Hi Kevin, The question's title hints in direction of "3d surface/patch plotting" and the question text of sorts "generate a surface between the two" also includes the keyword "surface". However, the task described in the associated paragraph could be stated as general question of sorts "I have two curves and would like to fill the enclosed area - how can I do this?".
The reason why I am asking this question is: pgfplots 1.10 is about to be released (that means within the next days). And it will come with one major feature, namely the ability to fill the area enclosed by two arbitrary curves. However, this kind of filling is two--dimensional in its nature, and it would have constant color (or a pattern/shading which is independent of the curve data). This new "fillbetween" feature will probably work out of the box, its syntax will be "\addplot fill between[of=A and B];" where "A" and "B" are sort of labels for the two input curves. You may want browse through the pdf manual of the release candidate http://pgfplots.sourceforge.net/pgfplots_unstable.pdf (section "Libraries >> Fill Between"). *If* that is satisfies your needs, you can simply wait for a couple of days and download that new version (announcements will be sent to this list). If you really need a surface (probably with interpolated color data), then we would need to come back to your problem at hand. My first assessment would be that you'd need to triangulate the area manually and visualize the resulting triangles by means of a surf or patch plot. In other words: you have to come up with a suitable sequence of patches (perhaps triangles as the most simple ones) on your own; the visualization as mesh or surface would be done by pgfplots. A related solution could be http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/91689/visualize-data-on-a-variable-radius-graph-network/93858#93858 . Clearly, this approach would benefit from a good set of sampling points for both input curves. The triangulation could be done in your external program which generates the points. If you need help on this second topic (perhaps about the expected input format), you can post another question here, optimally with a minimal working example. Kind regards Christian Am 28.02.2014 21:28, schrieb Kevin Smith: > Hello, > > I have started to experiment with pgfplots for plotting some 3-d data > that I would like to visualize. > > What I would like to do seems like it should be simple, but perhaps I > need a little bit of direction from the experts on which approach I > should take. > > I have two 3D curves which are each represented by an array of (x,y,z) > data. So far, I have learned enough to where I can plot the curves > individually in a graph using addplot3 and I have been able to export > my data so that it is in a nice text format for addplot3 coordinate > syntax.. > > One view of this data would be simply to show the two curves in the > graph but in different colors with their own label. That should be > fairly simple. > > As an extension of this, I would wonder if it would be possible to > generate a surface between the two curves so that the gaps or > differences between the two curves could be better visualized. I have > tried various patch example settings in the gallery but none of them > seem to give what I want. Since the 2 curves are somewhat similar, the > desired result would be that the surface would look like a "ribbon" > between the curves, where the ribbon might vary in width, depending on > the gap between the curves. > > Another issue is that the two curves can each have a different number > of points. I could potentially interpolate the curves before I export > them, so that the data for each curve will be of the same dimension if > that makes it easier. > > Thanks in advance for any suggestions… > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Flow-based real-time traffic analytics software. Cisco certified tool. > Monitor traffic, SLAs, QoS, Medianet, WAAS etc. with NetFlow Analyzer > Customize your own dashboards, set traffic alerts and generate reports. > Network behavioral analysis & security monitoring. All-in-one tool. > http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=126839071&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk > > > _______________________________________________ > Pgfplots-features mailing list > Pgfplots-features@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/pgfplots-features ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Subversion Kills Productivity. Get off Subversion & Make the Move to Perforce. With Perforce, you get hassle-free workflows. Merge that actually works. Faster operations. Version large binaries. Built-in WAN optimization and the freedom to use Git, Perforce or both. Make the move to Perforce. http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=122218951&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk _______________________________________________ Pgfplots-features mailing list Pgfplots-features@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/pgfplots-features
