Figures and plots to be able to learn how to create reports

Report

1. Formatting Figures
18
The core of your proposal

2. 19
Figures
Figuresaresomeofyourmost
powerfultoolsforcommunicatingwith
yourreader.
Bewaryofcomplicatedgraphicsthat
trytoexplaintoomuchinasingle
image.Ifittakesanewreaderlonger
than5-10secondstounderstandwhat
isgoingonintheimage,itisprobably
toocomplicated.
Use“actioncaptions”toexplainthe
relevanceoftheinformationandto
helpleadyouraudiencetothedesired
conclusion.
Conceptfiguresarekeytoattractthe
reader’sattention
Again, in LaTex:
https://www.overleaf.com/learn/latex/In
serting_Images
Nakka, Yashwanth Kumar, Wolfgang Hönig, ChangrakChoi, Alexei Harvard, Amir Rahmani, and Soon-Jo Chung.
"Information-based guidance and control architecture for multi-spacecraft on-orbit inspection."Journal of Guidance,
Control, and Dynamics45, no. 7 (2022): 1184-1201.

3. 20
Example Action Captions
Original:Conceptualrepresentationofthephotoelectrongenerationprocess
Revised:ByirradiatingatargetspacecraftwithanUVlaser,photoelectronsaregeneratedand
sensedfromaservicingspacecraft,hencedeterminingtheelectrostaticpotentialofthetarget
Original:Graphoftimeintervalswhensciencemeasurementsaretakenduringanaverageday
Revised:Bytakingmeasurementsthreetimesaday, OurAwesomeSpacecraftwillcollectthe
datarequiredtomeetthescienceobjectivesoutlinedinSectionX
Original:PlotoftransferfromEarthtoMars
Revised:ByusingaTypeIItransferfromEarthtoMarsduringthe2018opportunity,
OurAwesomeSpacecraftisabletodeliverthelargestpossiblesciencepayload

4. 21
Creating a Nice Figure!
Remove noise: make sure the reader focuses on what is important
Every element must have a function: remove unnecessary items from your plot!
Try to condense as much information as possible using a minimum number of
elements
Always use sans-serif fontslike arial for your figures and plots. Use serif fonts
for the text of your proposal (e.g.Times New Roman)
If you create a graphic or line plot, alwaysgo for high-resolution vectorial
images (Inkscape is a great software for this). Paint is forbidden!
Use jpg format for pictures (higher speed), pdf for graphics

5. 22
Example 1
Background noise removed by deleting unnecessary elements
The difference is significant!
BEFORE AFTER

6. 23
Example 2
Tons of information with a single figure

7. 24
Example 3
Simple figure, explains the setup, no unnecessary elements
Line drawing in Inkscape, infinite resolution, all variables are defined
Arial fonts

8. 25
Example 4
More examples of data condensation (top)
and line drawing (right)
Geometry is key!

9. 26
Example 5 (Fall 2022 LOTUS team)
Keep a consistent style throughout your proposal: colors, fonts, lines
Beauty is subjective, but a nice drawing will be critical to get your proposal funded!

10. Plots
27
No, Matlabis not a plotting software!

11. 28
Rules for Plotting
Style:
Use the elements you need, nothing else. Keep it simple!
Avoid boxes around your plot, double axes, weird colors, etc.
Avoid grid lines unless strictly necessary (e.g. loglog plot)
If experimental, use error bars: provide statistics!
Save plots in PDF format, don’t screenshot!
Add axes labels with units. Avoid figure titles
Be consistent throughout your document (e.g. x(m) vs x[m])
Fonts:
Use sans-serif fonts (e.g. Arial)
The font size in every text box must be the same as for the document
Colors:
Make a smart use of colors (e.g. sequential vs graded)
Use colorblind-safe, grayscale-safe colors
Choose colors here: https://colorbrewer2.org/
Colorblind test: https://colororacle.org/

12. 29
Example 1 (not ok)
Not a valid technical plot
Screenshot from program
Low resolution
Has unnecessary grid lines
A box surrounds the plot (why?)
Has titles (unnecessary in general)
Poor choice of colors
Times New Roman font (not sans
serif!)

13. 30
Example 2 (better, still not ok)
Good:
High-resolution
Proper labels with units
Appropriate font size (matches the text,
more or less)
Not so good:
Multiple lines without a legend (what does
the 2
nd
line mean?). This must be obvious
from the plot itself
Unnecessary blank space around the plot
A box surrounds the plot (why?)
Unnecessary title

14. 31
Example 3 (ok)
Doesn’t use colors, it doesn’t need to! It’s print-friendly
Proper font size for all text boxes
The plots can be understood without additional text support

15. 32
Example 4 (ok)
Take a look at the color scale: because data is gradually increasing, the colormap does it too!
Minimum number of elements: the legend is shown only in one plot (it’s the same for all)
Sans-serif fonts that more or less match text size

16. 33
Example 5 (ok)
Appropriate use of color map and contour lines.
Notice how the color bar is only shown once! No need to repeat it
Font size matches all elements

17. 34
Example 6 (ok)
This is how a qualitative color map looks like (different categories of data)
Every data series has its own marker and color
No unnecessary grid lines: nobody is going to use them nowadays!!

18. References
35
Giving recognition to others

19. 36
Basics
Areferenceisaspecificmentiontootherpeople’swork.Itmustbemeaningfuland
relevanttoyourproposal.Appropriatereferencesreflectanappropriateliterature
researcheffort.Weworkwith
Journalarticles.Includeauthors,title,journalname,volumeandnumber,page
number,year,anddoi(noturl)
Conferencepapers.Includeauthors,title,conferencename,pagenumber,
year,paperID,anddoi(ifavailable,ifnot,useurl)
Technicalreports.Includeauthors,title,institution(e.g.NASA),technical
reportnumber,year,andurl(ifavailable)
Books.Includeauthors,title,publisher,chapter,pagenumber,year,andISBN
Othertypesofreferencesarenotdesiredinatechnicaldocumentunlessstrictly
necessary.Ifyouneedtorefertoawebsite,usefootnotes.

20. 37
Example 1
Journal article
Journal article
Conference paper
Conference paper
Journal article
Journal article

21. 38
Example 2 (AIAA conference paper)

22. 39
Automating Citations
Every journal article (and many conference articles) offer you the possibility of
downloading the bibliographic info. This saves a lot of time
BibTexis the standard for LaTexdocuments

23. 40
Inserting References in LaTex
If you use the online tool, you will get something like this:
The type of article may be inappropriate
Important missing info
Unnecessary info (URLs should not be included when the DOI is available)
@inbook{doi:10.2514/6.2001-930,
author= {Jeff Marchettaand John Hochstein},
title= {Simulation and dimensionless modeling of magnetically induced reorientation},
booktitle= {38th AerospaceSciencesMeeting and Exhibit},
chapter= {},
pages= {},
doi= {10.2514/6.2001-930},
URL = {https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/abs/10.2514/6.2001-930},
eprint= {https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/pdf/10.2514/6.2001-930}}
Unnecessary
Type Handle
Missing info

24. 41
This is how it looks like…

25. 42
Tricks
Including Matlabcode in LaTex:
https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/8015-m-code-latex-package
1.Download style file mcode.styand copy it into your LaTexdocument main folder
2.Include \usepackage{mcode} in your preamble
3.Use the command \lstinputlisting{yourfile.m} in your document to include the code as
Numbering paragraphs
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/543208/how-can-one-number-paragraphs-in-latex
Google is your friend (allegedly)