Winplot for Windows 95/98/ME/2K/XP/Vista (788K)
Click the above link to download the program. (15 Nov 09)
Page last updated: 17 Nov 09
Winplot is a general-purpose plotting utility, which can draw (and animate) curves and surfaces presented in a variety of formats.
If the program behaves strangely, there is a page of FAQ, which may help. If not, you can e-mail me at the address found in the program’s Help|About dialog box.
Supplementary material (29 Jun 09) This means animations, tutorials, teaching modules, and a font (useful for pi seekers). Donated mostly by Winplot users.
One way to insert a Winplot diagram into a webpage is to create an SVG file.
Follow the links for more information about the Windows 95/98/ME/2K/XP/Vista version or the Windows 3.1 version.
Foreign-language versions:
Croatian (prepared with the help of Vjenceslav Bakovic (15 Nov 09)
Dutch (prepared with the help of Max Blommestijn and Jos Remijn) (15 Nov 09)
French (prepared with the help of David Lemay, Marcel Druwé, and Jean-Marc Genevey) (15 Nov 09)
German (prepared with the help of Dietmar Strube) (15 Nov 09)
Hungarian (prepared with the help of Peter Csiba (17 Nov 09)
Italian (prepared with the help of Cristiano Dane' (15 Nov 09)
Korean (prepared with the help of Chang Soo Lee (15 Nov 09)
Lithuanian (prepared with the help of Roma Greiciute, who has also created a Winplot website (15 Nov 09)
Portuguese (prepared with the help of Adelmo Ribeiro de Jesus) (15 Nov 09)
Russian (prepared with the help of Anatoly Koryanov (15 Nov 09)
Slovak (prepared with the help of Peter Michalicka) (21 Jun 08)
Spanish (prepared with the help of Martín Acosta) (15 Nov 09)
15 Nov: A user reported that 2D segments did not produce the expected surfaces when revolved around an axis. This has been corrected. I also noticed that the item 3D|Two|Intersect Surface-Surface was grayed out when the inventory contained one implicit and one parametric surface. This has also been corrected.
4 Nov: At the request of a user, it is now possible to intersect parametric surfaces with other types of surfaces in 3D. This was a complicated addition, so I await news of unintended consequences.
16 Oct: At the request of a user, it is now possible to make individual surfaces in 3D windows transparent. Details are in the Equa|Help text.
14 Oct: A user reported that supplementary text in 3D windows was not holding its position when the window contents were restored with Ctrl+F. That has been fixed.
8 Oct: A user reported that 2D points that should be invisible (because they are outside the view frame) were appearing (as half-circles) at the edge of the frame. They are now invisible.
19 Sep: Thanks to a user report, I realized that turning off the arrows at the end of the 3D coordinate axes was also turning off all the other arrows that might appear in the diagram. These other arrows have now achieved their independence.
17 Sep: Evaluated text should display “?” when a value cannot be calculated for the proposed expression; a user pointed out that this was not happening all the time. Should be ok now.
12 Sep: Any window can now export its contents as an encapsulated PostScript file or as an SVG file.
5 Aug: A power user reported that Linked windows were not opening old files. Now they are (I forgot to tell them what version of the program they belong to).
18 Jul: Not yet perfect --- in the version put on line two days ago, the global erasing of drawings was left unenabled. Should be ok now.
16 Jul: Four developments to report, all prompted by user feedback. At the request of a classroom teacher, the free-drawing option that appears in the mapping windows has been improved, and inserted into the main 2D window. It was also reported that “undoing” a 2D transformation was causing sporadic crashes. That bug has been exterminated. The user-defined function dialog box now accepts requests for functions of three variables. The program now displays a version number, and the Properties|Version tab (which appears when you right-click the program icon) now displays information (which is mostly of no significance, but it makes the program look better).
7 Jul: A user reported that attaching imported clipboard graphics to points was not working. The bug has been fixed, I think.
29 Jun: Responding to a suggestion, I modified the “table” feature in 2D, so that it displays the coordinates of an active web diagram when one is on the screen. A new source of useful examples has been contributed by a power user.
26 Jun: Fixed a bit of sloppy code that may have been causing sporadic crashes after items were deleted from the Inventory.
20 Jun: During a recent update, I inadvertently disabled the attach-text-to-a-point feature. It has been enabled again. Thanks to a power user for reporting this.
6 Jun: The first unintended consequence has appeared (3D files that include implicit surfaces would not open without crashing), and it has been repaired. (There is nothing wrong with the files.)
25 May: At the request of two users, the graphing of vector fields in 3D is now enabled. Lots and lots of vectors.
16 Apr: Fixed a minor glitch --- after simulprinting multiple images on a single sheet of paper, the program was hiding the graphing window, forcing the user to re-open the original file.
24 Mar: Added a new function constructor --- ifpos(f|v,g) returns f if v is positive, and returns g otherwise. Also fixed a few minor glitches.
18 Mar: At the request of a user, I added inflection points to the list of Extremes in 2D windows (these are points where y' is extreme).
11 Mar: Attended to an assortment of glitches. A user reported trouble when retrieving diagrams with inserted text items, and I discovered that the “evaluated text” feature (introduced in June of 2006) was producing some unintended consequences for ordinary text. During the investigation, I also discovered that 3D file retrieval was not always centering the original diagram, and that the program was occasionally miscalculating the “box” that encloses a 3D curve. Finally, the 3D Btns Help now has an explanation of what it really means to position text “with respect to the figure.” Sorry for any inconveniences.
17 Feb: It turns out that I did not get the last change quite right! A user reported some misbehaving buttons in the Inventory. I think that the problem has been fixed; sorry for the inconvenience.
15 Feb: A user requested that the shading of implicitly defined regions in 2D allow the viewing of individual regions. That dialog box has been revised accordingly. A different user reported that the 2D Translate feature was giving inaccurate results when applied to joined functions. I think that the problem has been fixed.
2 Feb: Finished the job that I announced was finished on 26 Jan.
26 Jan: At the request of a user, the display of individual component functions of recursively defined sequences has been enabled, using the miscellaneous Other|DEq windows. I also fixed a couple of minor bugs in the table windows.
17 Jan: The Hungarian version has been updated.
14 Jan: A power user made several suggestions to enhance the performance of the Mapping windows.
2008 history.
