How to apply matplotlib quiver autoscale to two vector fields? - matplotlib

Question

I am plotting two vector fields on top of each other and I want to use the auto-scale feature to set the arrow size such that the two fields are at the same scale automatically. (Part of this notebook.)
If I plot them one after the other, they are drawn at different scales. In this case the black arrows are artificially inflated compared to green.
plt.quiver(*XY, *np.real(UV))
plt.quiver(*XY, *np.imag(UV), color='g')
If I use this solution the first plot sets the scale for the second plot. But this fails to take the scale of the second field into account. If the first field has a small magnitude compared to the second, then it looks terrible.
Q = plt.quiver(*XY, *np.real(UV))
Q._init()
plt.quiver(*XY, *np.imag(UV), scale=Q.scale, color='g')
I want to set the auto-scale based on both fields, not just one or the other. Ideas?

Answer 1

You need to pass the same scale argument to both plt.quiver calls.
If you don't provide a scale than a visually pleasing scale is derived automatically. So you could in principle extract the autoscaling code and use it to get the automatic scales for both quiver plots and then use for instance the average of the two values.
Another, easier, way is to first invisibly plot both quiver plots using the do-nothing backend 'template', retrieve the automatically calculated scales and use the average of them in both real plotting calls:
def plot_flow(x,y,q,XY,G=source,args=(),size=(7,7),ymax=None):
"Plot the geometry and induced velocity field"
# Loop through segments, superimposing the velocity
def uv(i): return q[i]*velocity(*XY, x[i], y[i], x[i+1], y[i+1], G, args)
UV = sum(uv(i) for i in range(len(x)-1))
def get_scale(XY, UV):
"""Get autoscale value by plotting to do-nothing backend."""
backend = plt.matplotlib.get_backend()
plt.matplotlib.use('template')
Q = plt.quiver(*XY, *UV, scale=None)
plt.matplotlib.use(backend)
Q._init()
return Q.scale
# Get autoscales
scale_real = get_scale(XY, np.real(UV))
scale_imag = get_scale(XY, np.imag(UV)) if np.iscomplexobj(UV) else scale_real
scale = (scale_real + scale_imag)/2
# Create plot
plt.figure(figsize=size)
ax=plt.axes(); ax.set_aspect('equal', adjustable='box')
# Plot vectors and segments
plt.quiver(*XY, *np.real(UV), scale=scale)
if np.iscomplexobj(UV):
plt.quiver(*XY, *np.imag(UV), scale=scale, color='g')
plt.plot(x,y,c='b')
plt.ylim(None,ymax)
In the example, we get a scale of 7.7 as the average of 12.2 and 3.3:

Answer 2

Normalizing the data before plotting it can help getting similar scales on the arrow sizes:
scale = 1
UV_real = np.real(UV) / np.linalg.norm(UV)
UV_imag = np.imag(UV) / np.linalg.norm(UV)
Q1 = plt.quiver(*XY, *UV_real, scale=scale)
Q2 = plt.quiver(*XY, *UV_imag, scale=scale, color='g')
Tested for multiple magnitude ratios between real and imaginary parts.