Speed up line drawing in matplotlib animation

Question

I have a bit of code that plots multiple lines(numbering in amounts from 0 to 1000), and this runs inside matplotlib animation. Setting the interval for the animation almost becomes irrelevant, because when there are over 100 lines say, a bottleneck appears.

Hence my question, does anyone have a faster way of plotting lines than the method shown below?

import random
import matplotlib.animation as  animation
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

def plt_metrics():

        fig, (ax1) = plt.subplots()

        def anim(i):

            ax1.clear()

            for k in range(random.randint(250,350)):

                ax1.axhline(y=k, color='black', linewidth = 1)


        ani = animation.FuncAnimation(fig, anim, interval = 500)
        plt.tight_layout()
        plt.show()

plt_metrics()

Thanks.

Don't clear the axes in each step. Also, you can use a single `LineCollection` instead of 100 individual lines. There are already existing Q&A on both. — ImportanceOfBeingErnest, Feb 17 '20 at 11:59
@ ImportanceOfBeingErnest if I don't clear the axes, it will repaint over the last iteration? — ajsp, Feb 17 '20 at 12:04
If you create a single `LineCollection` you would of course update the collection's data in each iteration. — ImportanceOfBeingErnest, Feb 17 '20 at 12:13
@ ImportanceOfBeingErnest and how is that done inside an animation? — ajsp, Feb 17 '20 at 12:14
As in [animate-a-line-with-different-colors](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21077477/animate-a-line-with-different-colors) — ImportanceOfBeingErnest, Feb 17 '20 at 12:20

Speed up line drawing in matplotlib animation

0 Answers0