Professional dedicated graphing software produces much better output than a spreadsheet, with a greater range of plot types and an easy intuitive interface
You know the feeling: you're looking at the graph you've just produced using your spreadsheet, and you're thinking, "well, I guess it will do." It took you a lot longer to create the graph than you'd hoped, and it's not really exactly what you'd hoped for either.
But be fair: producing a graph is something of a secondary function of a spreadsheet.
Most of us only do it within the application because the data's already there, and the function is provided for us free.
But how much is a graph worth which looks precisely how you want it to? How much is a graph worth which takes far less time to create? Adept says that it's worth a lot more than the price of a dedicated graphing application, and it reckons the best such program is Axum.
Axum's intuitive interface makes it easy to learn and use.
Just import your data from virtually any program, select the data and click on a 2D or 3D plot button to create a graph instantly.
Once you've done it, you'll wonder why you ever battled with spreadsheets before. As with any general office-type application, Axum graphs can be printed, exported in a variety of formats, copied and pasted into a word processing or desktop publishing program, or emailed directly.
But it's with the type of graphs which ought to be easy (but so often aren't) that Axum really comes into its own.
It's ideal if you need to combine multiple data sets and multiple axes on a graph, or need to arrange multiple, editable graphs on a page.
With Axum, you get all the basic 2D graphs like line, bar, area, scatter and pie, but also specialised types such as curve fits, histograms, polar plots, error bars, vector plots, lowess plots, bubble plots, and more: in fact over 90 in total.
And when it comes to 3D and contour plotting, the options are scientific standard.
Plot 3D mesh or contours using data sets of virtually unlimited size (using griddled or x,y,z scatter data), or create impressive output with colour draping.
Specify a range of colours, and Axum shades bar charts, area charts, surfaces and contours automatically.
Axum also includes a series of data analysis tools: transform, manipulate and sort large data sets, and perform statistical analysis (including non-linear curve fitting).
Statistical techniques include hypothesis testing, power and sample size calculations, logistic and log-linear regression, and time-series calculations.
Axum is supplied and supported in the UK and Ireland by Adept Scientific.
