Dynamically create plots in Chaco

This is a bit late, but here's an example that creates and destroys Chaco plots. The main interface is PlotSelector, which defines some fake data and radio buttons to switch between two different plot styles (line and bar plots).

This example uses a Traits event to signal when to close a plot, and then handles that signal with PlotController. There may be a better way to close the window, but I couldn't find one.

Edit: Updated imports for newer versions of Traits, Chaco, and Enable (ETS 4 instead of 3).

import numpy as npimport traits.api as traitsimport traitsui.api as uiimport chaco.api as chacofrom enable.api import ComponentEditorclass PlotController(ui.Controller):    view = ui.View(ui.Item('plot', editor=ComponentEditor(), show_label=False),                   height=300, width=300, resizable=True)    def object_close_signal_changed(self, info):        info.ui.dispose()class BasicPlot(traits.HasTraits):    close_signal = traits.Event()    plot = traits.Instance(chaco.Plot)class LinePlot(BasicPlot):    def __init__(self, plotdata):        self.plot = chaco.Plot(plotdata)        self.plot.plot(('x', 'y'))class BarPlot(BasicPlot):    def __init__(self, plotdata):        self.plot = chaco.Plot(plotdata)        self.plot.candle_plot(('x', 'ymin', 'ymax'))available_plot_types = dict(line=LinePlot, bar=BarPlot)class PlotSelector(traits.HasTraits):    plot_type = traits.Enum(['line', 'bar'])    traits_view = ui.View('plot_type', style='custom')    def __init__(self, x, y):        ymin = y - 1        ymax = y + 1        self.plotdata = chaco.ArrayPlotData(x=x, y=y, ymin=ymin, ymax=ymax)        self.figure = None    def _plot_type_changed(self):        plot_class = available_plot_types[self.plot_type]        if self.figure is not None:            self.figure.close_signal = True        self.figure = plot_class(self.plotdata)        controller = PlotController(model=self.figure)        controller.edit_traits()N = 20x = np.arange(N)y = x + np.random.normal(size=N)plot_selector = PlotSelector(x, y)plot_selector.configure_traits()

Note that the main interface (PlotSelector) calls configure_traits (starts application), while the plots are viewed with edit_traits (called from within application). Also, note that this example calls edit_traits from PlotController instead of calling it from the model. You could instead move the view from PlotController to BasicPlot and set the handler method of that view to PlotController.

Finally, if you don't need to totally destroy the plot window, then you may want to look at the Plot object's delplot method, which destroys the *sub*plot (here the line plot or bar plot).

I hope that helps.