Figure 1 uses the plot command to graph the parametrically-given curve .

The syntax for the plot command is a list of the form , where, of course,  can be any parameter.  The list must have these three elements, and the range must be inside the list.

Figure 2 uses the spacecurve command to graph one loop of the helix .

The syntax for the spacecurve command is flexible.  The list  may or may not include the range; the list of three functions can even be a vector!

The original implementation of the VectorCalculus packages was based on the constructs of the free vector and the VectorField. In Cartesian coordinates, the point  is identified with the "free" vector  whose tail is at the origin and whose head is at the point.  This works fine in Cartesian coordinates where the basis vectors are constant.  (It does not work well in non-Cartesian coordinates where the basis vectors change from point to point.)

Figure 3 uses the SpaceCurve command to plot the (Cartesian) free vector

The SpaceCurve command could equally well have been applied to the free vector , thereby producing the graph of a helix.  Thus, the distinction between dimensions has been eliminated.  

Updates to the VectorCalculus packages introduced the construct of the PositionVector  for defining curves (and surfaces).  The curve graphed in Figures 1 and 3 would be represented by

and would be graphed with the PlotPositionVector command as per Figure 4.

An option to the PlotPositionVector command plots the arrows of a vector field, and other options provide for plotting the arrows of the tangent, principal normal, and derivative fields for the position vector.  This is illustrated in Figure 5 where tangent vectors are shown in black, and normal vectors are shown in green.

The VectorField command defines a vector at each point of .  Figure 6 superimposes ten vectors of the vector field

on the curve R in Figure 4.

The integral of a vector field produces curves called flow lines along which the vectors of the field are tangent. (For example, the flow lines of an electric field are called field lines.)  The FlowLine command in the  package will draw the flow line emanating from a given point, as illustrated for the field F and Figure 7.

It is not possible to ask the FlowLine command for more than one flow line.  The alternative is to write the differential equations

and to integrate them with the DEplot command from the DEtools package.  The result for the initial points

appears in Figure 8.

Maple provides a task template for interactively generating orbits in the phase plane of the autonomous system

To open the task, from the Tools>Tasks menu, select Browse, then Differential Equations>ODEs>Phase portrait - Autonomous Systems

To use this task template, enter the information on the right and press Enter Data.  Then, click on the plot and choose the Click and Drag Manipulator from the Plot menu or plotting toolbar ( ).

Clicking on a point in the phase plane generates the orbit through that point.

Since graphing the flow lines of a planar vector field is equivalent to drawing the phase portrait of this same autonomous system, there is also a related Vector Fields Task:

Tools>Tasks>Browse: Vector Calculus>Vector Fields>Integrate Planar Vector Field

This task template is used in the same way: enter information, click Enter Data, click on the graph and select the Click and Drag Manipulator, and then click the graph to draw the flow line through that point.

These task templates are based on the DEplot command from the DEtools package.  The extra steps of converting the components of the vector field to the syntax of differential equations are hidden in the code behind the buttons.

DEplot, plot, Plotting Guide, spacecurve, VectorCalculus