Have you ever plotted a function in Maple and then found that the range you plotted it on wasn't really what you wanted? You can always re-execute the command, of course, but that means working out exactly what the range is for that interesting feature you want to investigate, and if you've made changes to the plot those will be lost. However Maple has the ability to zoom in on a plot interactively, without re-executing the command.

Changing the Range with the Mouse

The Axis Properties dialog lets you change the range numerically, but you can also do so using the mouse. Go to the plot toolbar and click on the Scale plot axes button (it looks like a red ball with an arrow). If you have an animation you will need to click on the word "plot" above the toolbar to switch from animation to plot toolbar. Now put the mouse in the middle of the plot and drag it. Dragging it down will zoom out, increasing the range; dragging it up will zoom in. The Translate plot axes button lets you 'pan' i.e. move the centre of the axis ranges without changing the range size.

I thought I would take up a little time to write about some of the new plotting features in Maple 11. This post will give an overview of what is in Maple 11 plotting - subsequent posts will give more details on the individual features. Let's look at each of the features mentioned on the plotting enhancements page. All of these are only for 2-D plots.