# PSCLIP

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
OPTIONS
EXAMPLES
BUGS
SEE ALSO

## NAME

psclip − To set up polygonal clip paths

## SYNOPSIS

psclip xyfiles −J parameters −R west/east/south/north[r] [ −B[p|s]parameters ] [ −E azim/elev ] [ −K ] [ −N ] [ −O ] [ −P ] [ −T ] [ −U[just/dx/dy/][c|label] ] [ −V ] [ −X[a|c|r][x-shift[u]] ] [ −Y[a|c|r][y-shift[u]] ] [ −Z zlevel ] [ −c copies] [ −:[i|o] ] [ −bi[s|S|d|D[ncol]|c[var1/...]] ] [ −f colinfo ] [ −m[flag] ]

psclip −C [ −K ] [ −O ]

## DESCRIPTION

psclip reads (x,y) file(s) [or standard input] and draws polygons that are activated as clipping paths. Several files may be read to create complex paths consisting of several non-connecting segments. Only marks that are subsequently drawn inside the clipping path will be shown. To determine what is inside or outside the clipping path, psclip uses the even-odd rule. When a ray drawn from any point, regardless of direction, crosses the clipping path segments an odd number of times, the point is inside the clipping path. If the number is even, the point is outside. The −N option, reverses the sense of what is the inside and outside of the paths by plotting a clipping path along the map boundary. After subsequent plotting, which will be clipped against these paths, the clipping may be deactivated by running psclip a second time with the −C option only.
xyfiles

ASCII [or binary, see −b] file(s) with (x,y) values for clip polygons. If no files are given, the standard input is read.

| −C |  | Mark end of existing clip path. No input file or projection information are needed. However, you must supply −Xa and −Ya settings if you are using absolute positioning.

−J

Selects the map projection. Scale is UNIT/degree, 1:xxxxx, or width in UNIT (upper case modifier). UNIT is cm, inch, or m, depending on the MEASURE_UNIT setting in .gmtdefaults4, but this can be overridden on the command line by appending c, i, or m to the scale/width value. When central meridian is optional, default is center of longitude range on −R option. Default standard parallel is the equator. For map height, max dimension, or min dimension, append h, +, or - to the width, respectively.

More details can be found in the psbasemap man pages.

CYLINDRICAL PROJECTIONS:

−Jc lon0/lat0/scale (Cassini)
−Jcyl_stere/[lon0/[lat0/]]scale (Cylindrical Stereographic)
−Jj[lon0/]scale (Miller)
−Jm[lon0/[lat0/]]scale (Mercator)
−Jm lon0/lat0/scale (Mercator - Give meridian and standard parallel)
−Jo[a]lon0/lat0/azimuth/scale (Oblique Mercator - point and azimuth)
−Jo[b]lon0/lat0/lon1/lat1/scale (Oblique Mercator - two points)
−Joc lon0/lat0/lonp/latp/scale (Oblique Mercator - point and pole)
−Jq[lon0/[lat0/]]scale (Cylindrical Equidistant)
−Jt lon0/[lat0/]scale (TM - Transverse Mercator)
−Ju zone/scale (UTM - Universal Transverse Mercator)
−Jy[lon0/[lat0/]]scale (Cylindrical Equal-Area)

CONIC PROJECTIONS:

−Jb lon0/lat0/lat1/lat2/scale (Albers)
−Jd lon0/lat0/lat1/lat2/scale (Conic Equidistant)
−Jl lon0/lat0/lat1/lat2/scale (Lambert Conic Conformal)
−Jpoly/[lon0/[lat0/]]scale ((American) Polyconic)

AZIMUTHAL PROJECTIONS:

−Ja lon0/lat0[/horizon]/scale (Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area)
−Je lon0/lat0[/horizon]/scale (Azimuthal Equidistant)
−Jf lon0/lat0[/horizon]/scale (Gnomonic)
−Jg lon0/lat0[/horizon]/scale (Orthographic)
−Jg lon0/lat0/altitude/azimuth/tilt/twist/Width/Height/scale (General Perspective).
−Js lon0/lat0[/horizon]/scale (General Stereographic)

MISCELLANEOUS PROJECTIONS:

−Jh[lon0/]scale (Hammer)
−Ji[lon0/]scale (Sinusoidal)
−Jkf[lon0/]scale (Eckert IV)
−Jk[s][lon0/]scale (Eckert VI)
−Jn[lon0/]scale (Robinson)
−Jr[lon0/]scale (Winkel Tripel)
−Jv[lon0/]scale (Van der Grinten)
−Jw[lon0/]scale (Mollweide)

NON-GEOGRAPHICAL PROJECTIONS:

−Jp[a]scale[/origin][r|z] (Polar coordinates (theta,r))
−Jx x-scale[d|l|p pow|t|T][/y-scale[d|l|p pow|t|T]] (Linear, log, and power scaling)

−R

xmin, xmax, ymin, and ymax specify the Region of interest. For geographic regions, these limits correspond to west, east, south, and north and you may specify them in decimal degrees or in [+-]dd:mm[:ss.xxx][W|E|S|N] format. Append r if lower left and upper right map coordinates are given instead of w/e/s/n. The two shorthands −Rg and −Rd stand for global domain (0/360 and -180/+180 in longitude respectively, with -90/+90 in latitude). Alternatively, specify the name of an existing grid file and the −R settings (and grid spacing, if applicable) are copied from the grid. For calendar time coordinates you may either give (a) relative time (relative to the selected TIME_EPOCH and in the selected TIME_UNIT; append t to −JX|x), or (b) absolute time of the form [date]T[clock] (append T to −JX|x). At least one of date and clock must be present; the T is always required. The date string must be of the form [-]yyyy[-mm[-dd]] (Gregorian calendar) or yyyy[-Www[-d]] (ISO week calendar), while the clock string must be of the form hh:mm:ss[.xxx]. The use of delimiters and their type and positions must be exactly as indicated (however, input, output and plot formats are customizable; see gmtdefaults).

## OPTIONS

No space between the option flag and the associated arguments.

| −B |  | Sets map boundary annotation and tickmark intervals; see the psbasemap man page for all the details.
| −E |  | Sets the viewpoint’s azimuth and elevation [180/90].
| −H |  | Input file(s) has header record(s). If used, the default number of header records is N_HEADER_RECS. Use −Hi if only input data should have header records [Default will write out header records if the input data have them]. Blank lines and lines starting with # are always skipped.
| −K |  | More PostScript code will be appended later [Default terminates the plot system].
| −N |  | Invert the sense of what is inside and outside. For example, when using a single path, this means that only points outside that path will be shown. Cannot be used together with −B.
| −O |  | Selects Overlay plot mode [Default initializes a new plot system].
| −P |  | Selects Portrait plotting mode [Default is Landscape, see gmtdefaults to change this].
| −T |  | Rather than read any input files, simply turn on clipping for the current map region. Basically, −T is a convenient way to run psclip with the arguments −N /dev/null (or, under Windows, −N NUL). Cannot be used together with −B.

−U

Draw Unix System time stamp on plot. By adding just/dx/dy/, the user may specify the justification of the stamp and where the stamp should fall on the page relative to lower left corner of the plot. For example, BL/0/0 will align the lower left corner of the time stamp with the lower left corner of the plot. Optionally, append a label, or c (which will plot the command string.). The GMT parameters UNIX_TIME, UNIX_TIME_POS, and UNIX_TIME_FORMAT can affect the appearance; see the gmtdefaults man page for details. The time string will be in the locale set by the environment variable TZ (generally local time).

| −V |  | Selects verbose mode, which will send progress reports to stderr [Default runs "silently"].

−X −Y

Shift plot origin relative to the current origin by (x-shift,y-shift) and optionally append the length unit (c, i, m, p). You can prepend a to shift the origin back to the original position after plotting, or prepend r [Default] to reset the current origin to the new location. If −O is used then the default (x-shift,y-shift) is (0,0), otherwise it is (r1i, r1i) or (r2.5c, r2.5c). Alternatively, give c to align the center coordinate (x or y) of the plot with the center of the page based on current page size.

| −Z |  | For 3-D projections: Sets the z-level of the polygons [Default is the bottom of the z-axis].
| −: |  | Toggles between (longitude,latitude) and (latitude,longitude) input and/or output. [Default is (longitude,latitude)]. Append i to select input only or o to select output only. [Default affects both].
| −bi |  | Selects binary input. Append s for single precision [Default is d (double)]. Uppercase S or D will force byte-swapping. Optionally, append ncol, the number of columns in your binary input file if it exceeds the columns needed by the program. Or append c if the input file is netCDF. Optionally, append var1/var2/... to specify the variables to be read. [Default is 2 input columns].
| −c |  | Specifies the number of plot copies. [Default is 1].

−f

Special formatting of input and/or output columns (time or geographical data). Specify i or o to make this apply only to input or output [Default applies to both]. Give one or more columns (or column ranges) separated by commas. Append T (absolute calendar time), t (relative time in chosen TIME_UNIT since TIME_EPOCH), x (longitude), y (latitude), or f (floating point) to each column or column range item. Shorthand −f[i|o]g means −f[i|o]0x,1y (geographic coordinates).

| −m |  | Multiple segment file(s). Segments are separated by a special record. For ASCII files the first character must be flag [Default is ’>’]. For binary files all fields must be NaN and −b must set the number of output columns explicitly. By default the −m setting applies to both input and output. Use −mi and −mo to give separate settings to input and output.

## EXAMPLES

To make an overlay PostScript file that will set up a complex clip area to which subsequent plotting will be confined, run:

psclip my_region.xy −R0/40/0/40 −Jm0.3i −O −K > clip_mask_on.ps

To deactivate the clipping in an existing plotfile, run:

psclip −C −O >> complex_plot.ps

## BUGS

psclip cannot handle polygons that contain the south or north pole. For such polygons, you should split them into two and make each explicitly contain the polar point. The two clip polygons will combine to give the desired effect.

## SEE ALSO

GMT(1), grdmask(1), psbasemap(1), psmask(1)