A Typical 3-D Graph :: Creating 3-D Graphs (3-D Visualization)

3-D Visualization

A Typical 3-D Graph

This table illustrates typical steps involved in producing 3-D scenes containing either data graphs or models of 3-D objects. Example applications include pseudocolor surfaces illustrating the values of functions over specific regions and objects drawn with polygons and colored with light sources to produce realism. Usually, you follow either step 4 or step 5.

Step
Typical Code

Prepare your data.

Z = peaks(20);

Select window and position plot region within window.

figure(1)
subplot(2,1,2)

Call 3-D graphing function.

h = surf(Z);

Set colormap and shading algorithm.

colormap hot
shading interp
set(h,'EdgeColor','k')

Add lighting.

light('Position',[-2,2,20])
lighting phong
material([0.4,0.6,0.5,30])
set(h,'FaceColor',[0.7 0.7 0],...
'BackFaceLighting','lit')

Set viewpoint.

view([30,25])
set(gca,'CameraViewAngleMode','Manual')

Set axis limits and tick marks.

axis([5 15 5 15 -8 8])
set(gca,'ZTickLabel','Negative||Positive')

Set aspect ratio.

set(gca,'PlotBoxAspectRatio',[2.5 2.5 1])

Annotate the graph with axis labels, legend, and text.

xlabel('X Axis')
ylabel('Y Axis')
zlabel('Function Value')
title('Peaks')

Print graph.

set(gcf,'PaperPositionMode','auto')
print -dps2

Step	Typical Code
Prepare your data.	`Z = peaks(20);`
Select window and position plot region within window.	`figure(1)` `subplot(2,1,2)`
Call 3-D graphing function.	`h = surf(Z);`
Set colormap and shading algorithm.	`colormap hot` `shading interp` `set(h,'EdgeColor','k')`
Add lighting.	`light('Position',[-2,2,20])` `lighting phong` `material([0.4,0.6,0.5,30])` `set(h,'FaceColor',[0.7 0.7 0],...` `'BackFaceLighting','lit')`
Set viewpoint.	`view([30,25])` `set(gca,'CameraViewAngleMode','Manual')`
Set axis limits and tick marks.	`axis([5 15 5 15 -8 8])` `set(gca,'ZTickLabel','Negative\|\|Positive')`
Set aspect ratio.	`set(gca,'PlotBoxAspectRatio',[2.5 2.5 1])`
Annotate the graph with axis labels, legend, and text.	`xlabel('X Axis')` `ylabel('Y Axis')` `zlabel('Function Value')` `title('Peaks')`
Print graph.	`set(gcf,'PaperPositionMode','auto')` `print -dps2`

Creating 3-D Graphs Line Plots of 3-D Data