__== '__main__':
app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
QtGui.QApplication.setStyle(QtGui.QStyleFactory.create('Plastique'))
myGUI = CustomMainWindow()
sys.exit(app.exec_())
''''''
Just try it out. Copy-paste this code in a new python-file, and run it. You should get a beautiful, smoothly moving graph:
The actual data is sent in the dataSendLoop(..) function. This function runs in a separate thread. Notice that the data gets sent in this codeline within that function:
mySrc.data_signal.emit(...)
Just put the value you want to add between the brackets. That value will get added to the moving graph next time it gets a screen refresh.

Related

Networkx : Live ploting the shortest path [duplicate]

I am trying to plot some data from a camera in real time using OpenCV. However, the real-time plotting (using matplotlib) doesn't seem to be working.
I've isolated the problem into this simple example:
fig = plt.figure()
plt.axis([0, 1000, 0, 1])
i = 0
x = list()
y = list()
while i < 1000:
temp_y = np.random.random()
x.append(i)
y.append(temp_y)
plt.scatter(i, temp_y)
i += 1
plt.show()
I would expect this example to plot 1000 points individually. What actually happens is that the window pops up with the first point showing (ok with that), then waits for the loop to finish before it populates the rest of the graph.
Any thoughts why I am not seeing points populated one at a time?

Here's the working version of the code in question (requires at least version Matplotlib 1.1.0 from 2011-11-14):
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
plt.axis([0, 10, 0, 1])
for i in range(10):
y = np.random.random()
plt.scatter(i, y)
plt.pause(0.05)
plt.show()
Note the call to plt.pause(0.05), which both draws the new data and runs the GUI's event loop (allowing for mouse interaction).

If you're interested in realtime plotting, I'd recommend looking into matplotlib's animation API. In particular, using blit to avoid redrawing the background on every frame can give you substantial speed gains (~10x):
#!/usr/bin/env python
import numpy as np
import time
import matplotlib
matplotlib.use('GTKAgg')
from matplotlib import pyplot as plt
def randomwalk(dims=(256, 256), n=20, sigma=5, alpha=0.95, seed=1):
""" A simple random walk with memory """
r, c = dims
gen = np.random.RandomState(seed)
pos = gen.rand(2, n) * ((r,), (c,))
old_delta = gen.randn(2, n) * sigma
while True:
delta = (1. - alpha) * gen.randn(2, n) * sigma + alpha * old_delta
pos += delta
for ii in xrange(n):
if not (0. <= pos[0, ii] < r):
pos[0, ii] = abs(pos[0, ii] % r)
if not (0. <= pos[1, ii] < c):
pos[1, ii] = abs(pos[1, ii] % c)
old_delta = delta
yield pos
def run(niter=1000, doblit=True):
"""
Display the simulation using matplotlib, optionally using blit for speed
"""
fig, ax = plt.subplots(1, 1)
ax.set_aspect('equal')
ax.set_xlim(0, 255)
ax.set_ylim(0, 255)
ax.hold(True)
rw = randomwalk()
x, y = rw.next()
plt.show(False)
plt.draw()
if doblit:
# cache the background
background = fig.canvas.copy_from_bbox(ax.bbox)
points = ax.plot(x, y, 'o')[0]
tic = time.time()
for ii in xrange(niter):
# update the xy data
x, y = rw.next()
points.set_data(x, y)
if doblit:
# restore background
fig.canvas.restore_region(background)
# redraw just the points
ax.draw_artist(points)
# fill in the axes rectangle
fig.canvas.blit(ax.bbox)
else:
# redraw everything
fig.canvas.draw()
plt.close(fig)
print "Blit = %s, average FPS: %.2f" % (
str(doblit), niter / (time.time() - tic))
if __name__ == '__main__':
run(doblit=False)
run(doblit=True)
Output:
Blit = False, average FPS: 54.37
Blit = True, average FPS: 438.27

I know I'm a bit late to answer this question. Nevertheless, I've made some code a while ago to plot live graphs, that I would like to share:
Code for PyQt4:
###################################################################
# #
# PLOT A LIVE GRAPH (PyQt4) #
# ----------------------------- #
# EMBED A MATPLOTLIB ANIMATION INSIDE YOUR #
# OWN GUI! #
# #
###################################################################
import sys
import os
from PyQt4 import QtGui
from PyQt4 import QtCore
import functools
import numpy as np
import random as rd
import matplotlib
matplotlib.use("Qt4Agg")
from matplotlib.figure import Figure
from matplotlib.animation import TimedAnimation
from matplotlib.lines import Line2D
from matplotlib.backends.backend_qt4agg import FigureCanvasQTAgg as FigureCanvas
import time
import threading
def setCustomSize(x, width, height):
sizePolicy = QtGui.QSizePolicy(QtGui.QSizePolicy.Fixed, QtGui.QSizePolicy.Fixed)
sizePolicy.setHorizontalStretch(0)
sizePolicy.setVerticalStretch(0)
sizePolicy.setHeightForWidth(x.sizePolicy().hasHeightForWidth())
x.setSizePolicy(sizePolicy)
x.setMinimumSize(QtCore.QSize(width, height))
x.setMaximumSize(QtCore.QSize(width, height))
''''''
class CustomMainWindow(QtGui.QMainWindow):
def __init__(self):
super(CustomMainWindow, self).__init__()
# Define the geometry of the main window
self.setGeometry(300, 300, 800, 400)
self.setWindowTitle("my first window")
# Create FRAME_A
self.FRAME_A = QtGui.QFrame(self)
self.FRAME_A.setStyleSheet("QWidget { background-color: %s }" % QtGui.QColor(210,210,235,255).name())
self.LAYOUT_A = QtGui.QGridLayout()
self.FRAME_A.setLayout(self.LAYOUT_A)
self.setCentralWidget(self.FRAME_A)
# Place the zoom button
self.zoomBtn = QtGui.QPushButton(text = 'zoom')
setCustomSize(self.zoomBtn, 100, 50)
self.zoomBtn.clicked.connect(self.zoomBtnAction)
self.LAYOUT_A.addWidget(self.zoomBtn, *(0,0))
# Place the matplotlib figure
self.myFig = CustomFigCanvas()
self.LAYOUT_A.addWidget(self.myFig, *(0,1))
# Add the callbackfunc to ..
myDataLoop = threading.Thread(name = 'myDataLoop', target = dataSendLoop, daemon = True, args = (self.addData_callbackFunc,))
myDataLoop.start()
self.show()
''''''
def zoomBtnAction(self):
print("zoom in")
self.myFig.zoomIn(5)
''''''
def addData_callbackFunc(self, value):
# print("Add data: " + str(value))
self.myFig.addData(value)
''' End Class '''
class CustomFigCanvas(FigureCanvas, TimedAnimation):
def __init__(self):
self.addedData = []
print(matplotlib.__version__)
# The data
self.xlim = 200
self.n = np.linspace(0, self.xlim - 1, self.xlim)
a = []
b = []
a.append(2.0)
a.append(4.0)
a.append(2.0)
b.append(4.0)
b.append(3.0)
b.append(4.0)
self.y = (self.n * 0.0) + 50
# The window
self.fig = Figure(figsize=(5,5), dpi=100)
self.ax1 = self.fig.add_subplot(111)
# self.ax1 settings
self.ax1.set_xlabel('time')
self.ax1.set_ylabel('raw data')
self.line1 = Line2D([], [], color='blue')
self.line1_tail = Line2D([], [], color='red', linewidth=2)
self.line1_head = Line2D([], [], color='red', marker='o', markeredgecolor='r')
self.ax1.add_line(self.line1)
self.ax1.add_line(self.line1_tail)
self.ax1.add_line(self.line1_head)
self.ax1.set_xlim(0, self.xlim - 1)
self.ax1.set_ylim(0, 100)
FigureCanvas.__init__(self, self.fig)
TimedAnimation.__init__(self, self.fig, interval = 50, blit = True)
def new_frame_seq(self):
return iter(range(self.n.size))
def _init_draw(self):
lines = [self.line1, self.line1_tail, self.line1_head]
for l in lines:
l.set_data([], [])
def addData(self, value):
self.addedData.append(value)
def zoomIn(self, value):
bottom = self.ax1.get_ylim()[0]
top = self.ax1.get_ylim()[1]
bottom += value
top -= value
self.ax1.set_ylim(bottom,top)
self.draw()
def _step(self, *args):
# Extends the _step() method for the TimedAnimation class.
try:
TimedAnimation._step(self, *args)
except Exception as e:
self.abc += 1
print(str(self.abc))
TimedAnimation._stop(self)
pass
def _draw_frame(self, framedata):
margin = 2
while(len(self.addedData) > 0):
self.y = np.roll(self.y, -1)
self.y[-1] = self.addedData[0]
del(self.addedData[0])
self.line1.set_data(self.n[ 0 : self.n.size - margin ], self.y[ 0 : self.n.size - margin ])
self.line1_tail.set_data(np.append(self.n[-10:-1 - margin], self.n[-1 - margin]), np.append(self.y[-10:-1 - margin], self.y[-1 - margin]))
self.line1_head.set_data(self.n[-1 - margin], self.y[-1 - margin])
self._drawn_artists = [self.line1, self.line1_tail, self.line1_head]
''' End Class '''
# You need to setup a signal slot mechanism, to
# send data to your GUI in a thread-safe way.
# Believe me, if you don't do this right, things
# go very very wrong..
class Communicate(QtCore.QObject):
data_signal = QtCore.pyqtSignal(float)
''' End Class '''
def dataSendLoop(addData_callbackFunc):
# Setup the signal-slot mechanism.
mySrc = Communicate()
mySrc.data_signal.connect(addData_callbackFunc)
# Simulate some data
n = np.linspace(0, 499, 500)
y = 50 + 25*(np.sin(n / 8.3)) + 10*(np.sin(n / 7.5)) - 5*(np.sin(n / 1.5))
i = 0
while(True):
if(i > 499):
i = 0
time.sleep(0.1)
mySrc.data_signal.emit(y[i]) # <- Here you emit a signal!
i += 1
###
###
if __name__== '__main__':
app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
QtGui.QApplication.setStyle(QtGui.QStyleFactory.create('Plastique'))
myGUI = CustomMainWindow()
sys.exit(app.exec_())
''''''
I recently rewrote the code for PyQt5.
Code for PyQt5:
###################################################################
# #
# PLOT A LIVE GRAPH (PyQt5) #
# ----------------------------- #
# EMBED A MATPLOTLIB ANIMATION INSIDE YOUR #
# OWN GUI! #
# #
###################################################################
import sys
import os
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import *
from PyQt5.QtCore import *
from PyQt5.QtGui import *
import functools
import numpy as np
import random as rd
import matplotlib
matplotlib.use("Qt5Agg")
from matplotlib.figure import Figure
from matplotlib.animation import TimedAnimation
from matplotlib.lines import Line2D
from matplotlib.backends.backend_qt5agg import FigureCanvasQTAgg as FigureCanvas
import time
import threading
class CustomMainWindow(QMainWindow):
def __init__(self):
super(CustomMainWindow, self).__init__()
# Define the geometry of the main window
self.setGeometry(300, 300, 800, 400)
self.setWindowTitle("my first window")
# Create FRAME_A
self.FRAME_A = QFrame(self)
self.FRAME_A.setStyleSheet("QWidget { background-color: %s }" % QColor(210,210,235,255).name())
self.LAYOUT_A = QGridLayout()
self.FRAME_A.setLayout(self.LAYOUT_A)
self.setCentralWidget(self.FRAME_A)
# Place the zoom button
self.zoomBtn = QPushButton(text = 'zoom')
self.zoomBtn.setFixedSize(100, 50)
self.zoomBtn.clicked.connect(self.zoomBtnAction)
self.LAYOUT_A.addWidget(self.zoomBtn, *(0,0))
# Place the matplotlib figure
self.myFig = CustomFigCanvas()
self.LAYOUT_A.addWidget(self.myFig, *(0,1))
# Add the callbackfunc to ..
myDataLoop = threading.Thread(name = 'myDataLoop', target = dataSendLoop, daemon = True, args = (self.addData_callbackFunc,))
myDataLoop.start()
self.show()
return
def zoomBtnAction(self):
print("zoom in")
self.myFig.zoomIn(5)
return
def addData_callbackFunc(self, value):
# print("Add data: " + str(value))
self.myFig.addData(value)
return
''' End Class '''
class CustomFigCanvas(FigureCanvas, TimedAnimation):
def __init__(self):
self.addedData = []
print(matplotlib.__version__)
# The data
self.xlim = 200
self.n = np.linspace(0, self.xlim - 1, self.xlim)
a = []
b = []
a.append(2.0)
a.append(4.0)
a.append(2.0)
b.append(4.0)
b.append(3.0)
b.append(4.0)
self.y = (self.n * 0.0) + 50
# The window
self.fig = Figure(figsize=(5,5), dpi=100)
self.ax1 = self.fig.add_subplot(111)
# self.ax1 settings
self.ax1.set_xlabel('time')
self.ax1.set_ylabel('raw data')
self.line1 = Line2D([], [], color='blue')
self.line1_tail = Line2D([], [], color='red', linewidth=2)
self.line1_head = Line2D([], [], color='red', marker='o', markeredgecolor='r')
self.ax1.add_line(self.line1)
self.ax1.add_line(self.line1_tail)
self.ax1.add_line(self.line1_head)
self.ax1.set_xlim(0, self.xlim - 1)
self.ax1.set_ylim(0, 100)
FigureCanvas.__init__(self, self.fig)
TimedAnimation.__init__(self, self.fig, interval = 50, blit = True)
return
def new_frame_seq(self):
return iter(range(self.n.size))
def _init_draw(self):
lines = [self.line1, self.line1_tail, self.line1_head]
for l in lines:
l.set_data([], [])
return
def addData(self, value):
self.addedData.append(value)
return
def zoomIn(self, value):
bottom = self.ax1.get_ylim()[0]
top = self.ax1.get_ylim()[1]
bottom += value
top -= value
self.ax1.set_ylim(bottom,top)
self.draw()
return
def _step(self, *args):
# Extends the _step() method for the TimedAnimation class.
try:
TimedAnimation._step(self, *args)
except Exception as e:
self.abc += 1
print(str(self.abc))
TimedAnimation._stop(self)
pass
return
def _draw_frame(self, framedata):
margin = 2
while(len(self.addedData) > 0):
self.y = np.roll(self.y, -1)
self.y[-1] = self.addedData[0]
del(self.addedData[0])
self.line1.set_data(self.n[ 0 : self.n.size - margin ], self.y[ 0 : self.n.size - margin ])
self.line1_tail.set_data(np.append(self.n[-10:-1 - margin], self.n[-1 - margin]), np.append(self.y[-10:-1 - margin], self.y[-1 - margin]))
self.line1_head.set_data(self.n[-1 - margin], self.y[-1 - margin])
self._drawn_artists = [self.line1, self.line1_tail, self.line1_head]
return
''' End Class '''
# You need to setup a signal slot mechanism, to
# send data to your GUI in a thread-safe way.
# Believe me, if you don't do this right, things
# go very very wrong..
class Communicate(QObject):
data_signal = pyqtSignal(float)
''' End Class '''
def dataSendLoop(addData_callbackFunc):
# Setup the signal-slot mechanism.
mySrc = Communicate()
mySrc.data_signal.connect(addData_callbackFunc)
# Simulate some data
n = np.linspace(0, 499, 500)
y = 50 + 25*(np.sin(n / 8.3)) + 10*(np.sin(n / 7.5)) - 5*(np.sin(n / 1.5))
i = 0
while(True):
if(i > 499):
i = 0
time.sleep(0.1)
mySrc.data_signal.emit(y[i]) # <- Here you emit a signal!
i += 1
###
###
if __name__== '__main__':
app = QApplication(sys.argv)
QApplication.setStyle(QStyleFactory.create('Plastique'))
myGUI = CustomMainWindow()
sys.exit(app.exec_())
Just try it out. Copy-paste this code in a new python-file, and run it. You should get a beautiful, smoothly moving graph:

The top (and many other) answers were built upon plt.pause(), but that was an old way of animating the plot in matplotlib. It is not only slow, but also causes focus to be grabbed upon each update (I had a hard time stopping the plotting python process).
TL;DR: you may want to use matplotlib.animation (as mentioned in documentation).
After digging around various answers and pieces of code, this in fact proved to be a smooth way of drawing incoming data infinitely for me.
Here is my code for a quick start. It plots current time with a random number in [0, 100) every 200ms infinitely, while also handling auto rescaling of the view:
from datetime import datetime
from matplotlib import pyplot
from matplotlib.animation import FuncAnimation
from random import randrange
x_data, y_data = [], []
figure = pyplot.figure()
line, = pyplot.plot_date(x_data, y_data, '-')
def update(frame):
x_data.append(datetime.now())
y_data.append(randrange(0, 100))
line.set_data(x_data, y_data)
figure.gca().relim()
figure.gca().autoscale_view()
return line,
animation = FuncAnimation(figure, update, interval=200)
pyplot.show()
You can also explore blit for even better performance as in FuncAnimation documentation.
An example from the blit documentation:
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from matplotlib.animation import FuncAnimation
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
xdata, ydata = [], []
ln, = plt.plot([], [], 'ro')
def init():
ax.set_xlim(0, 2*np.pi)
ax.set_ylim(-1, 1)
return ln,
def update(frame):
xdata.append(frame)
ydata.append(np.sin(frame))
ln.set_data(xdata, ydata)
return ln,
ani = FuncAnimation(fig, update, frames=np.linspace(0, 2*np.pi, 128),
init_func=init, blit=True)
plt.show()

None of the methods worked for me.
But I have found this
Real time matplotlib plot is not working while still in a loop
All you need is to add
plt.pause(0.0001)
and then you could see the new plots.
So your code should look like this, and it will work
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
plt.ion() ## Note this correction
fig=plt.figure()
plt.axis([0,1000,0,1])
i=0
x=list()
y=list()
while i <1000:
temp_y=np.random.random();
x.append(i);
y.append(temp_y);
plt.scatter(i,temp_y);
i+=1;
plt.show()
plt.pause(0.0001) #Note this correction

show is probably not the best choice for this. What I would do is use pyplot.draw() instead. You also might want to include a small time delay (e.g., time.sleep(0.05)) in the loop so that you can see the plots happening. If I make these changes to your example it works for me and I see each point appearing one at a time.

I know this question is old, but there's now a package available called drawnow on GitHub as "python-drawnow". This provides an interface similar to MATLAB's drawnow -- you can easily update a figure.
An example for your use case:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from drawnow import drawnow
def make_fig():
plt.scatter(x, y) # I think you meant this
plt.ion() # enable interactivity
fig = plt.figure() # make a figure
x = list()
y = list()
for i in range(1000):
temp_y = np.random.random()
x.append(i)
y.append(temp_y) # or any arbitrary update to your figure's data
i += 1
drawnow(make_fig)
python-drawnow is a thin wrapper around plt.draw but provides the ability to confirm (or debug) after figure display.

Another option is to go with bokeh. IMO, it is a good alternative at least for real-time plots. Here is a bokeh version of the code in the question:
from bokeh.plotting import curdoc, figure
import random
import time
def update():
global i
temp_y = random.random()
r.data_source.stream({'x': [i], 'y': [temp_y]})
i += 1
i = 0
p = figure()
r = p.circle([], [])
curdoc().add_root(p)
curdoc().add_periodic_callback(update, 100)
and for running it:
pip3 install bokeh
bokeh serve --show test.py
bokeh shows the result in a web browser via websocket communications. It is especially useful when data is generated by remote headless server processes.

An example use-case to plot CPU usage in real-time.
import time
import psutil
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111)
i = 0
x, y = [], []
while True:
x.append(i)
y.append(psutil.cpu_percent())
ax.plot(x, y, color='b')
fig.canvas.draw()
ax.set_xlim(left=max(0, i - 50), right=i + 50)
fig.show()
plt.pause(0.05)
i += 1

The problem seems to be that you expect plt.show() to show the window and then to return. It does not do that. The program will stop at that point and only resume once you close the window. You should be able to test that: If you close the window and then another window should pop up.
To resolve that problem just call plt.show() once after your loop. Then you get the complete plot. (But not a 'real-time plotting')
You can try setting the keyword-argument block like this: plt.show(block=False) once at the beginning and then use .draw() to update.

Here is a version that I got to work on my system.
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from drawnow import drawnow
import numpy as np
def makeFig():
plt.scatter(xList,yList) # I think you meant this
plt.ion() # enable interactivity
fig=plt.figure() # make a figure
xList=list()
yList=list()
for i in np.arange(50):
y=np.random.random()
xList.append(i)
yList.append(y)
drawnow(makeFig)
#makeFig() The drawnow(makeFig) command can be replaced
#plt.draw() with makeFig(); plt.draw()
plt.pause(0.001)
The drawnow(makeFig) line can be replaced with a makeFig(); plt.draw() sequence and it still works OK.

If you want draw and not freeze your thread as more point are drawn you should use plt.pause() not time.sleep()
im using the following code to plot a series of xy coordinates.
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import math
pi = 3.14159
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
x = []
y = []
def PointsInCircum(r,n=20):
circle = [(math.cos(2*pi/n*x)*r,math.sin(2*pi/n*x)*r) for x in xrange(0,n+1)]
return circle
circle_list = PointsInCircum(3, 50)
for t in range(len(circle_list)):
if t == 0:
points, = ax.plot(x, y, marker='o', linestyle='--')
ax.set_xlim(-4, 4)
ax.set_ylim(-4, 4)
else:
x_coord, y_coord = circle_list.pop()
x.append(x_coord)
y.append(y_coord)
points.set_data(x, y)
plt.pause(0.01)

This is the right way to plot Dynamic real-time matplot plots animation using while loop
There is a medium article on that too:
pip install celluloid # this will capture the image/animation
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
from celluloid import Camera # getting the camera
import matplotlib.animation as animation
from IPython import display
import time
from IPython.display import HTML
import warnings
%matplotlib notebook
warnings.filterwarnings('ignore')
warnings.simplefilter('ignore')
fig = plt.figure() #Empty fig object
ax = fig.add_subplot() #Empty axis object
camera = Camera(fig) # Camera object to capture the snap
def f(x):
''' function to create a sine wave'''
return np.sin(x) + np.random.normal(scale=0.1, size=len(x))
l = []
while True:
value = np.random.randint(9) #random number generator
l.append(value) # appneds each time number is generated
X = np.linspace(10, len(l)) # creates a line space for x axis, Equal to the length of l
for i in range(10): #plots 10 such lines
plt.plot(X, f(X))
fig.show() #shows the figure object
fig.canvas.draw()
camera.snap() # camera object to capture teh animation
time.sleep(1)
And for saving etc:
animation = camera.animate(interval = 200, repeat = True, repeat_delay = 500)
HTML(animation.to_html5_video())
animation.save('abc.mp4') # to save
output is:

Live plot with circular buffer with line style retained:
import os
import time
import psutil
import collections
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
pts_n = 100
x = collections.deque(maxlen=pts_n)
y = collections.deque(maxlen=pts_n)
(line, ) = plt.plot(x, y, linestyle="--")
my_process = psutil.Process(os.getpid())
t_start = time.time()
while True:
x.append(time.time() - t_start)
y.append(my_process.cpu_percent())
line.set_xdata(x)
line.set_ydata(y)
plt.gca().relim()
plt.gca().autoscale_view()
plt.pause(0.1)

Adding a label to a Line2D in matplotlib and PyQt5

I was experimenting a bit with the answer code of this stackoverflow question: https://stackoverflow.com/a/61226106/10810208
for my project I am making a live system monitor, but I can't figure out how to put a label on a Line2D, because now it is only 1 line but there will be more.
this is the part I have trouble with:
self.ax1.set_xlabel('time in 1/10 of a second')
self.ax1.set_ylabel('usage in %')
self.line1 = Line2D([], [], color='blue') #here I need to add the label to
self.line1_tail = Line2D([], [], color='blue', linewidth=2)
self.line1_head = Line2D([], [], color='red', marker='o', markeredgecolor='r')
self.ax1.add_line(self.line1)
self.ax1.add_line(self.line1_tail)
self.ax1.add_line(self.line1_head)
self.ax1.set_xlim(0, self.xlim)
self.ax1.set_ylim(0, 100)
I just cant figure out why adding: Line2D([],[], color='blue', label='cpu') doesn't work. Am I just stupid right now?
here is the full code:
###################################################################
# #
# PLOT A LIVE GRAPH (PyQt5) #
# ----------------------------- #
# EMBED A MATPLOTLIB ANIMATION INSIDE YOUR #
# OWN GUI! #
# #
###################################################################
import sys
import os
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import *
from PyQt5.QtCore import *
from PyQt5.QtGui import *
import functools
import numpy as np
import random as rd
import matplotlib
matplotlib.use("Qt5Agg")
from matplotlib.figure import Figure
from matplotlib.animation import TimedAnimation
from matplotlib.lines import Line2D
from matplotlib.backends.backend_qt5agg import FigureCanvasQTAgg as FigureCanvas
import time
import threading
import subprocess
import platform
from os import linesep
import psutil
class CustomMainWindow(QMainWindow):
def __init__(self):
super(CustomMainWindow, self).__init__()
# Define the geometry of the main window
self.setGeometry(300, 300, 800, 400)
self.setWindowTitle("my first window")
# Create FRAME_A
self.FRAME_A = QFrame(self)
self.FRAME_A.setStyleSheet("QWidget { background-color: %s }" % QColor(210,210,235,255).name())
self.LAYOUT_A = QGridLayout()
self.FRAME_A.setLayout(self.LAYOUT_A)
self.setCentralWidget(self.FRAME_A)
# Place the matplotlib figure
self.myFig = CustomFigCanvas()
self.LAYOUT_A.addWidget(self.myFig, *(0,1))
# Add the callbackfunc to ..
myDataLoop = threading.Thread(name = 'myDataLoop', target = dataSendLoop, daemon = True, args = (self.addData_callbackFunc,))
myDataLoop.start()
self.show()
return
def addData_callbackFunc(self, value):
# print("Add data: " + str(value))
self.myFig.addData(value)
return
''' End Class '''
class CustomFigCanvas(FigureCanvas, TimedAnimation):
def __init__(self):
self.addedData = []
print(matplotlib.__version__)
# The data
self.xlim = 200
self.n = np.linspace(0, self.xlim - 1, self.xlim)
a = []
b = []
a.append(2.0)
a.append(4.0)
a.append(2.0)
b.append(4.0)
b.append(3.0)
b.append(4.0)
self.y = (self.n * 0.0) + 50
# The window
self.fig = Figure(figsize=(5,5), dpi=100)
self.ax1 = self.fig.add_subplot(111)
# self.ax1 settings
self.ax1.set_xlabel('time in 1/10 of a second')
self.ax1.set_ylabel('usage in %')
self.line1 = Line2D([], [], color='blue')
self.line1_tail = Line2D([], [], color='blue', linewidth=2)
self.line1_head = Line2D([], [], color='red', marker='o', markeredgecolor='r')
self.ax1.add_line(self.line1)
self.ax1.add_line(self.line1_tail)
self.ax1.add_line(self.line1_head)
self.ax1.set_xlim(0, self.xlim)
self.ax1.set_ylim(0, 100)
FigureCanvas.__init__(self, self.fig)
TimedAnimation.__init__(self, self.fig, interval = 50, blit = True)
return
def new_frame_seq(self):
return iter(range(self.n.size))
def _init_draw(self):
lines = [self.line1, self.line1_tail, self.line1_head]
for l in lines:
l.set_data([], [])
return
def addData(self, value):
self.addedData.append(value)
return
def zoomIn(self, value):
bottom = self.ax1.get_ylim()[0]
top = self.ax1.get_ylim()[1]
bottom += value
top -= value
self.ax1.set_ylim(bottom,top)
self.draw()
return
def _step(self, *args):
# Extends the _step() method for the TimedAnimation class.
try:
TimedAnimation._step(self, *args)
except Exception as e:
self.abc += 1
print(str(self.abc))
TimedAnimation._stop(self)
pass
return
def _draw_frame(self, framedata):
margin = 2
while(len(self.addedData) > 0):
self.y = np.roll(self.y, -1)
self.y[-1] = self.addedData[0]
del(self.addedData[0])
self.line1.set_data(self.n[ 0 : self.n.size - margin ], self.y[ 0 : self.n.size - margin ])
self.line1_tail.set_data(np.append(self.n[-10:-1 - margin], self.n[-1 - margin]), np.append(self.y[-10:-1 - margin], self.y[-1 - margin]))
self.line1_head.set_data(self.n[-1 - margin], self.y[-1 - margin])
self._drawn_artists = [self.line1, self.line1_tail, self.line1_head]
return
''' End Class '''
# You need to setup a signal slot mechanism, to
# send data to your GUI in a thread-safe way.
# Believe me, if you don't do this right, things
# go very very wrong..
class Communicate(QObject):
data_signal = pyqtSignal(float)
''' End Class '''
def dataSendLoop(addData_callbackFunc):
# Setup the signal-slot mechanism.
mySrc = Communicate()
mySrc.data_signal.connect(addData_callbackFunc)
# Simulate some data
n = np.linspace(0, 499, 500)
y = 50 + 25*(np.sin(n / 8.3)) + 10*(np.sin(n / 7.5)) - 5*(np.sin(n / 1.5))
i = 0
while(True):
if(i > 499):
i = 0
time.sleep(0.1)
#mySrc.data_signal.emit(y[i]) # <- Here you emit a signal!
mySrc.data_signal.emit(psutil.cpu_percent())
i += 1
###
###
if __name__== '__main__':
app = QApplication(sys.argv)
QApplication.setStyle(QStyleFactory.create('Plastique'))
myGUI = CustomMainWindow()
sys.exit(app.exec_())

Python script stops when running plt.show of matplotlib.pyplot [duplicate]

I am trying to plot some data from a camera in real time using OpenCV. However, the real-time plotting (using matplotlib) doesn't seem to be working.
I've isolated the problem into this simple example:
fig = plt.figure()
plt.axis([0, 1000, 0, 1])
i = 0
x = list()
y = list()
while i < 1000:
temp_y = np.random.random()
x.append(i)
y.append(temp_y)
plt.scatter(i, temp_y)
i += 1
plt.show()
I would expect this example to plot 1000 points individually. What actually happens is that the window pops up with the first point showing (ok with that), then waits for the loop to finish before it populates the rest of the graph.
Any thoughts why I am not seeing points populated one at a time?

Here's the working version of the code in question (requires at least version Matplotlib 1.1.0 from 2011-11-14):
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
plt.axis([0, 10, 0, 1])
for i in range(10):
y = np.random.random()
plt.scatter(i, y)
plt.pause(0.05)
plt.show()
Note the call to plt.pause(0.05), which both draws the new data and runs the GUI's event loop (allowing for mouse interaction).

If you're interested in realtime plotting, I'd recommend looking into matplotlib's animation API. In particular, using blit to avoid redrawing the background on every frame can give you substantial speed gains (~10x):
#!/usr/bin/env python
import numpy as np
import time
import matplotlib
matplotlib.use('GTKAgg')
from matplotlib import pyplot as plt
def randomwalk(dims=(256, 256), n=20, sigma=5, alpha=0.95, seed=1):
""" A simple random walk with memory """
r, c = dims
gen = np.random.RandomState(seed)
pos = gen.rand(2, n) * ((r,), (c,))
old_delta = gen.randn(2, n) * sigma
while True:
delta = (1. - alpha) * gen.randn(2, n) * sigma + alpha * old_delta
pos += delta
for ii in xrange(n):
if not (0. <= pos[0, ii] < r):
pos[0, ii] = abs(pos[0, ii] % r)
if not (0. <= pos[1, ii] < c):
pos[1, ii] = abs(pos[1, ii] % c)
old_delta = delta
yield pos
def run(niter=1000, doblit=True):
"""
Display the simulation using matplotlib, optionally using blit for speed
"""
fig, ax = plt.subplots(1, 1)
ax.set_aspect('equal')
ax.set_xlim(0, 255)
ax.set_ylim(0, 255)
ax.hold(True)
rw = randomwalk()
x, y = rw.next()
plt.show(False)
plt.draw()
if doblit:
# cache the background
background = fig.canvas.copy_from_bbox(ax.bbox)
points = ax.plot(x, y, 'o')[0]
tic = time.time()
for ii in xrange(niter):
# update the xy data
x, y = rw.next()
points.set_data(x, y)
if doblit:
# restore background
fig.canvas.restore_region(background)
# redraw just the points
ax.draw_artist(points)
# fill in the axes rectangle
fig.canvas.blit(ax.bbox)
else:
# redraw everything
fig.canvas.draw()
plt.close(fig)
print "Blit = %s, average FPS: %.2f" % (
str(doblit), niter / (time.time() - tic))
if __name__ == '__main__':
run(doblit=False)
run(doblit=True)
Output:
Blit = False, average FPS: 54.37
Blit = True, average FPS: 438.27

I know I'm a bit late to answer this question. Nevertheless, I've made some code a while ago to plot live graphs, that I would like to share:
Code for PyQt4:
###################################################################
# #
# PLOT A LIVE GRAPH (PyQt4) #
# ----------------------------- #
# EMBED A MATPLOTLIB ANIMATION INSIDE YOUR #
# OWN GUI! #
# #
###################################################################
import sys
import os
from PyQt4 import QtGui
from PyQt4 import QtCore
import functools
import numpy as np
import random as rd
import matplotlib
matplotlib.use("Qt4Agg")
from matplotlib.figure import Figure
from matplotlib.animation import TimedAnimation
from matplotlib.lines import Line2D
from matplotlib.backends.backend_qt4agg import FigureCanvasQTAgg as FigureCanvas
import time
import threading
def setCustomSize(x, width, height):
sizePolicy = QtGui.QSizePolicy(QtGui.QSizePolicy.Fixed, QtGui.QSizePolicy.Fixed)
sizePolicy.setHorizontalStretch(0)
sizePolicy.setVerticalStretch(0)
sizePolicy.setHeightForWidth(x.sizePolicy().hasHeightForWidth())
x.setSizePolicy(sizePolicy)
x.setMinimumSize(QtCore.QSize(width, height))
x.setMaximumSize(QtCore.QSize(width, height))
''''''
class CustomMainWindow(QtGui.QMainWindow):
def __init__(self):
super(CustomMainWindow, self).__init__()
# Define the geometry of the main window
self.setGeometry(300, 300, 800, 400)
self.setWindowTitle("my first window")
# Create FRAME_A
self.FRAME_A = QtGui.QFrame(self)
self.FRAME_A.setStyleSheet("QWidget { background-color: %s }" % QtGui.QColor(210,210,235,255).name())
self.LAYOUT_A = QtGui.QGridLayout()
self.FRAME_A.setLayout(self.LAYOUT_A)
self.setCentralWidget(self.FRAME_A)
# Place the zoom button
self.zoomBtn = QtGui.QPushButton(text = 'zoom')
setCustomSize(self.zoomBtn, 100, 50)
self.zoomBtn.clicked.connect(self.zoomBtnAction)
self.LAYOUT_A.addWidget(self.zoomBtn, *(0,0))
# Place the matplotlib figure
self.myFig = CustomFigCanvas()
self.LAYOUT_A.addWidget(self.myFig, *(0,1))
# Add the callbackfunc to ..
myDataLoop = threading.Thread(name = 'myDataLoop', target = dataSendLoop, daemon = True, args = (self.addData_callbackFunc,))
myDataLoop.start()
self.show()
''''''
def zoomBtnAction(self):
print("zoom in")
self.myFig.zoomIn(5)
''''''
def addData_callbackFunc(self, value):
# print("Add data: " + str(value))
self.myFig.addData(value)
''' End Class '''
class CustomFigCanvas(FigureCanvas, TimedAnimation):
def __init__(self):
self.addedData = []
print(matplotlib.__version__)
# The data
self.xlim = 200
self.n = np.linspace(0, self.xlim - 1, self.xlim)
a = []
b = []
a.append(2.0)
a.append(4.0)
a.append(2.0)
b.append(4.0)
b.append(3.0)
b.append(4.0)
self.y = (self.n * 0.0) + 50
# The window
self.fig = Figure(figsize=(5,5), dpi=100)
self.ax1 = self.fig.add_subplot(111)
# self.ax1 settings
self.ax1.set_xlabel('time')
self.ax1.set_ylabel('raw data')
self.line1 = Line2D([], [], color='blue')
self.line1_tail = Line2D([], [], color='red', linewidth=2)
self.line1_head = Line2D([], [], color='red', marker='o', markeredgecolor='r')
self.ax1.add_line(self.line1)
self.ax1.add_line(self.line1_tail)
self.ax1.add_line(self.line1_head)
self.ax1.set_xlim(0, self.xlim - 1)
self.ax1.set_ylim(0, 100)
FigureCanvas.__init__(self, self.fig)
TimedAnimation.__init__(self, self.fig, interval = 50, blit = True)
def new_frame_seq(self):
return iter(range(self.n.size))
def _init_draw(self):
lines = [self.line1, self.line1_tail, self.line1_head]
for l in lines:
l.set_data([], [])
def addData(self, value):
self.addedData.append(value)
def zoomIn(self, value):
bottom = self.ax1.get_ylim()[0]
top = self.ax1.get_ylim()[1]
bottom += value
top -= value
self.ax1.set_ylim(bottom,top)
self.draw()
def _step(self, *args):
# Extends the _step() method for the TimedAnimation class.
try:
TimedAnimation._step(self, *args)
except Exception as e:
self.abc += 1
print(str(self.abc))
TimedAnimation._stop(self)
pass
def _draw_frame(self, framedata):
margin = 2
while(len(self.addedData) > 0):
self.y = np.roll(self.y, -1)
self.y[-1] = self.addedData[0]
del(self.addedData[0])
self.line1.set_data(self.n[ 0 : self.n.size - margin ], self.y[ 0 : self.n.size - margin ])
self.line1_tail.set_data(np.append(self.n[-10:-1 - margin], self.n[-1 - margin]), np.append(self.y[-10:-1 - margin], self.y[-1 - margin]))
self.line1_head.set_data(self.n[-1 - margin], self.y[-1 - margin])
self._drawn_artists = [self.line1, self.line1_tail, self.line1_head]
''' End Class '''
# You need to setup a signal slot mechanism, to
# send data to your GUI in a thread-safe way.
# Believe me, if you don't do this right, things
# go very very wrong..
class Communicate(QtCore.QObject):
data_signal = QtCore.pyqtSignal(float)
''' End Class '''
def dataSendLoop(addData_callbackFunc):
# Setup the signal-slot mechanism.
mySrc = Communicate()
mySrc.data_signal.connect(addData_callbackFunc)
# Simulate some data
n = np.linspace(0, 499, 500)
y = 50 + 25*(np.sin(n / 8.3)) + 10*(np.sin(n / 7.5)) - 5*(np.sin(n / 1.5))
i = 0
while(True):
if(i > 499):
i = 0
time.sleep(0.1)
mySrc.data_signal.emit(y[i]) # <- Here you emit a signal!
i += 1
###
###
if __name__== '__main__':
app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
QtGui.QApplication.setStyle(QtGui.QStyleFactory.create('Plastique'))
myGUI = CustomMainWindow()
sys.exit(app.exec_())
''''''
I recently rewrote the code for PyQt5.
Code for PyQt5:
###################################################################
# #
# PLOT A LIVE GRAPH (PyQt5) #
# ----------------------------- #
# EMBED A MATPLOTLIB ANIMATION INSIDE YOUR #
# OWN GUI! #
# #
###################################################################
import sys
import os
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import *
from PyQt5.QtCore import *
from PyQt5.QtGui import *
import functools
import numpy as np
import random as rd
import matplotlib
matplotlib.use("Qt5Agg")
from matplotlib.figure import Figure
from matplotlib.animation import TimedAnimation
from matplotlib.lines import Line2D
from matplotlib.backends.backend_qt5agg import FigureCanvasQTAgg as FigureCanvas
import time
import threading
class CustomMainWindow(QMainWindow):
def __init__(self):
super(CustomMainWindow, self).__init__()
# Define the geometry of the main window
self.setGeometry(300, 300, 800, 400)
self.setWindowTitle("my first window")
# Create FRAME_A
self.FRAME_A = QFrame(self)
self.FRAME_A.setStyleSheet("QWidget { background-color: %s }" % QColor(210,210,235,255).name())
self.LAYOUT_A = QGridLayout()
self.FRAME_A.setLayout(self.LAYOUT_A)
self.setCentralWidget(self.FRAME_A)
# Place the zoom button
self.zoomBtn = QPushButton(text = 'zoom')
self.zoomBtn.setFixedSize(100, 50)
self.zoomBtn.clicked.connect(self.zoomBtnAction)
self.LAYOUT_A.addWidget(self.zoomBtn, *(0,0))
# Place the matplotlib figure
self.myFig = CustomFigCanvas()
self.LAYOUT_A.addWidget(self.myFig, *(0,1))
# Add the callbackfunc to ..
myDataLoop = threading.Thread(name = 'myDataLoop', target = dataSendLoop, daemon = True, args = (self.addData_callbackFunc,))
myDataLoop.start()
self.show()
return
def zoomBtnAction(self):
print("zoom in")
self.myFig.zoomIn(5)
return
def addData_callbackFunc(self, value):
# print("Add data: " + str(value))
self.myFig.addData(value)
return
''' End Class '''
class CustomFigCanvas(FigureCanvas, TimedAnimation):
def __init__(self):
self.addedData = []
print(matplotlib.__version__)
# The data
self.xlim = 200
self.n = np.linspace(0, self.xlim - 1, self.xlim)
a = []
b = []
a.append(2.0)
a.append(4.0)
a.append(2.0)
b.append(4.0)
b.append(3.0)
b.append(4.0)
self.y = (self.n * 0.0) + 50
# The window
self.fig = Figure(figsize=(5,5), dpi=100)
self.ax1 = self.fig.add_subplot(111)
# self.ax1 settings
self.ax1.set_xlabel('time')
self.ax1.set_ylabel('raw data')
self.line1 = Line2D([], [], color='blue')
self.line1_tail = Line2D([], [], color='red', linewidth=2)
self.line1_head = Line2D([], [], color='red', marker='o', markeredgecolor='r')
self.ax1.add_line(self.line1)
self.ax1.add_line(self.line1_tail)
self.ax1.add_line(self.line1_head)
self.ax1.set_xlim(0, self.xlim - 1)
self.ax1.set_ylim(0, 100)
FigureCanvas.__init__(self, self.fig)
TimedAnimation.__init__(self, self.fig, interval = 50, blit = True)
return
def new_frame_seq(self):
return iter(range(self.n.size))
def _init_draw(self):
lines = [self.line1, self.line1_tail, self.line1_head]
for l in lines:
l.set_data([], [])
return
def addData(self, value):
self.addedData.append(value)
return
def zoomIn(self, value):
bottom = self.ax1.get_ylim()[0]
top = self.ax1.get_ylim()[1]
bottom += value
top -= value
self.ax1.set_ylim(bottom,top)
self.draw()
return
def _step(self, *args):
# Extends the _step() method for the TimedAnimation class.
try:
TimedAnimation._step(self, *args)
except Exception as e:
self.abc += 1
print(str(self.abc))
TimedAnimation._stop(self)
pass
return
def _draw_frame(self, framedata):
margin = 2
while(len(self.addedData) > 0):
self.y = np.roll(self.y, -1)
self.y[-1] = self.addedData[0]
del(self.addedData[0])
self.line1.set_data(self.n[ 0 : self.n.size - margin ], self.y[ 0 : self.n.size - margin ])
self.line1_tail.set_data(np.append(self.n[-10:-1 - margin], self.n[-1 - margin]), np.append(self.y[-10:-1 - margin], self.y[-1 - margin]))
self.line1_head.set_data(self.n[-1 - margin], self.y[-1 - margin])
self._drawn_artists = [self.line1, self.line1_tail, self.line1_head]
return
''' End Class '''
# You need to setup a signal slot mechanism, to
# send data to your GUI in a thread-safe way.
# Believe me, if you don't do this right, things
# go very very wrong..
class Communicate(QObject):
data_signal = pyqtSignal(float)
''' End Class '''
def dataSendLoop(addData_callbackFunc):
# Setup the signal-slot mechanism.
mySrc = Communicate()
mySrc.data_signal.connect(addData_callbackFunc)
# Simulate some data
n = np.linspace(0, 499, 500)
y = 50 + 25*(np.sin(n / 8.3)) + 10*(np.sin(n / 7.5)) - 5*(np.sin(n / 1.5))
i = 0
while(True):
if(i > 499):
i = 0
time.sleep(0.1)
mySrc.data_signal.emit(y[i]) # <- Here you emit a signal!
i += 1
###
###
if __name__== '__main__':
app = QApplication(sys.argv)
QApplication.setStyle(QStyleFactory.create('Plastique'))
myGUI = CustomMainWindow()
sys.exit(app.exec_())
Just try it out. Copy-paste this code in a new python-file, and run it. You should get a beautiful, smoothly moving graph:

The top (and many other) answers were built upon plt.pause(), but that was an old way of animating the plot in matplotlib. It is not only slow, but also causes focus to be grabbed upon each update (I had a hard time stopping the plotting python process).
TL;DR: you may want to use matplotlib.animation (as mentioned in documentation).
After digging around various answers and pieces of code, this in fact proved to be a smooth way of drawing incoming data infinitely for me.
Here is my code for a quick start. It plots current time with a random number in [0, 100) every 200ms infinitely, while also handling auto rescaling of the view:
from datetime import datetime
from matplotlib import pyplot
from matplotlib.animation import FuncAnimation
from random import randrange
x_data, y_data = [], []
figure = pyplot.figure()
line, = pyplot.plot_date(x_data, y_data, '-')
def update(frame):
x_data.append(datetime.now())
y_data.append(randrange(0, 100))
line.set_data(x_data, y_data)
figure.gca().relim()
figure.gca().autoscale_view()
return line,
animation = FuncAnimation(figure, update, interval=200)
pyplot.show()
You can also explore blit for even better performance as in FuncAnimation documentation.
An example from the blit documentation:
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from matplotlib.animation import FuncAnimation
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
xdata, ydata = [], []
ln, = plt.plot([], [], 'ro')
def init():
ax.set_xlim(0, 2*np.pi)
ax.set_ylim(-1, 1)
return ln,
def update(frame):
xdata.append(frame)
ydata.append(np.sin(frame))
ln.set_data(xdata, ydata)
return ln,
ani = FuncAnimation(fig, update, frames=np.linspace(0, 2*np.pi, 128),
init_func=init, blit=True)
plt.show()

None of the methods worked for me.
But I have found this
Real time matplotlib plot is not working while still in a loop
All you need is to add
plt.pause(0.0001)
and then you could see the new plots.
So your code should look like this, and it will work
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
plt.ion() ## Note this correction
fig=plt.figure()
plt.axis([0,1000,0,1])
i=0
x=list()
y=list()
while i <1000:
temp_y=np.random.random();
x.append(i);
y.append(temp_y);
plt.scatter(i,temp_y);
i+=1;
plt.show()
plt.pause(0.0001) #Note this correction

show is probably not the best choice for this. What I would do is use pyplot.draw() instead. You also might want to include a small time delay (e.g., time.sleep(0.05)) in the loop so that you can see the plots happening. If I make these changes to your example it works for me and I see each point appearing one at a time.

I know this question is old, but there's now a package available called drawnow on GitHub as "python-drawnow". This provides an interface similar to MATLAB's drawnow -- you can easily update a figure.
An example for your use case:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from drawnow import drawnow
def make_fig():
plt.scatter(x, y) # I think you meant this
plt.ion() # enable interactivity
fig = plt.figure() # make a figure
x = list()
y = list()
for i in range(1000):
temp_y = np.random.random()
x.append(i)
y.append(temp_y) # or any arbitrary update to your figure's data
i += 1
drawnow(make_fig)
python-drawnow is a thin wrapper around plt.draw but provides the ability to confirm (or debug) after figure display.

Another option is to go with bokeh. IMO, it is a good alternative at least for real-time plots. Here is a bokeh version of the code in the question:
from bokeh.plotting import curdoc, figure
import random
import time
def update():
global i
temp_y = random.random()
r.data_source.stream({'x': [i], 'y': [temp_y]})
i += 1
i = 0
p = figure()
r = p.circle([], [])
curdoc().add_root(p)
curdoc().add_periodic_callback(update, 100)
and for running it:
pip3 install bokeh
bokeh serve --show test.py
bokeh shows the result in a web browser via websocket communications. It is especially useful when data is generated by remote headless server processes.

An example use-case to plot CPU usage in real-time.
import time
import psutil
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111)
i = 0
x, y = [], []
while True:
x.append(i)
y.append(psutil.cpu_percent())
ax.plot(x, y, color='b')
fig.canvas.draw()
ax.set_xlim(left=max(0, i - 50), right=i + 50)
fig.show()
plt.pause(0.05)
i += 1

The problem seems to be that you expect plt.show() to show the window and then to return. It does not do that. The program will stop at that point and only resume once you close the window. You should be able to test that: If you close the window and then another window should pop up.
To resolve that problem just call plt.show() once after your loop. Then you get the complete plot. (But not a 'real-time plotting')
You can try setting the keyword-argument block like this: plt.show(block=False) once at the beginning and then use .draw() to update.

Here is a version that I got to work on my system.
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from drawnow import drawnow
import numpy as np
def makeFig():
plt.scatter(xList,yList) # I think you meant this
plt.ion() # enable interactivity
fig=plt.figure() # make a figure
xList=list()
yList=list()
for i in np.arange(50):
y=np.random.random()
xList.append(i)
yList.append(y)
drawnow(makeFig)
#makeFig() The drawnow(makeFig) command can be replaced
#plt.draw() with makeFig(); plt.draw()
plt.pause(0.001)
The drawnow(makeFig) line can be replaced with a makeFig(); plt.draw() sequence and it still works OK.

If you want draw and not freeze your thread as more point are drawn you should use plt.pause() not time.sleep()
im using the following code to plot a series of xy coordinates.
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import math
pi = 3.14159
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
x = []
y = []
def PointsInCircum(r,n=20):
circle = [(math.cos(2*pi/n*x)*r,math.sin(2*pi/n*x)*r) for x in xrange(0,n+1)]
return circle
circle_list = PointsInCircum(3, 50)
for t in range(len(circle_list)):
if t == 0:
points, = ax.plot(x, y, marker='o', linestyle='--')
ax.set_xlim(-4, 4)
ax.set_ylim(-4, 4)
else:
x_coord, y_coord = circle_list.pop()
x.append(x_coord)
y.append(y_coord)
points.set_data(x, y)
plt.pause(0.01)

This is the right way to plot Dynamic real-time matplot plots animation using while loop
There is a medium article on that too:
pip install celluloid # this will capture the image/animation
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
from celluloid import Camera # getting the camera
import matplotlib.animation as animation
from IPython import display
import time
from IPython.display import HTML
import warnings
%matplotlib notebook
warnings.filterwarnings('ignore')
warnings.simplefilter('ignore')
fig = plt.figure() #Empty fig object
ax = fig.add_subplot() #Empty axis object
camera = Camera(fig) # Camera object to capture the snap
def f(x):
''' function to create a sine wave'''
return np.sin(x) + np.random.normal(scale=0.1, size=len(x))
l = []
while True:
value = np.random.randint(9) #random number generator
l.append(value) # appneds each time number is generated
X = np.linspace(10, len(l)) # creates a line space for x axis, Equal to the length of l
for i in range(10): #plots 10 such lines
plt.plot(X, f(X))
fig.show() #shows the figure object
fig.canvas.draw()
camera.snap() # camera object to capture teh animation
time.sleep(1)
And for saving etc:
animation = camera.animate(interval = 200, repeat = True, repeat_delay = 500)
HTML(animation.to_html5_video())
animation.save('abc.mp4') # to save
output is:

Live plot with circular buffer with line style retained:
import os
import time
import psutil
import collections
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
pts_n = 100
x = collections.deque(maxlen=pts_n)
y = collections.deque(maxlen=pts_n)
(line, ) = plt.plot(x, y, linestyle="--")
my_process = psutil.Process(os.getpid())
t_start = time.time()
while True:
x.append(time.time() - t_start)
y.append(my_process.cpu_percent())
line.set_xdata(x)
line.set_ydata(y)
plt.gca().relim()
plt.gca().autoscale_view()
plt.pause(0.1)

Live graph in matplotlib prevents Python to shutdown

Long time ago I designed a little PyQt Gui that plots a live graph. A sensor signal enters the computer, and that signal gets plotted by my Gui in real-time.
Back then I worked with PyQt4 and matplotlib 1.5. Here is the code that generates such live graph (the sensor signal is emulated). Just copy-paste this code into a python file. Run it, and you will see nice dancing graphs:
###################################################################
# #
# PLOTTING A LIVE GRAPH #
# ---------------------------- #
# EMBED A MATPLOTLIB ANIMATION INSIDE YOUR #
# OWN GUI! #
# -> Python 3.5.x #
# -> matplotlib: 1.5 #
# -> PyQt: 4 #
# #
###################################################################
import sys
import os
from PyQt4 import QtGui
from PyQt4 import QtCore
import functools
import numpy as np
import random as rd
import matplotlib
matplotlib.use("Qt4Agg")
from matplotlib.figure import Figure
from matplotlib.animation import TimedAnimation
from matplotlib.lines import Line2D
from matplotlib.backends.backend_qt4agg import FigureCanvasQTAgg as FigureCanvas
import time
import threading
def setCustomSize(x, width, height):
sizePolicy = QtGui.QSizePolicy(QtGui.QSizePolicy.Fixed, QtGui.QSizePolicy.Fixed)
sizePolicy.setHorizontalStretch(0)
sizePolicy.setVerticalStretch(0)
sizePolicy.setHeightForWidth(x.sizePolicy().hasHeightForWidth())
x.setSizePolicy(sizePolicy)
x.setMinimumSize(QtCore.QSize(width, height))
x.setMaximumSize(QtCore.QSize(width, height))
''''''
class CustomMainWindow(QtGui.QMainWindow):
def __init__(self):
super(CustomMainWindow, self).__init__()
# Define the geometry of the main window
self.setGeometry(300, 300, 800, 400)
self.setWindowTitle("my first window")
# Create FRAME_A
self.FRAME_A = QtGui.QFrame(self)
self.FRAME_A.setStyleSheet("QWidget { background-color: %s }" % QtGui.QColor(210,210,235,255).name())
self.LAYOUT_A = QtGui.QGridLayout()
self.FRAME_A.setLayout(self.LAYOUT_A)
self.setCentralWidget(self.FRAME_A)
# Place the zoom button
self.zoomBtn = QtGui.QPushButton(text = 'zoom')
setCustomSize(self.zoomBtn, 100, 50)
self.zoomBtn.clicked.connect(self.zoomBtnAction)
self.LAYOUT_A.addWidget(self.zoomBtn, *(0,0))
# Place the matplotlib figure
self.myFig = CustomFigCanvas()
self.LAYOUT_A.addWidget(self.myFig, *(0,1))
# Add the callbackfunc to ..
myDataLoop = threading.Thread(name = 'myDataLoop', target = dataSendLoop, args = (self.addData_callbackFunc,))
myDataLoop.start()
self.show()
''''''
def zoomBtnAction(self):
print("zoom in")
self.myFig.zoomIn(5)
''''''
def addData_callbackFunc(self, value):
# print("Add data: " + str(value))
self.myFig.addData(value)
''' End Class '''
class CustomFigCanvas(FigureCanvas, TimedAnimation):
def __init__(self):
self.addedData = []
print(matplotlib.__version__)
# The data
self.xlim = 200
self.n = np.linspace(0, self.xlim - 1, self.xlim)
a = []
b = []
a.append(2.0)
a.append(4.0)
a.append(2.0)
b.append(4.0)
b.append(3.0)
b.append(4.0)
self.y = (self.n * 0.0) + 50
# The window
self.fig = Figure(figsize=(5,5), dpi=100)
self.ax1 = self.fig.add_subplot(111)
# self.ax1 settings
self.ax1.set_xlabel('time')
self.ax1.set_ylabel('raw data')
self.line1 = Line2D([], [], color='blue')
self.line1_tail = Line2D([], [], color='red', linewidth=2)
self.line1_head = Line2D([], [], color='red', marker='o', markeredgecolor='r')
self.ax1.add_line(self.line1)
self.ax1.add_line(self.line1_tail)
self.ax1.add_line(self.line1_head)
self.ax1.set_xlim(0, self.xlim - 1)
self.ax1.set_ylim(0, 100)
FigureCanvas.__init__(self, self.fig)
TimedAnimation.__init__(self, self.fig, interval = 50, blit = True)
def new_frame_seq(self):
return iter(range(self.n.size))
def _init_draw(self):
lines = [self.line1, self.line1_tail, self.line1_head]
for l in lines:
l.set_data([], [])
def addData(self, value):
self.addedData.append(value)
def zoomIn(self, value):
bottom = self.ax1.get_ylim()[0]
top = self.ax1.get_ylim()[1]
bottom += value
top -= value
self.ax1.set_ylim(bottom,top)
self.draw()
def _step(self, *args):
# Extends the _step() method for the TimedAnimation class.
try:
TimedAnimation._step(self, *args)
except Exception as e:
self.abc += 1
print(str(self.abc))
TimedAnimation._stop(self)
pass
def _draw_frame(self, framedata):
margin = 2
while(len(self.addedData) > 0):
self.y = np.roll(self.y, -1)
self.y[-1] = self.addedData[0]
del(self.addedData[0])
self.line1.set_data(self.n[ 0 : self.n.size - margin ], self.y[ 0 : self.n.size - margin ])
self.line1_tail.set_data(np.append(self.n[-10:-1 - margin], self.n[-1 - margin]), np.append(self.y[-10:-1 - margin], self.y[-1 - margin]))
self.line1_head.set_data(self.n[-1 - margin], self.y[-1 - margin])
self._drawn_artists = [self.line1, self.line1_tail, self.line1_head]
''' End Class '''
# You need to setup a signal slot mechanism, to
# send data to your GUI in a thread-safe way.
# Believe me, if you don't do this right, things
# go very very wrong..
class Communicate(QtCore.QObject):
data_signal = QtCore.pyqtSignal(float)
''' End Class '''
def dataSendLoop(addData_callbackFunc):
# Setup the signal-slot mechanism.
mySrc = Communicate()
mySrc.data_signal.connect(addData_callbackFunc)
# Simulate some data
n = np.linspace(0, 499, 500)
y = 50 + 25*(np.sin(n / 8.3)) + 10*(np.sin(n / 7.5)) - 5*(np.sin(n / 1.5))
i = 0
while(True):
if(i > 499):
i = 0
time.sleep(0.1)
mySrc.data_signal.emit(y[i]) # <- Here you emit a signal!
i += 1
###
###
if __name__== '__main__':
app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
QtGui.QApplication.setStyle(QtGui.QStyleFactory.create('Plastique'))
myGUI = CustomMainWindow()
sys.exit(app.exec_())
''''''
Recently I had to switch to matplotlib 2.0.0b4. Earlier versions of matplotlib are not compatible with PyQt5. I want to plug a live graph into an existing PyQt5 application. So I had to switch to matplotlib 2.0.0b4.
Here is the adapted code:
###################################################################
# #
# PLOTTING A LIVE GRAPH #
# ---------------------------- #
# EMBED A MATPLOTLIB ANIMATION INSIDE YOUR #
# OWN GUI! #
# -> Python 3.5.2 #
# -> matplotlib: 2.0.0b4 #
# -> PyQt: 5 #
# #
###################################################################
import sys
import os
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import *
from PyQt5.QtGui import *
from PyQt5.QtCore import *
import functools
import numpy as np
import random as rd
import matplotlib
matplotlib.use("Qt5Agg")
from matplotlib.figure import Figure
from matplotlib.animation import TimedAnimation
from matplotlib.lines import Line2D
from matplotlib.backends.backend_qt5agg import FigureCanvasQTAgg as FigureCanvas
import time
import threading
def setCustomSize(x, width, height):
sizePolicy = QSizePolicy(QSizePolicy.Fixed, QSizePolicy.Fixed)
sizePolicy.setHorizontalStretch(0)
sizePolicy.setVerticalStretch(0)
sizePolicy.setHeightForWidth(x.sizePolicy().hasHeightForWidth())
x.setSizePolicy(sizePolicy)
x.setMinimumSize(QSize(width, height))
x.setMaximumSize(QSize(width, height))
''''''
class CustomMainWindow(QMainWindow):
def __init__(self):
super(CustomMainWindow, self).__init__()
# Define the geometry of the main window
self.setGeometry(300, 300, 800, 400)
self.setWindowTitle("my first window")
# Create FRAME_A
self.FRAME_A = QFrame(self)
self.FRAME_A.setStyleSheet("QWidget { background-color: %s }" % QColor(210,210,235,255).name())
self.LAYOUT_A = QGridLayout()
self.FRAME_A.setLayout(self.LAYOUT_A)
self.setCentralWidget(self.FRAME_A)
# Place the zoom button
self.zoomBtn = QPushButton(text = 'zoom')
setCustomSize(self.zoomBtn, 100, 50)
self.zoomBtn.clicked.connect(self.zoomBtnAction)
self.LAYOUT_A.addWidget(self.zoomBtn, *(0,0))
# Place the matplotlib figure
self.myFig = CustomFigCanvas()
self.LAYOUT_A.addWidget(self.myFig, *(0,1))
# Add the callbackfunc to ..
myDataLoop = threading.Thread(name = 'myDataLoop', target = dataSendLoop, args = (self.addData_callbackFunc,))
myDataLoop.start()
self.show()
''''''
def zoomBtnAction(self):
print("zoom in")
self.myFig.zoomIn(5)
''''''
def addData_callbackFunc(self, value):
# print("Add data: " + str(value))
self.myFig.addData(value)
''' End Class '''
class CustomFigCanvas(FigureCanvas, TimedAnimation):
def __init__(self):
self.addedData = []
print(matplotlib.__version__)
# The data
self.xlim = 200
self.n = np.linspace(0, self.xlim - 1, self.xlim)
a = []
b = []
a.append(2.0)
a.append(4.0)
a.append(2.0)
b.append(4.0)
b.append(3.0)
b.append(4.0)
self.y = (self.n * 0.0) + 50
# The window
self.fig = Figure(figsize=(5,5), dpi=100)
self.ax1 = self.fig.add_subplot(111)
# self.ax1 settings
self.ax1.set_xlabel('time')
self.ax1.set_ylabel('raw data')
self.line1 = Line2D([], [], color='blue')
self.line1_tail = Line2D([], [], color='red', linewidth=2)
self.line1_head = Line2D([], [], color='red', marker='o', markeredgecolor='r')
self.ax1.add_line(self.line1)
self.ax1.add_line(self.line1_tail)
self.ax1.add_line(self.line1_head)
self.ax1.set_xlim(0, self.xlim - 1)
self.ax1.set_ylim(0, 100)
FigureCanvas.__init__(self, self.fig)
TimedAnimation.__init__(self, self.fig, interval = 50, blit = True)
def new_frame_seq(self):
return iter(range(self.n.size))
def _init_draw(self):
lines = [self.line1, self.line1_tail, self.line1_head]
for l in lines:
l.set_data([], [])
def addData(self, value):
self.addedData.append(value)
def zoomIn(self, value):
bottom = self.ax1.get_ylim()[0]
top = self.ax1.get_ylim()[1]
bottom += value
top -= value
self.ax1.set_ylim(bottom,top)
self.draw()
def _step(self, *args):
# Extends the _step() method for the TimedAnimation class.
try:
TimedAnimation._step(self, *args)
except Exception as e:
self.abc += 1
print(str(self.abc))
TimedAnimation._stop(self)
pass
def _draw_frame(self, framedata):
margin = 2
while(len(self.addedData) > 0):
self.y = np.roll(self.y, -1)
self.y[-1] = self.addedData[0]
del(self.addedData[0])
self.line1.set_data(self.n[ 0 : self.n.size - margin ], self.y[ 0 : self.n.size - margin ])
self.line1_tail.set_data(np.append(self.n[-10:-1 - margin], self.n[-1 - margin]), np.append(self.y[-10:-1 - margin], self.y[-1 - margin]))
self.line1_head.set_data(self.n[-1 - margin], self.y[-1 - margin])
self._drawn_artists = [self.line1, self.line1_tail, self.line1_head]
''' End Class '''
# You need to setup a signal slot mechanism, to
# send data to your GUI in a thread-safe way.
# Believe me, if you don't do this right, things
# go very very wrong..
class Communicate(QObject):
data_signal = pyqtSignal(float)
''' End Class '''
def dataSendLoop(addData_callbackFunc):
# Setup the signal-slot mechanism.
mySrc = Communicate()
mySrc.data_signal.connect(addData_callbackFunc)
# Simulate some data
n = np.linspace(0, 499, 500)
y = 50 + 25*(np.sin(n / 8.3)) + 10*(np.sin(n / 7.5)) - 5*(np.sin(n / 1.5))
i = 0
while(True):
if(i > 499):
i = 0
time.sleep(0.1)
mySrc.data_signal.emit(y[i]) # <- Here you emit a signal!
i += 1
###
###
if __name__== '__main__':
app = QApplication(sys.argv)
QApplication.setStyle(QStyleFactory.create('Plastique'))
myGUI = CustomMainWindow()
sys.exit(app.exec_())
''''''
The code runs just fine. The animated graph is displayed on my screen, and it runs smoothly. But when I close the GUI, python won't exit. It just hangs. As I always start my python programs from a Windows cmd shell, I hit the Ctrl-C buttons to kill the process. But that doesn't help either. I have to close the cmd shell completely to kill the Python process.
EDIT :
Apparently matplotlib 1.5 is compatible with PyQt5 (thank you Mr. Tacaswell to point that out). My main reason to stick to matplotlib v2 was the use of PyQt5. This argument holds no longer, so I decided to downgrade matplotlib to 1.5. I did a clean re-installation of anaconda to go back to matplotlib 1.5.3, and wipe out all traces from matplotlib 2.0.0b. My system is now as follows:
OS: Windows 10 64-bit
python: 3.5.2 |Anaconda custom (64-bit)|
pyqt4:
Qt version: 4.8.7
SIP version: 4.18.1
PyQt version: 4.11.4
pyqt5:
Qt version: 5.7.0
SIP version: 4.18.1
PyQt version: 5.7
matplotlib: 1.5.3
TEST 1: Live graph with matplotlib 1.5.3 and PyQt4
I just run the code that I've given above - based on PyQt4. The live graph plots smoothly. But closing down the GUI is not enough to entirely stop the python process. There is still some zombie process running on the background. I have to dive into the Windows Task manager to kill it. Only after doing that, the cmd shell prompts again for new input. So, the problem is still the same. I am a bit puzzled, because I do remember that this code worked just fine on matplotlib 1.5 and PyQt4.
TEST 2: Live graph with matplotlib 1.5.3 and PyQt5
I get exactly the same problem.

Apparently the problem is in the creation of the background thread:
myDataLoop = threading.Thread(name = ..., target = ..., args = ...)
To make sure that such background thread will terminate when the MainThread ends, you have to define it as daemon:
myDataLoop = threading.Thread(name = ..., daemon = True, target = ..., args = ...)
Now it closes down properly :-)

matplotlib figure zoom: ticklabels don't get updated (Python)

I design a software in Python to make live plots from microcontroller data. You can think of it as some kind of oscilloscope. I make use of the matplotlib library for drawing the plots, which I embed in a PyQt4 GUI. I implemented a zoombutton to zoom in on the figure (the zoom has only impact on the y limits):
Unfortunately, the yticklabels don't get updated. I have tried several things (like calling the repaint() function on the proper QWidget), but to no avail. So I decided to turn to StackOverflow for your help. Below you can find a code sample that singles out the problem. The data is simulated, so you don't need to connect a microcontroller. Normally you should be able to copy/paste this sample, and run it without issues. Click a few times on the zoom button, and you'll notice my problem.
import sys
import os
from PyQt4 import QtGui
from PyQt4 import QtCore
import functools
import numpy as np
import random as rd
import matplotlib
matplotlib.use("Qt4Agg")
from matplotlib.figure import Figure
from matplotlib.animation import TimedAnimation
from matplotlib.lines import Line2D
from matplotlib.backends.backend_qt4agg import FigureCanvasQTAgg as FigureCanvas
def setCustomSize(x, width, height):
sizePolicy = QtGui.QSizePolicy(QtGui.QSizePolicy.Fixed, QtGui.QSizePolicy.Fixed)
sizePolicy.setHorizontalStretch(0)
sizePolicy.setVerticalStretch(0)
sizePolicy.setHeightForWidth(x.sizePolicy().hasHeightForWidth())
x.setSizePolicy(sizePolicy)
x.setMinimumSize(QtCore.QSize(width, height))
x.setMaximumSize(QtCore.QSize(width, height))
''''''
class CustomMainWindow(QtGui.QMainWindow):
def __init__(self):
super(CustomMainWindow, self).__init__()
# Define the geometry of the main window
self.setGeometry(300, 300, 800, 400)
self.setWindowTitle("my first window")
# Create FRAME_A
self.FRAME_A = QtGui.QFrame(self)
self.FRAME_A.setStyleSheet("QWidget { background-color: %s }" % QtGui.QColor(210,210,235,255).name())
self.LAYOUT_A = QtGui.QGridLayout()
self.FRAME_A.setLayout(self.LAYOUT_A)
self.setCentralWidget(self.FRAME_A)
# Place the zoom button
self.zoomBtn = QtGui.QPushButton(text = 'zoom')
setCustomSize(self.zoomBtn, 100, 50)
self.zoomBtn.clicked.connect(self.zoomBtnAction)
self.LAYOUT_A.addWidget(self.zoomBtn, *(0,0))
# Place the matplotlib figure
self.myFig = CustomFigCanvas()
self.LAYOUT_A.addWidget(self.myFig, *(0,1))
self.show()
''''''
def zoomBtnAction(self):
print("zoom in")
self.myFig.zoomIn(5)
''''''
''' End Class '''
class CustomFigCanvas(FigureCanvas, TimedAnimation):
def __init__(self):
self.addedData = []
print(matplotlib.__version__)
# The data
self.xlim = 200
self.n = np.linspace(0, self.xlim - 1, self.xlim)
a = []
b = []
a.append(2.0)
a.append(4.0)
a.append(2.0)
b.append(4.0)
b.append(3.0)
b.append(4.0)
self.y = 50 + ((rd.random()*a[0] + 0.2)*np.sin(self.n/(b[0]*rd.random() + 0.2))) + ((rd.random()*a[1] + 0.1)*np.sin(self.n/(b[1]*rd.random() + 0.2))) + ((rd.random()*a[2] + 0.1)*np.sin(self.n/(b[2]*rd.random() + 0.2)))
# The window
self.fig = Figure(figsize=(5,5), dpi=100)
self.ax1 = self.fig.add_subplot(111)
# self.ax1 settings
self.ax1.set_xlabel('time')
self.ax1.set_ylabel('raw data')
self.line1 = Line2D([], [], color='blue')
self.line1_tail = Line2D([], [], color='red', linewidth=2)
self.line1_head = Line2D([], [], color='red', marker='o', markeredgecolor='r')
self.ax1.add_line(self.line1)
self.ax1.add_line(self.line1_tail)
self.ax1.add_line(self.line1_head)
self.ax1.set_xlim(0, self.xlim - 1)
self.ax1.set_ylim(0, 100)
FigureCanvas.__init__(self, self.fig)
TimedAnimation.__init__(self, self.fig, interval = 50, blit = True)
def _draw_frame(self, framedata):
margin = 2
while(len(self.addedData) > 0):
self.y = np.roll(self.y, -1)
self.y[-1] = self.addedData[0]
del(self.addedData[0])
self.line1.set_data(self.n[ 0 : self.n.size - margin ], self.y[ 0 : self.n.size - margin ])
self.line1_tail.set_data(np.append(self.n[-10:-1 - margin], self.n[-1 - margin]), np.append(self.y[-10:-1 - margin], self.y[-1 - margin]))
self.line1_head.set_data(self.n[-1 - margin], self.y[-1 - margin])
self._drawn_artists = [self.line1, self.line1_tail, self.line1_head]
def new_frame_seq(self):
return iter(range(self.n.size))
def _init_draw(self):
lines = [self.line1, self.line1_tail, self.line1_head]
for l in lines:
l.set_data([], [])
def addData(self, value):
self.addedData.append(value)
def zoomIn(self, value):
bottom = self.ax1.get_ylim()[0]
top = self.ax1.get_ylim()[1]
bottom += value
top -= value
self.ax1.set_ylim(bottom,top)
''' End Class '''
if __name__== '__main__':
app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
QtGui.QApplication.setStyle(QtGui.QStyleFactory.create('Plastique'))
myGUI = CustomMainWindow()
sys.exit(app.exec_())
''''''
Note: My system configuration is as follows:
Windows 10
Anaconda python package installed
PyQt4 library for the GUI
matplotlib library for the plots
Thank you so much for your help.

I believe I found the answer. The zoomIn function in the CustomFigCanvas() class should contain the instruction:
self.draw()
So the zoomIn function is as follows:
class CustomFigCanvas(FigureCanvas, TimedAnimation):
def __init__(self):
# ...
''''''
def zoomIn(self, value):
bottom = self.ax1.get_ylim()[0]
top = self.ax1.get_ylim()[1]
bottom += value
top -= value
self.ax1.set_ylim(bottom,top)
self.draw() # <- this is the solution
''''''
''' End Class '''
I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

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