plot_all_topologies() function name

[michaelchin]

It seems to me that the function plot_all_topologies() plots topological boundaries + networks. The function name seems to me a bit ambiguous. Should we add new functions like plot_topological_boundaries() and plot_topological_networks(), and deprecate plot_all_topologies()?

[jcannon-gplates]

I guess there's also topological lines, but they don't tend to get plotted (since typically used as sections to build boundaries and networks from). So plot_all_topologies() is probably fine, and keeping it saves users from having to update their code.

Adding plot_topological_boundaries() and plot_topological_networks() sounds fine. Or could add plot_topologies() that takes flags for which topologies to plot. Probably what you suggested is better (more explicit).

[michaelchin]

Yes, let's keep plot_all_topologies().

And I think we need plot_topological_boundaries() because if we use plot_all_topologies(), the map looks like the screenshot below.

In GPlates, the plate boundaries look like this.

And boundaries + networks look like this.

Maybe it is good to separate boundaries and networks. And should we plot the network mesh as well in gplately?

[michaelchin]

And I am not sure if we could plot networks properly in gplately. See this complex structure below.

[jcannon-gplates]

True, that screenshot has interior rigid blocks within the deforming region.

And I'm not sure you'd want to reproduce all the options available in GPlates, such as colouring by dilatation strain rate (filled)...

[jcannon-gplates]

I suppose you could still have something that distinguishes between a rigid plate and a deforming network. In which case plotting the mesh wireframe as a single colour could work - though pyGPlates doesn't expose that just yet (but will). I don't think the interior rigid blocks are exposed yet either, but will be.

[michaelchin]

In fact, I am not entirely sure if the map produced by plot_all_topologies() makes sense without network mesh.

[jcannon-gplates]

I think the newer topological models (like what's in GPlates 2.5) have networks that overlay on top of the rigid plates - so not drawing the networks just exposes the underlying rigid plates (ie, no holes). Some older models don't - so removing the networks leaves holes underneath. There was a bit of discussion about that here.

There's also the issue of drawing inactive meshes (mentioned in that link) - whether the user wants to see meshes for deforming regions that are no longer active (at the current reconstruction time).

[michaelchin]

Thanks John. Now I see that this matter is much more complex than I thought. Let's keep the plot_all_topologies() function and plot the boundaries and networks together.

[michaelchin]

Just wonder if anyone would like to plot boundaries and networks in different colours, just to tell which are boundaries and which are networks. Since no users had brought this up, I guess it is obvious for researchers which are which or it is not important to distinguish boundaries from networks.