Control Engineering Plot Generator

A command-line tool for generating various control system plots (Bode, Nyquist, and Polar) from transfer functions.

Features

• Generate Bode plots (magnitude and phase)
• Nyquist plots (coming soon)
• Polar plots (coming soon)
• Export frequency response data to JSON or CSV
• Configurable frequency range and resolution
• Support for arbitrary-order transfer functions

Installation

1. Make sure you have Rust installed. If not, install it from rustup.rs
2. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/SaurabPoudel/bode_plotter.git
cd bode_plotter

3. Build and install the project:

# Build the release version
cargo build --release

# Create a symbolic link to make it globally available as 'cs-plot'
sudo ln -s $(pwd)/target/release/engineering-plotter /usr/local/bin/cs-plot

# Verify installation
cs-plot --help

If you get a "file exists" error, you can remove the old link first:

sudo rm /usr/local/bin/cs-plot

Now you can use the tool from anywhere by typing cs-plot instead of cargo run.

Usage

Basic Usage

Generate a Bode plot for a transfer function:

cs-plot -n "1000" -d "1,10,1000" -o "bode_plot.png"

This example plots H(s) = 1000/(s² + 10s + 1000)

Command-Line Options

• -t, --type <TYPE>: Plot type (bode, nyquist, polar) [default: bode]
• -n, --numerator <COEFFICIENTS>: Numerator coefficients (comma-separated, ascending powers)
• -d, --denominator <COEFFICIENTS>: Denominator coefficients (comma-separated, ascending powers)
• -s, --start <FREQ>: Start frequency in Hz [default: 0.1]
• -e, --end <FREQ>: End frequency in Hz [default: 1000]
• -p, --points <COUNT>: Number of points per decade [default: 50]
• -o, --output <FILE>: Output file path [default: plot.png]
• -x, --export <FILE>: Export data to JSON/CSV file (optional)

Examples

1. Detailed Bode plot with custom frequency range:

cs-plot -n "1000" -d "1,10,1000" -s 0.01 -e 10000 -p 100 -o "detailed_bode.png"

2. Generate Nyquist plot:

cs-plot -t nyquist -n "1000" -d "1,10,1000" -o "nyquist.png"

3. Export frequency response data while plotting:

cs-plot -n "1000" -d "1,10,1000" -o "bode.png" -x "response_data.json"

Input Format

Transfer functions are specified using coefficients in ascending powers:

• For H(s) = (as + b)/(cs² + ds + e), use:
  • Numerator: "b,a" (constant term first)
  • Denominator: "e,d,c" (constant term first)

Dependencies

• plotters: For generating plots
• clap: Command-line argument parsing
• serde: Data serialization
• chrono: Timestamp handling

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

Author

Saurab Poudel ([email protected])

Acknowledgments

• The Rust community for excellent documentation and crates
• Control systems theory resources and references