Matplotlib Tool Manager

Introduction

This tutorial will show you how to modify the Toolbar, create tools, add tools, and remove tools using matplotlib.backend_managers.ToolManager.

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List all the tools controlled by the ToolManager

The first step is to list all the tools controlled by the ToolManager. This can be achieved by creating a custom tool named ListTools. The ListTools class inherits from ToolBase. The trigger() method of ListTools prints the name, description and keymap of all the available tools.

class ListTools(ToolBase):
    """List all the tools controlled by the `ToolManager`."""
    default_keymap = 'm'  ## keyboard shortcut
    description = 'List Tools'

    def trigger(self, *args, **kwargs):
        print('_' * 80)
        fmt_tool = "{:12} {:45} {}".format
        print(fmt_tool('Name (id)', 'Tool description', 'Keymap'))
        print('-' * 80)
        tools = self.toolmanager.tools
        for name in sorted(tools):
            if not tools[name].description:
                continue
            keys = ', '.join(sorted(self.toolmanager.get_tool_keymap(name)))
            print(fmt_tool(name, tools[name].description, keys))
        print('_' * 80)
        fmt_active_toggle = "{!s:12} {!s:45}".format
        print("Active Toggle tools")
        print(fmt_active_toggle("Group", "Active"))
        print('-' * 80)
        for group, active in self.toolmanager.active_toggle.items():
            print(fmt_active_toggle(group, active))

Show lines with a given gid

The second step is to create a custom tool named GroupHideTool. The GroupHideTool class inherits from ToolToggleBase. The set_lines_visibility() method of GroupHideTool sets the visibility of all the lines on the plot which have the specified gid to either True or False, depending on whether the tool is enabled or disabled.

class GroupHideTool(ToolToggleBase):
    """Show lines with a given gid."""
    default_keymap = 'S'
    description = 'Show by gid'
    default_toggled = True

    def __init__(self, *args, gid, **kwargs):
        self.gid = gid
        super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)

    def enable(self, *args):
        self.set_lines_visibility(True)

    def disable(self, *args):
        self.set_lines_visibility(False)

    def set_lines_visibility(self, state):
        for ax in self.figure.get_axes():
            for line in ax.get_lines():
                if line.get_gid() == self.gid:
                    line.set_visible(state)
        self.figure.canvas.draw()

Add custom tools

The third step is to add the custom tools that we created in steps 1 and 2. This can be achieved by calling the add_tool() method of the ToolManager. We add the ListTools and GroupHideTool tools to the ToolManager. We also add the Show tool to the Toolbar, which was created using the add_tool() method of Toolbar.

fig.canvas.manager.toolmanager.add_tool('List', ListTools)
fig.canvas.manager.toolmanager.add_tool('Show', GroupHideTool, gid='mygroup')
fig.canvas.manager.toolbar.add_tool('Show', 'navigation', 1)

Remove tools

The fourth step is to remove the forward button from the Toolbar. We can achieve this by calling the remove_tool() method of the ToolManager.

fig.canvas.manager.toolmanager.remove_tool('forward')

Summary

In this tutorial, we learned how to modify the Toolbar, create custom tools, add tools, and remove tools using matplotlib.backend_managers.ToolManager. We created a custom tool named ListTools, which lists all the tools controlled by the ToolManager. We also created a custom tool named GroupHideTool, which sets the visibility of all the lines on the plot which have the specified gid to either True or False, depending on whether the tool is enabled or disabled. Finally, we added the custom tools to the ToolManager, added the Show tool to the Toolbar, and removed the forward button from the Toolbar.