Programmer's Reference > Sending data to DPlot from another application

Macro commands may be used either in macros or by sending the commands to DPlot via dynamic data exchange (DDE). Some commands are valid only in macros (noted by Macros Only). Commands sent to DPlot via DDE must be enclosed by square brackets [ ]. Macro commands should not include the brackets.

Command parameters shown in the descriptions below are placeholders for the actual values. Command parameters are either numeric values, equations that evaluate to numbers, or character strings. Character string parameters are always bound by double quotation marks. Equations must be preceded by an equals sign (=).

The pipe symbol (|) in the command syntax indicates that a parameter is optional, and should not be included in your macro unless otherwise noted.

All indices into arrays are 1-based, e.g. Curve1=1 refers to the first curve in a plot.

A 0x prefix for numbers in the descriptions below indicates hexadecimal notation; e.g. 0x0010 = 16.

JR/Viewer indicates that the command is supported by DPlot Jr or DPlot Viewer.
JR/Viewer indicates that the command is NOT supported by DPlot Jr or DPlot Viewer.

[OverlayDocument(docnum|,alpha|,maskcolor||)] or
[OverlayDocument("caption"|,alpha|,maskcolor||)]

JR Viewer

Allows you to overlay the active document with the document specified by its index (docnum form) or its "caption". This is useful for overlaying contour plots with x,y data and bar charts with line charts, for example. The optional alpha parameter controls the transparency of the overlay. alpha=0 is completely transparent (invisible, in other words); alpha=255 is opaque (no transparency).

The maskcolor argument specifies a color (red+green*256+blue*65536, or hex 0x00bbggrr - for example red=255, green=153, blue=0 is expressed as 0x0099FF) in the overlay that will not be drawn if alpha is between 0 and 255. This is useful for making opaque portions of the overlay transparent: in particular an opaque legend box or contour line labels with an opaque background. This feature does not work particularly well with anti-aliased lines and/or smoothed screen fonts, since you can only specify a single color. Antialiased lines and fonts are generally less of a problem with printed plots.

The axis labels, numbers along each axis, and the axes themselves in the overlay plot will not be drawn. Extents are forced to match those of the overlaid plot. The scale type of the overlay is switched to that of the overlaid plot, with the exception that you may overlay a bar chart with a standard linear X, linear Y plot and vice versa.

This feature is not intended for use with 3D views of 3D/4D data at this time, though DPlot will not prevent you from using it on those plot types.

NOTE: This is a new beta feature (and so has no equivalent menu command in this version). We strongly suggest that you save your work before using this command, as some combinations of plot types and/or scales may be unstable. Transparency may or may not work on printed plots, depending on the printer - if you find that to be the case then you can of course save the plot to a bitmap image, and print that image from your favorite image-editing program.

Page url: https://www.dplot.com/help/index.htm?overlaydocument_command.htm