Showing directions using marker rotation in a scatter plot

Some marker shapes, for example arrows, can be used to indicate directions. If you in a scatter plot rotate such markers, you can visualize directions of motions. What you need is a column that contains values that can be interpreted as degrees.

About this task

The rotation of the markers can be made clockwise or counter-clockwise. A full rotation is 360 degrees, and a value of 361 is interpreted as 1 degree.

Procedure

Open the visualization properties for the scatter plot.
In the Appearance tab of the visualization properties panel, locate Shape, and select a marker suitable for showing direction.

(In the visualization properties dialog of the installed client, Shape is a separate section where you can change the shape from the palette directly.)
Next, locate the Rotate by section on the Configuration tab of the visualization properties panel (or the Rotation section in the dialog).
Select the column and, if applicable, which type of aggregated value to use for defining how many degrees the markers should be rotated.
Select rotation direction; Clockwise or Counter-clockwise.

Results

The markers in the scatter plot are rotated to indicate different directions.

If the selected marker shape is Arrow pointing upwards , then, a 90 degree clockwise rotation of this marker shape will be shown as Arrow pointing to the right . If you instead select as the marker shape to use, a 90 degree clockwise rotation would be shown as . No markers are shown for null values.