Modeling Van der Waal’s Equation With Chaco and Traits¶

Overview¶

In this example we will walk through the creation of a program that plots a scientific equation. In particular, we will model Van der Waal’s Equation, which is a modification to the ideal gas law that takes into account the nonzero size of molecules and the attraction to each other that they experience.

Writing the Program¶

First, we define a HasTraits class and the elements necessary to model the task. The following class is made for the Van der Waal equation, whose variables can be viewed on this wiki page. The volume and pressure attributes hold lists of our X- and Y-coordinates, respectively, and are defined as arrays. The attributes attraction and tot_volume are input parameters specified by the user. The type of the variables dictates their appearance in the GUI. For example, attraction and tot_volume are defined as Ranges, so they show up as slider bars. Likewise, plot_type is shown as a drop-down list, since it is defined as an Enum.

# We'll also import a few things to be used later.
import numpy as np

from chaco.api import ArrayPlotData, Plot
from enable.api import ComponentEditor
from traits.api import (
    Array,
    Enum,
    Float,
    HasTraits,
    Instance,
    observe,
    Property,
    Range,
)
from traitsui.api import Item, UItem, View


class Data(HasTraits):

    volume = Array()

    pressure = Array()

    attraction = Range(low=-50.0, high=50.0, value=0.0)

    tot_volume = Range(low=.01, high=100.0, value=0.01)

    temperature = Range(low=-50.0, high=50.0, value=50.0)

    r_constant = Float(8.314472)

    plot_type = Enum("line", "scatter")

    plot = Instance(Plot)

...

Creating the View¶

The main GUI window is created by defining a Traits View instance. This View contains all of the GUI elements, including the plot. To link a variable with a widget element on the GUI, we create a Traits Item instance with the same name as the variable and pass it as an argument of the Traits View instance declaration. The TraitsUI User Manual discusses the View and Item objects in depth.

In order to embed a Chaco plot into a Traits View, we can do exactly the same, only we must explicitly specify the editor of that Item to be a ComponentEditor.

class Data(HasTraits):
    ...

    traits_view = View(
        UItem(
            "plot",
            editor=ComponentEditor(),
            resizable=True
        ),
        Item(name='attraction'),
        Item(name='tot_volume'),
        Item(name='temperature'),
        Item(name='r_constant', style='readonly'),
        Item(name='plot_type'),
        resizable=True,
        buttons=["OK"],
        title='Van der Waal Equation',
        width=900,
        height=800,
    )

...

Initializing the plot¶

Now, we need to give the initial details of the plot that we want the view to display. To do so, we define a method to construct the default value for plot. We wrap the data we wish to plot in an ArrayPlotData object, and then create a Plot instance using that data. We then configure some properties of the plot before finally calling the plot() method to create a plot renderer for the plot. When doing so we specify the type of plot to create based of the value of the plot_type trait, and we also use this trait as the name of our plot. This name will show up again later.

class Data(HasTraits):
    ...

    def _plot_default(self):
        self.plotdata = ArrayPlotData(x=self.volume, y=self.pressure)
        plot = Plot(self.plotdata)
        plot.title = 'Pressure vs. Volume'
        plot.x_axis.title = "Volume"
        plot.y_axis.title = "Pressure"
        plot.range2d.set_bounds((-10, -2000), (120, 4000))
        plot.padding_left = 80

        plot.plot(
            ("x", "y"), type=self.plot_type, name=self.plot_type, color="blue"
        )

        return plot

...

Updating the Plot¶

The power of Traits and Chaco enables the plot to update itself whenever the X- or Y-arrays are changed. Currently, our plot is stuck as the default defined above and will not react to changes. So, we need a function to re-calculate the X- and Y-coordinate lists whenever the input parameters are changed by the user moving the sliders in the GUI.

The volume attribute is the independent variable and pressure is the dependent variable. The relationship between pressure and volume, as derived from the equation found on the wiki page, is:

            r_constant * temperature       attraction
pressure =  ------------------------   -   ----------
               volume - tot_volume          volume**2

Next, there are two programing tasks to complete:

Define trait listener method(s) for your input parameters. These methods are automatically called whenever the parameters are changed, since it will be time to recalculate the pressure array.
Write a calculation method that updates your lists of X- and Y-coordinates for your plot.

The following is the code for these two needs:

# Re-calculate when attraction, tot_volume, or temperature are changed.
@observe('attraction, tot_volume, temperature')
def calc(self, event=None):
    """ Update the data based on the numbers specified by the user. """
    self.volume = np.arange(.1, 100)
    self.pressure = (
        (self.r_constant*self.temperature)/(self.volume - self.tot_volume)
        - self.attraction/(self.volume*self.volume)
    )

    self.plot.data.set_data("x", self.volume)
    self.plot.data.set_data("y", self.pressure)

The calc() function computes the pressure array using the current values of the independent variables. It then updates the data of our plot to use the newly computed values. Meanwhile, the @observe() decorator (provided by Traits) tells Python to call calc() whenever any of the attributes attraction, tot_volume, or temperature changes.

In addition to reacting to changes in the input parameters, we also want our plot to change based on the user selected plot_type. To do this, we can define a separate listener as follows:

@observe("plot_type")
def _update_plot_type(self, event):
    old_plot_type, new_plot_type = event.old, event.new

    self.plot.delplot(old_plot_type)
    self.plot.plot(
        ("x", "y"), type=new_plot_type, name=new_plot_type, color="blue"
    )

Here we are listening for changes in the plot_type trait. When it changes, we delete the old plot and create a new plot using the new plot_type. The name of the plot is how we specify a plot to delete, hence our previous reuse of the plot_type as the name.

Testing your Program¶

The application is now in a state where can be tested by instantiating a copy of the class and then creating the view by calling the configure_traits() method on the class. For a simple test, run these lines from an interpreter or a separate module:

from vanderwaals import Data
viewer = Data()
viewer.calc()            # Must calculate the initial (x,y) lists
viewer.configure_traits()

Clicking and dragging on the sliders in the GUI dynamically updates the pressure data array, and causes the plot to update, showing the new values.

Screenshots¶

Here is what the program looks like:

But it could be better….¶

It seems inconvenient to have to call a calculation function manually before we call configure_traits(). Also, the pressure equation depends on the values of other variables. It would be nice to make the relationship between the dependant and independent variables clearer. There is another way we could define our variables that is easier for the user to understand, and provides better source documentation.

Since our X-values remain constant in this example, it is wasteful to keep recreating the volume array. The Y-array, pressure, is the single array that needs to be updated when the independent variables change. So, instead of defining pressure as an Array, we define it as a Property. Property is a Traits type that allows you to define a variable whose value is recalculated whenever it is requested. In addition, when the observe argument of a Property constructor is set to list of traits in your HasTraits class, the property’s trait events fire whenever any of the dependent trait’s change events fire. This means that the pressure attribute fires a trait change whenever our observe traits are changed. Meanwhile, we can set up the Chaco plot to automatically listen to the pressure attribute, so the plot display gets the new value of pressure whenever someone changes the input parameters!

When the value of a Property trait is requested, the _get_trait_name method is called to calculate and return its current value. So we define use the _get_pressure() method as our new calculation method. It is important to note that this implementation does have a weakness. Since we are calculating new pressures each time someone changes the value of the input variables, this could slow down the program if the calculation is long. When the user drags a slider widget, each stopping point along the slider requests a recompute.

For the new implementation, these are the necessary changes:

Define the Y-coordinate array variable as a Property instead of an Array.
Perform the calculations in the _get_trait_name method for the Y-coordinate array variable, which is _get_pressure() in this example.
Define the _trait_default method to set the initial value of the X-coordinate array, so _get_pressure() does not have to keep recalculating it.
Set up a listener to update the plot whenever the pressure trait changes.
Remove the previous @observe() decorator and calculation method.

The new pieces of code to add to the Data class are:

class Data(HasTraits):
    ...
    pressure = Property(
        Array, observe=['temperature', 'attraction', 'tot_volume']
    )
    ...

    def _volume_default(self):
        """ Default handler for volume Trait. """
        return np.arange(.1, 100)

    def _get_pressure(self):
        """Recalculate when a trait the property observes changes."""
        return (
            (self.r_constant*self.temperature)/(self.volume - self.tot_volume)
            - self.attraction/(self.volume*self.volume)
        )

    @observe("pressure")
    def _update_plot(self, event):
        self.plotdata.set_data("y", self.pressure)

You now no longer have to call an inconvenient calculation function before the first call to configure_traits()!

Source Code¶

The final version of the program, vanderwaals.py.

"""
Example application for exploring Van der Waal's Equation
"""
import numpy as np

from chaco.api import ArrayPlotData, Plot
from enable.api import ComponentEditor
from traits.api import (
    Array,
    Enum,
    Float,
    HasTraits,
    Instance,
    observe,
    Property,
    Range,
)
from traitsui.api import Item, UItem, View


class Data(HasTraits):

    volume = Array()

    pressure = Property(
        Array, observe=['temperature', 'attraction', 'tot_volume']
    )

    attraction = Range(low=-50.0, high=50.0, value=0.0)

    tot_volume = Range(low=.01, high=100.0, value=0.01)

    temperature = Range(low=-50.0, high=50.0, value=50.0)

    r_constant = Float(8.314472)

    plot_type = Enum("line", "scatter")

    plot = Instance(Plot)

    def _plot_default(self):
        self.plotdata = ArrayPlotData(x=self.volume, y=self.pressure)
        plot = Plot(self.plotdata)
        plot.title = 'Pressure vs. Volume'
        plot.x_axis.title = "Volume"
        plot.y_axis.title = "Pressure"
        plot.range2d.set_bounds((-10, -2000), (120, 4000))
        plot.padding_left = 80

        plot.plot(
            ("x", "y"), type=self.plot_type, name=self.plot_type, color="blue"
        )

        return plot

    def _volume_default(self):
        """ Default handler for volume Trait Array. """
        return np.arange(.1, 100)

    def _get_pressure(self):
        """Recalculate when a trait the property observes changes."""
        return (
            (self.r_constant*self.temperature)/(self.volume - self.tot_volume)
            - self.attraction/(self.volume*self.volume)
        )

    @observe("pressure")
    def _update_plot(self, event):
        self.plotdata.set_data("y", self.pressure)

    @observe("plot_type")
    def _update_plot_type(self, event):
        old_plot_type, new_plot_type = event.old, event.new

        self.plot.delplot(old_plot_type)
        self.plot.plot(
            ("x", "y"), type=new_plot_type, name=new_plot_type, color="blue"
        )
        self.plot.invalidate_and_redraw()

    traits_view = View(
        UItem(
            "plot",
            editor=ComponentEditor(),
            resizable=True
        ),
        Item(name='attraction'),
        Item(name='tot_volume'),
        Item(name='temperature'),
        Item(name='r_constant', style='readonly'),
        Item(name='plot_type'),
        resizable=True,
        buttons=["OK"],
        title='Van der Waal Equation',
        width=900,
        height=800,
    )


popup = Data()


if __name__ == '__main__':
    popup.configure_traits()

Modeling Van der Waal’s Equation With Chaco and Traits

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