gnuplot : anomalous behaviour of 'set xrange' in an animated 2D-plot of MD data - gnuplot

Question

I am working on a Windows 7 machine using gnuplot 5 Patch level 1.
I am preparing an animation of the sequence of interatomic distances along a trajectory from a molecular dynamics calculation.
The following script works fine:
set termopt enhanced # turn on enhanced text mode
# --- GRAPH a
set yrange [0.0:25.0]
set xlabel 't (fs)'
set ylabel "R_{ij} (A)"
set key box opaque
stats 'NeH2+_125K_TRAY171.DAT'
do for [i=1:STATS_records:2001] {
plot 'NeH2+_125K_TRAY171.DAT' using ($1/10):2 every ::1::i with lines title 'R_{NeH_{1}}', \
'NeH2+_125K_TRAY171.DAT' using ($1/10):3 every ::1::i with lines title 'R_{H_{1}H_{2}}',\
'NeH2+_125K_TRAY171.DAT' using ($1/10):4 every ::1::i with lines title 'R_{NeH_{2}}',
}
end of script
However the x-range is updated during the simulation and can be quite distracting since the data file is quite long.
To avoid updating the x-axis, I tried using the set xrange command
set xrange[0.0:7.0]
set yrange [0.0:25.0]
set xlabel 't (fs)'
...
When the animation starts, it works correctly but after plotting a few thousand data, it stops. Furthermore, there are no error messages in the console window of the aplication.
I have tested both scripts on a second windows 7 computer with gnuplot 5.2 and did observe the same behaviours.
Apparently the scripts are correct. Can anybody identify the problem?.
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Note, that the set yrange also applies to the stats call (yes, the yrange, because you don't specify any column).
So in any case you might have less plot iterations than you expect. Try
reset
f = 'NeH2+_125K_TRAY171.DAT'
stats f
set xrange [0.0:7.0]
set yrange [0.0:25.0]
do for [i=1:STATS_records:2001] {
plot f using ($1/10):2 every ::1::i title 'R_{NeH_{1}}', \
'' using ($1/10):3 every ::1::i title 'R_{H_{1}H_{2}}',\
'' using ($1/10):4 every ::1::i title 'R_{NeH_{2}}'
}