Creating Report-Ready Plots

You need to produce clear, professional-looking plots for a report or presentation. This guide walks you through layout, labeling, annotation, and export.

Plan your layout

Choose a subplot grid that fits the information you're presenting. Common layouts:

Layout	Use case
1x1	Single measurement focus
2x1	Two related quantities (e.g., voltage and current)
2x2	Four-parameter overview (voltage, current, power, frequency)
3x1	Three-phase comparison

Set the grid using the Rows and Columns sliders in the plot controls. Keep it simple — more subplots means each one gets smaller and harder to read in a printed report.

Add and label your signals

Drag the series you want to show into each subplot. Then improve the labeling:

Rename series in the legend — click the rename field in the legend and replace the default "Filename - Series Name" with something readable. For a report, use descriptive names like "Phase A Voltage (kV)" or "Generator Active Power (MW)".

Set subplot titles — right-click in a subplot, choose Modify Plot Labels → Title, and enter a clear title like "Bus 1 Voltage Profile".

Set Y-axis labels — right-click → Modify Plot Labels → y-axis to add units and context, like "Voltage (pu)" or "Frequency (Hz)".

Set up reference annotations

Add annotations to provide context for your readers:

Horizontal lines for thresholds — right-click and add horizontal lines at limits your readers care about. For example, voltage limits at 0.95 pu and 1.05 pu, or a frequency deadband at 59.95 Hz and 60.05 Hz. These immediately show whether your signals stay within bounds.

Vertical lines for event markers — mark key moments in time: fault initiation, protection operation, system recovery. Use a linked vertical line if you want the marker to appear across all subplots.

Text labels for callouts — add text annotations to point out specific features: "Peak voltage dip: 0.82 pu", "Settling time: 2.3 s", "Oscillation frequency: 1.2 Hz".

Use linked vertical lines across subplots

When your report shows the same event across multiple parameters (voltage dip, current spike, frequency deviation), use linked vertical lines to mark the same time instant in every subplot. This helps readers correlate what happened across different measurements at the exact same moment.

Add a linked vertical line via right-click → Add Annotations → Add linked vertical line in any subplot. It appears in all subplots automatically. Drag it to reposition — it moves in sync everywhere.

Take screenshots

Click the Take Screenshot button in the plot controls to save the current view as a PNG file. The screenshot captures everything visible: all subplots, legends, annotations, titles, and labels.

Tips for clean screenshots:

• Zoom to the region of interest before capturing — don't include unnecessary empty space
• Remove clutter — delete any temporary annotations or query rectangles you used during analysis
• Check your legend names — make sure they're readable and meaningful
• Consider the final size — if the plot will be printed small, use fewer series per subplot for clarity

Use templates for consistency

If you produce similar plots for recurring reports, save your subplot layout, naming patterns, and transformations as a template. Every report will have the same structure, making it easy for readers to compare across different analyses or time periods.

See Building Reusable Templates for how to create and apply templates.