Gnuplot: Multiplot Plot Just Curve Without Axis Or Title etc - gnuplot

Question

I've used the following script to generate a plot and the result is shown in the figure below. It is hard to see, but the xlabel, ylabel, title and tic numbers have actually been drawn over and over again each time a plot function was called while in multiplot. In ideas how I can avoid this and just plot the graph without anything else? If I unset the title, tics etc and then plot, then the graph does not plot in the same area as the frame and petrudes into where the left y-axis is.
#set datafile separator ' '
set samples 1000
set term tikz size 17cm,10cm dashed
set out 'MosfetClassAbPower.tex'
unset key
set border lw 2
set style fill transparent solid 0.5 noborder
set title 'MOSFET $\mathrm{I_D}$ Vs Time'
set ylabel 'Drain Current [$\mu$A]'
set xlabel 'Time [ms]'
set xrange [0:4]
set xtics 0,0.5,4
set mxtics 4
set yrange [-50:450]
set mytics 4
set rmargin 5
set label 1 '\SI{60}{\micro\ampere}' at 4.02,60
set multiplot
set grid mxtics mytics lt -1 lc rgb 'gray90'
plot NaN notitle
unset grid
set grid xtics ytics lt -1 lc rgb 'gray70'
plot NaN notitle
unset grid
plot NaN notitle
Id(x) = 347*sin(2*3.14*x) + 60
ID(x) = Id(x) >= 0 ? Id(x) : 0
plot ID(x) w filledcurves above y1=0 lc rgb 'light-blue',\
60 w lines lt 2 lw 3 lc rgb 'gray60',\
ID(x) w lines lt 1 lw 5 lc rgb 'navy'
plot NaN notitle
unset multiplot
set out
My attempt at preventing the curve from protruding over the frame.
Edit:
reset
#set term tikz size 17cm,10cm dashed standalone header '\usepackage{siunitx}'
#set out 'MosfetClassAbPower.tex'
#TSCALE = 1.0
set terminal pdfcairo dashed
set out 'MosfetClassAbPowerFixed.pdf'
TSCALE = 20.0 # use this value for e.g. pdfcairo or cairolatex
TITLE = 'MOSFET $I_D$ Vs Time'
YLABEL = 'Drain Current (in \si{\uA})'
XLABEL = 'Time (in \si{\ms})'
set style fill transparent solid 0.5 noborder
set xrange [0:4]
set xtics 0,0.5,4
set mxtics 4
set yrange [-50:450]
set mytics 4
set rmargin 5
LABEL = '\SI{60}{\uA}'
set label 1 LABEL at graph 1.01, first 60
unset key
set samples 1000
set multiplot
set title TITLE
set ylabel YLABEL
set xlabel XLABEL
unset border
set tics scale 0,0.001
set grid mxtics mytics lt -1 lc rgb 'gray90'
plot NaN
unset grid
# keep the current margins for all following plots
set lmargin at screen TSCALE*GPVAL_TERM_XMIN/(1.0*GPVAL_TERM_XSIZE)
set rmargin at screen TSCALE*GPVAL_TERM_XMAX/(1.0*GPVAL_TERM_XSIZE)
set tmargin at screen TSCALE*GPVAL_TERM_YMAX/(1.0*GPVAL_TERM_YSIZE)
set bmargin at screen TSCALE*GPVAL_TERM_YMIN/(1.0*GPVAL_TERM_YSIZE)
# unset almost everything
unset border
unset label
unset xlabel
unset ylabel
set format x ''
set format y ''
unset title
set grid xtics ytics lt -1 lc rgb 'gray70'
plot NaN
unset grid
Id(x) = 347*sin(2*3.14*x) + 60
ID(x) = Id(x) >= 0 ? Id(x) : 0
plot ID(x) w filledcurves above y1=0 lc rgb 'light-blue',\
60 w lines lt 2 lw 3 lc rgb 'gray60',\
ID(x) w lines lt 1 lw 5 lc rgb 'navy'
# overdraw borders on left, right, top, bottom
set object 1 rectangle from screen 0, screen 0 to graph 0, screen 1 back \
fillstyle solid noborder
set object 2 rectangle from graph 1, screen 0 to screen 1, screen 1 back \
fillstyle solid noborder
set object 3 rectangle from screen 0, graph 1 to screen 1, screen 1 back \
fillstyle solid noborder
set object 4 rectangle from screen 0, screen 0 to screen 1, graph 0 back \
fillstyle solid noborder
plot NaN
unset object 1
unset object 2
unset object 3
unset object 4
set title TITLE
set ylabel YLABEL
set xlabel XLABEL
set label 1 LABEL at graph 1.01, first 60
set format x
set format y
set tics scale 1,0.5 front
set border
set border lw 2
plot NaN
unset multiplot
set out

Answer 1

It is not possible, to set different layers for all plot elements and stack them arbitrarily. You must play around with set and unset for the various elements.
In order to have the tics drawn only once, I set their scale to 0 (this works for the major tics, but not for the minor tics, where I use 0.001).
I fix the margins after the minor grid lines are drawn (see Gnuplot: Store plot area dimensions for later use).
Unset everything, which shouldn't be drawn again (label, object, arrow, tics labels etc). Do not unset tics, because we want to drawn them last, so just use set format x '' to draw the tics, but not their labels.
Set the tics to their default scale, and set the border before the last plot, to have them drawn above the grid lines and above the plot.
reset
set term tikz size 17cm,10cm dashed standalone header '\usepackage{siunitx}'
set out 'MosfetClassAbPower.tex'
TSCALE = 1.0
# set terminal pdfcairo
# TSCALE = 20.0 # use this value for e.g. pdfcairo or cairolatex
set style fill transparent solid 0.5 noborder
set title 'MOSFET $I_D$ Vs Time'
set ylabel 'Drain Current (in \si{\uA})'
set xlabel 'Time (in \si{\ms})'
set xrange [0:4]
set xtics 0,0.5,4
set mxtics 4
set yrange [-50:450]
set mytics 4
set rmargin 5
set label 1 '\SI{60}{\uA}' at graph 1.01, first 60
unset key
set samples 1000
set multiplot
unset border
set tics scale 0,0.001
set grid mxtics mytics lt -1 lc rgb 'gray90'
plot NaN
unset grid
# keep the current margins for all following plots
set lmargin at screen TSCALE*GPVAL_TERM_XMIN/(1.0*GPVAL_TERM_XSIZE)
set rmargin at screen TSCALE*GPVAL_TERM_XMAX/(1.0*GPVAL_TERM_XSIZE)
set tmargin at screen TSCALE*GPVAL_TERM_YMAX/(1.0*GPVAL_TERM_YSIZE)
set bmargin at screen TSCALE*GPVAL_TERM_YMIN/(1.0*GPVAL_TERM_YSIZE)
# unset almost everything
unset border
unset label
unset xlabel
unset ylabel
set format x ''
set format y ''
unset title
set grid xtics ytics lt -1 lc rgb 'gray70'
plot NaN
unset grid
set tics scale 1,0.5 front
set border
set border lw 2
Id(x) = 347*sin(2*3.14*x) + 60
ID(x) = Id(x) >= 0 ? Id(x) : 0
plot ID(x) w filledcurves above y1=0 lc rgb 'light-blue',\
60 w lines lt 2 lw 3 lc rgb 'gray60',\
ID(x) w lines lt 1 lw 5 lc rgb 'navy'
unset multiplot
set out
Result:
Now the ordering is:
minor grid lines
major grid lines
curve
border, tics
Note, that I made some other tiny changes: You can use e.g. graph coordinates to set a label. And some tweaking of the label text.
EDIT:
Cairolatex or epslatex
The proceeding described above works well for any terminal which processes text and graphics together, but not for terminals like cairolatex and epslatex which also in multiplot mode know only two text layer:
front layer, contains all text placed with front keyword.
graphics, contains all graphical elements of all plot commands (also in multiplot mode).
back layer, contains all text placed with back keyword.
This may become a problem, when one wants to cover parts of the graphic (protruding lines) with a white object, but cannot put e.g. the xlabel to the front. Here is an example, which works also with cairolatex:
reset
set terminal cairolatex pdf dashed color standalone header "\\usepackage{siunitx}" size 17cm,10cm
set output 'MosfetClassAbPowerFixed.tex'
TITLE = 'MOSFET $I_D$ Vs Time'
YLABEL = 'Drain Current (in \si{\uA})'
XLABEL = 'Time (in \si{\ms})'
set style fill transparent solid 0.5 noborder
set xrange [0:4]
set xtics 0,0.5,4
set mxtics 4
set yrange [-50:450]
set mytics 4
RMARGIN=0.92
LMARGIN=0.1
set rmargin at screen RMARGIN
set lmargin at screen LMARGIN
set tmargin at screen 0.91
set bmargin at screen 0.11
unset key
set samples 1000
set multiplot
# first plot the minor grid lines
unset border
set tics scale 0,0.001 format ''
set grid mxtics mytics lt -1 lc rgb 'gray90'
plot NaN
# now plot the major grid lines
unset grid
set grid xtics ytics lt -1 lc rgb 'gray70'
plot NaN
unset grid
# plot the actual curve
# overdraw borders on left and right
set object rectangle from graph -0.005, graph 0 to screen LMARGIN, graph 1 front \
fillstyle solid noborder
set object rectangle from screen RMARGIN, graph 0 to graph 1.005, graph 1 front \
fillstyle solid noborder
Id(x) = 347*sin(2*3.14*x) + 60
ID(x) = Id(x) >= 0 ? Id(x) : 0
plot ID(x) w filledcurves above y1=0 lc rgb 'light-blue',\
60 w lines lt 2 lw 3 lc rgb 'gray60',\
ID(x) w lines lt 1 lw 5 lc rgb 'navy'
unset object
# plot all tics and labels
LABEL = '\SI{60}{\uA}'
set label 1 LABEL at graph 1.01, first 60 front
set title TITLE
set ylabel YLABEL
set xlabel XLABEL
set tics scale 1,0.5 format
set border
set border lw 2
plot NaN
unset multiplot
set out
Because of the only three layer, I put thin white rectangles between the plot border and the tic labels. To have the objects drawn outside the plotting area, one needs to use at least one coordinate value in screen coordinates, otherwise they are clipped.
As opposed the the first example, I used fixed margins for the whole plot, which I prefer.
This gives: