3D vector plot

Hi,
I am performing a CNC machine tool capability study. I have measured a vertical, 3 axis (x,y,z) milling machine in all three axes using a laser measurement system. The data I have recorded is target position vs actual machine position. A good way of representing this data would in a 3D vector plot.
I have had a play with the 3D line graph but I am struggling to achieve what I require. Please see attached image as an example of would I require.
Is this style vector plot achievable in LabVIEW? Can someone make a suggestion of what plot/graph to use?
Thanks,
Tom
Attachments:
vectorplot.png ‏7 KB

...then in that case...
Christian Aletenbach posted an example of drendering arrows in 2D SOMEWHERE on this forum. Unfortunately I did not tag the post so it will require a search.
His math can be extended to 3D to get the arrows. Each arrows can be a seperate plot in the 3D graph.
Take care,
Ben
Ben Rayner
I am currently active on.. MainStream Preppers
Rayner's Ridge is under construction

Similar Messages

3D Force vector plot

Hi
This might be a very easy thing to do but i can't seem to manage it. I am currently using Labview 8.5 and attempting to represent data acquired from a 3-axis force sensor as a single vector. The vector should begin at the origin with its magnitude and direction represented by the orientation and magnitude of the vector plotted. The inputs are X, Y and Z forces. Any help you could give me with this would be great.
Thanks
John

This thread has a worse case example that you can dumb-down.
Find the part of the code that plots the line.
In your case the line only needs two points the origin and the location where the vector ends.
THat example is based on the CW 3D graph that ships with LV.
I'll leave "creating the arrowhead" as a exercise for the reader.
Spoiler (Highlight to read)
Hint: Christian Altenbach posted an example that draws arrows in a 2D picture, search for that example.
Hint: Christian Altenbach posted an example that draws arrows in a 2D picture, search for that example.
Ben
Ben Rayner
I am currently active on.. MainStream Preppers
Rayner's Ridge is under construction

HP 650C DesignJet Plotter Rasterizing vs Vector Plot

I am considering buying a surplus HP 650C Plotter to convert for cutting vinyl Media. I realize the HP 650C uses inkjet technology and that there will be some work involved in converting the Pen UP/Pen Down functions, the mechanics of the pen carriage and such, but after reviewing the service manual I believe I can work through these issues.
My question remains, though, in the manner in which the plotter actually plots a vector line. Can it be configured to function as a traditional pen plotter, where say a vertical or 45 degree angle line is plotted in one continuous stroke, or would such lines be plotted as with any more modern printer, with the carriage scanning back and forth along the entire width of the media, plotting dots only where the line would be?
Obviously if the latter is the case then it would not work well for my vinyl cutter project.
Rob

This forum is focused on consumer level products. For the Designjet you may have better results posting in the HP Designjet forum here.
That said, for your issue the Designjet 650c would not likely be useful - even when plotting using HPGL it converts to raster format for printing and the printing is done in swaths rather than vector printhead movement. A surplus large format pen plotter would be a better fit and likely much easier to retrofit for vinyl cutting.
Bob Headrick, HP Expert
I am not an employee of HP, I am a volunteer posting here on my own time.
If your problem is solved please click the "Accept as Solution" button ------------V
If my answer was helpful please click the "Thumbs Up" to say "Thank You"--V

Polar plot line color

Hello
I have three vector plotting using polar plot.vi the problem is when I tread to shift the line color, only use black, I need three diferents colors any suggestion?. I put a picture with my block diagram.
I would like too chance the line width how to I can realice this using mi VI?
thanks
Danilo

Abel_Souza wrote:
Hi Danilo,
I think you can use color box contants in a case structure, each case sent one color constat, so you can select colors when you select a case on case structure.
Regards,
Well that is part of the story but the picture input tunnel should be changed to a SR if you wnat more than one plot.
Ben
Ben Rayner
I am currently active on.. MainStream Preppers
Rayner's Ridge is under construction

Writing and loading Object

Hello, I've been trying to save and load back in an Object File by using Object Serialization and ObjectOutputStream and ObjectInputStream. Everything works without casting any exceptions except when I load the fiel back in, it is null. I don't know why. I am actually trying to load a certain Class (which I named SaveGUI) that I have created and that contains many different Objects within itself and they are all Serializable. Now, to use the method readObject(), I guess the object has to be an instance of class Object so I tried extending SaveGUI to Object, It still didn't work.
Can anyone give me some hints on what the problem could be?
This is some of the code:
FileDialog d = new FileDialog(GUI.this, "Save GUI State", FileDialog.SAVE);
d.show(); // display the dialog and block until answered
String filename = d.getFile(); // Get the user's response
if (filename != null) { // If user didn't click "Cancel."
try {
// Create the necessary output streams to save the Object.
File f = new File(d.getDirectory(), filename); // Create a file object
ObjectOutputStream out = new ObjectOutputStream(
new java.util.zip.GZIPOutputStream(
new FileOutputStream(f))); // Save objects
out.writeObject((SaveGUI)saveGUI); // Write the entire Object.
out.flush(); // Always flush the output.
out.close(); // And close the stream.
// Print out exceptions.
catch (IOException ioe) { System.out.println("I/O Exception in file writing: "+ioe); }
// Open up a dialog for the user to choose the file
FileDialog d = new FileDialog(GUI.this, "Load a Saved GUI State", FileDialog.LOAD);
d.show(); // display the dialog and block until answered
String filename = d.getFile(); // Get the user's response
if (filename != null || (filename.length() != 0)) { // If user didn't click "Cancel."
try {
// Create the necessary input streams to load the GUI.
File f = new File(d.getDirectory(), filename); // Create a File object
ObjectInputStream in = new ObjectInputStream(
new java.util.zip.GZIPInputStream(
new FileInputStream(f))); // Read Object.
SaveGUI obj = (SaveGUI)in.readObject(); // Assign Object.
//in.close(); // And close the stream.
// Print out exceptions.
catch (IOException ioe) { System.out.println("I/O Exception in file loading: "+ioe); }
public class SaveGUI extends java.lang.Object implements java.io.Serializable {
public SaveGUI() {}
Vector xAxisDataTable = new Vector(); // For each Frame there is a x-Axis DataTable
Vector yAxisDataTable = new Vector(); // for each x-Axis column there is a y-Axis DataTable
Vector titlexAxis = new Vector(); // The title of the xAxis (Vector of Strings)
Vector titleyAxis = new Vector(); // (Vector of Strings)
Vector plotsRecord = new Vector(); // Plotting Records of columns in x-Axis List (PlotRecord-s)
Vector plotsOptions = new Vector(); // Plotting Options, for each layout frame (PlotOptionsFrame)
}

I solved it, don't worry

How do I plot three 1-D vectors into a surface plot?

Hi everyone,
I have programming experience but am completely new with LabView.
I have data files that contain the same wavelength range on the first column, light intensities on the second column, and each new text file is at a different angle. The respective angles are written as headers for each file.
I've extracted wavelength, intensity, and angle into distinct 1-D vectors and want to plot them all on a 3-D graph.
I've tried using scattered plots in vector form, contour plots, plot3Dmesh, etc, and I've googled extensively and have found similar questions but no answers.
Does any one know where I can view specific examples or how to go about this?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
-Michael
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hi Joe,
Thank you! That worked. It enlightened me a bit more about shift registers as well.
The reason I'm taking both the angles and wavelengths from the same column is because the angles are the first value on the numerical header. The wavelengths (and intensities) all begin from row 3 so I just set the read from measurement file VI to start there.
There's one odd thing about the plot. Everything looks fine up until it hits ~340 on the wavelengths. All the angles are read and intensities for wavelengths between 260-340 nm. But the wavelengths range from 260-680 nm. I've been playing around with the shift registers insert into array functions, but I can't figure out what's stopping it from plotting the remaining intensity curves after 340 nm. I suspect it has to do with the number of times the for loop runs, but I thought the list folder files function took care of that. I tried wiring the file count output to N on the for loop but it didn't make a difference. Any thoughts on this?
Note: there are 176 angles, from 0-175. there are around 400 wavelengths, from around 260-680 nm.
Thank you so much!
-Michael

Plot a changing 3d vector from discrete values

Hello
I have a labview program with a while loop that gives me 3 new values every iteration. Lets say they are:
while(1)
i=i+1
x = i
y = i/2
z = -i
I want these to be plotted in a 3d graph, so that it will show a number of dots, updated in realtime, as the loop is iterating.
I'm a beginner with labview, so please explain how to do this as detailed as possible.

Hi,
Just as JKMM suggests, you can use a Line Graph. The key is to use shift registers to store the growing arrays of elements that you generate. For each loop, you add a new element to the x, y and z array before updating the Line Graph. I attach an alternative to JKMM's alternative with some property nodes that you can play around with.
Attachments:
line_graph_3dplot.vi ‏22 KB

How to save data in a 4D array and make partial plots in real time?

Hi, this is a little complex, so bear with me...
I have a test system that tests a number of parts at the same time. The
experiment I do consists of measuring a number of properties of the
parts at various temperatures and voltages. I want to save all the
measured data in a 4-dimensional array. The indices represent,
respectively, temperature, voltage, part, property.
The way the experiment is done, I first do a loop in temperature, then
in voltage, then switch the part. At this point, I measure all the
properties for that condition and part and want to add them as a 1D
array to the 4D array.
At the same time, I want to make a multiple plot (on an XY graph) of
one selected property and part (using two pull-down selectors near the
XY graph) vs. voltage. (The reason I need to use an XY graph and not a
waveform graph, which would be easier, is that I do not have
equidistant steps in voltage, although all the voltage values I step
through are the same for all cases). The multiple plots are the data
sets at different temperatures. I would like to draw connection lines
between the points as a guide to the eye.
I also want the plot to be updated in the innermost for loop in real
time as the data are measured. I have a VI working using nested loops
as described above and passing the 4D array through shift registers,
starting with an array of the right dimensions initialized by zeroes. I
know in advance how many times all the loops have to be executed, and I
use the ReplaceArraySubset function to add the measured properties each
time. I then use IndexArray with the part and property index terminals
wired to extract the 2D array containing the data I want to plot. After
some transformation to combine these data with an array of the voltage
values in the form required to pass to the XYGraph control, I get my
plot.
The problem is: During program execution, when only partial data is
available, all the zero elements in the array do not allow the graph to
autoscale properly, and the lines between the points make little sense
when they jump to zero.
Here is how I think the problem could be solved:
1. Start with an empty array and have the array grow gradually as the
elements are measured. I tried to implement this using Insert Into
Array. Unfortunately, this VI is not as flexible as the Replace Array
Subset, and does not allow me to add a 1D array to a 4D array. One
other option would be to use the Build Array, but I could not figure
out if this is usable in this case.
2. The second option would be to extract only the already measured data
points from the 4D array and pass them to the graph
3. Keep track of the min. and max. values (only when they are different
from zero) and manually reset the graph Y axis scale each time.
Option 3 is doable, but more work for me.....
Option 2: I first tried to use Array Subset, but this always returns an
array of the same dimensionality of the input array. It seems to be
very difficult, but maybe not impossible, to make this work by using
Index Array first followed by Array Subset. Option 3 seems easier.
Ideally, I would like option 1, but I cannot figure out how to achieve
this.
Your help is appreciated, thanks in advance!
germ Remove "nospam" to reply

In article <[email protected]>,
chutla wrote:
> Greetings!
>
> You can use any of the 3D display vi's to show your "main" 3d
> data, and then use color to represent your fourth dimension. This can
> be accessed via the property node. You will have to set thresholds
> for each color you use, which is quite simple using the comparison
> functions. As far as the data is concerned, the fourth dimension will
> be just another vector (column) in your data file.
chutla, thanks for your post, but I don't want a 3D display of the
data....
> Also, check out
> the BUFFER examples for how to separate out "running" data in real
> time.
Not clear to me what you mean, but will c
heck the BUFFER examples.
> As far as autoscaling is concerned, you might have to disable
> it, or alternatively, you could force a couple of "dummy" points into
> your data which represent the absolute min/max you should encounter.
> Autoscaling should generally be regarded as a default mode, just to
> get things rolling, it should not be relied on too heavily for serious
> data acquisition. It's better to use well-conditioned data, or some
> other means, such as a logarithmic scale, to allow access to all your
> possible data points.
I love autoscaling, that's the way it should be.
germ Remove "nospam" to reply

Dynamic Creation and Plotting in CNiGraph

Hi,
I would like to create a temporary CNiGraph object, plot some data, and render it to an image. I am able to create the object dynamically (I think) but I get a runtime error when trying to plot data (using ChartY) on the graph.
The error is in the function AfxGetAmbientActCtx.
My code for control creation looks like:
CNiGraph niGraph;
CRect rect(CPoint(0, 0), m_Size); // the size of the graph
CDC *pDC = pWnd->GetDC();
BSTR bstrLic = :ysAllocStringLen(/* stuff to generate the license */);
niGraph.CreateControl("CWGraph", "", WS_VISIBLE, rect, pWnd,
   m_staticControlID++, NULL, FALSE, bstrLic);
   //use the static control ID to ensure unique IDs
:ysFreeString(bstrLic);
ChartPreviewData(niGraph, pList, settings);
   // ... some untested code to render to an image follows
pWnd is a CPropertySheet (which is a valid window, but I am using as a dummy to temporarily hold the graph). ChartPreviewData does this...
void CXyzClass::ChartPreviewData(
CNiGraph &graph, ... some other arguments....)
   // some code to get the data ready to put in the NI vector
CNiReal64Vector niVector(numPoints, pBuffer);
graph.SetChartLength(numPoints);
// Chart data and adjust delta X to reflect sampling frequency used
CNiPlot plot = graph.Plots.Add();
plot.MultiPlot = TRUE;
plot.ChartY(niVector, (double) 1/pSeries->GetFs()); // crashes
delete pBuffer;
When I step through in the debugger, it looks like NiGraph gets created okay. In fact, I can see it on the dialog. However calling ChartY is giving me a runtime error. I suspect I am missing something to do with ActiveX but I'm not sure what.
Thanks, Nick
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Sorry, this is resolved. I had a stupid error and was passing a zero-length vector to ChartY.
I dicovered that way up on the call stack a exception was being thrown because of this.

Hw can I generate XY graphs directly in a vector data format for printing ie pdf

A further question re. Printing of Graphs
There are many similar questions but none where the answers are acceptably adiquite or two or three were the link was broken,
"Developer exchange forums have been moved" and a pointer to the new
site, unfort it was hard to find or guess the rest of the link.
So here is my angle on this problem;
So far I have tried;
Using property node: "App. Printing.Default Printer" to select the printer to use, then
Using Report Functions to print controls;
New Report, to generate a new report reference
Set Report Orientation
Set Report Margins
Set Report Font
Set Report Header Text
Set Report Font
Set Report Footer Text
loop for each page
Set Report Footer Text, With page number
Append Control Image to Report, several times
New Report Page
Until the end of the last page
Print Report
Dispose Report
Initially using existing XY-Graph controls from the front panel. These
are on a page of a Tab control to hide these controls while not in use
and allow them to be hidden while generating the printout.
Unfortunately when this page is hidden any graph scales set to
autoscale don't, (normally don't need to and would otherwise be a waste
of processor time), resulting in graph plots going off scale or
becoming a line along the axis.
An issue is that what is printed appears to be read from the screen, so resolution is much
lower than required for for printing, resulting in rather pixellated
printed versions. These prints will usually be emailed, so tried the
pdf995 "printer driver" but the resulting pdf file size is rather large.
Currently trying Plot-XY on a much larger picture so as to get
adequate resolution for printing, however suspect this will result in
much larger pdf files and probably cause other problems.
The preferred solution in this case will probably be to generate print
output, instead of based on raster images (ie jpg or png), but on a
vector format, maybe via postscript or directly in pdf format.
Similar graphs currently printed from Excel via pdf995
(or OpenOffice) result in files around 20 kb per page. these can be printed at any size
(at least upto 64 times) without becoming pixellated, so assume these
are vector based.
Currently a page with 4 XY Graph controls uses around 40 to 45 kb per
page but resolution is poor and overcoming that may push file size up
to 150 to 200 kb per page, and the whole job can be 50 to 100 pages.
Are there any functions to generate XY graphs directly in a vector data format preferably in pdf or via PostScript format.
Cheers
Darryl

Hi Darryl,
I was able to reproduce the issue you were seeing, in which a report generation was taking up a large amount of space per page in a PDF utility. I found; however, using my attached VI (notice that it is set to *.png) and the CutePDF utility (free download at http://www.cutepdf.com/) I was able to get a per page size of about 10 KB. Also using the png I found that the image quality seemed to be quite high.
Please try incorporating this solution into your application and see if it reduces your file sizes.
Thanks and have a good evening!
Cheers,
Jonah
Applications Engineer
National Instruments
Jonah Paul
Marketing Manager, Embedded Software
Evaluate the LabVIEW RIO Platform! - ni.com/rioeval
Attachments:
print_XY Graph.vi ‏23 KB

Custom Icon/Marker on XY Plot

Hello,
I have an XY plot in which shows the intended path and current position of a aircraft. I have drawn up a picture of what it somewhat looks like and I attached it to this post. I would like to have a custom icon that will point in the direction the aircraft is flying. I have the heading, so that data is not a problem, though, I am sure there are other problems that I will run in to. I've only looked into this a small bit and have come up with quite a few dead ends. I am now considering going down the ActiveX path, but wanted to get some insight before I dove into that (especially I have not done at ActiveX). That being said, take a look at my picture, which will better explain what I am looking for. I show only 4 time quantities, but there will be many more in the final product since it is a real-time application.
I have seen this page, http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=170&message.id=379432&query.id=4622127#M379432, but considering it is over a year old, I wanted to check and see if anything has changed.
Thank you and let me know what you guys think.
Michael
Message Edited by MegaWatts on 04-12-2010 11:41 AM
-You can never have too much power...
Attachments:
custom_marker.jpg ‏43 KB

Use a picture control.
LV has a shipping example of a XY XChart that is based on the Picture.
THis thread has links to threads with picture related examples.
I used the picture control to render the vectors showing air speed and direction inside a mine gallery. It worked good for me.
Ben
Ben Rayner
I am currently active on.. MainStream Preppers
Rayner's Ridge is under construction

I sent a matrix,its row and column to a child window. However "Acess violation" & 'Memory cannot be reference" error occurs when I try to plot the data in the child dialogue. Why?

My OS is Win200 professional.
I'm running a data acquisition program. I'd got this main dialog which the user selects the input channel.
The child dialog should show the graph.
I'd initialise all the NI_DAQ configuration in the main dialog class. After acquiring the data, I send the matrix to the child window for it to plot. There is no compilation error.
However when I try to plot the data, Windows complained about Acess violation and Memory cannot be accessed error.
I'd attached my program below.
Attachments:
DataAcqDlg.cpp ‏10 KB
Ch1Dlg.cpp ‏7 KB

Wynn:
I believe this problem is occurring because you are using the index operator (brackets "[","]") instead of the functional call operator (parentheses "(",")") in your code to access the matrix.
SigCh1Vect[i] = SigCh1Max[1,i];
The index operator is not defined for the matrix, because the C++ language does not allow a two-argument overload of this operator. Instead you have to use the function call operator for matrices and remember to use the index operator for vectors.
I believe that what is happening is that the compiler is using one of the defined cast operators on the matrix (operator DataType) to convert the symbol "SigCh1Max" into a double pointer. It then interprets the bracket as it would any array index operation. So the compile
r effectively sees:
SigCh1Vect[i] = *(((Real64*)SigCh1Max) + (1,i));
In this case, I believe the comma operator is defined to return the rightmost operand, or "i". Changing your code to
SigCh1Vect[i] = SigCh1Max(1,i);
should fix the problem. Please let me know if any issues exist after this fix.
In the next release of Measurement Studio, I will recommend that the index operator be defined on the matrix classes, even if it simply throws an exception. The existence of this operator will prevent problems like this from showing up.
Hope this helps,
-- Chris W.
Measurement Studio R&D
National Instruments

Plot offset in contour line plot

Hello,
I have a contour line plot like the the following:
The circle's center is at x = 0 and y = 0.
Now I'd like to move the plot with 2 offsets: x and y.
The axis scaling may not change.
But the plot circle's center should be moved a bit, so that it's for example at x = 0,25 and y = 0,4.
How can I do that, so that the plot will be recalculated?
I attached an example VI if you like to play around with it.
It's based on the VI "Contour Line Plot" in the NI Example Finder.
The values of the 2D arrays are given (measured). And after measuring these values the offset calculation should start based on these values.
Regards
Matthias
Attachments:
Contour Line Plot Test.vi ‏23 KB

Please discard my previous post, I missed that you don't want x/y scale affected... First turn off Autoscale on both X & Y (right click no scale, you'll see options, I also turned off Loose fit but not sure if that's needed even though data are fractional) and then add offsets to data just before they enter Contour Line.
-BTC
New Controls & Indicators made using vector graphics & animations? Click below for Pebbles UI
Attachments:
Contour Line Plot Test2.vi ‏26 KB

Change color spectrum orientation in 3d plot

hi,
I have a 3d plot:
x-axis = wavelength
y-axis = angle of reflection
z-axis = intensity counts
the 3d surface is colored like the spectrum, now i want to rotate the color orientation, that it corresponds with the wavelength, but I do not want to change the axis. thanks.
Attachments:
spectrum - reflection 3d.llb ‏980 KB

Hi Robert,
This is not as easy as right-clicking...
I had posted a crude (er messy?) example that shows you how to define the color of each point plotted in 3-space.
The following link shows the result of doing a parametric plot using this method.
http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=170&message.id=84079&requireLogin=False
Look fo rthe LAST jpg I posted.
Unfortunately, I could not find where I posted the code. I needed Molly's help to get it posted because it was a 4 meg example.
What you want to do is use a custom color map and use the "w" vector to specify the color of the points. The values passed via the "w" vector must match up with your custom color scale.
Maybe someone else knows a better way. I'll watch for updates.
Ben
Ben Rayner
I am currently active on.. MainStream Preppers
Rayner's Ridge is under construction

3d plot line thickness

How does one change the thickness of individual lines in 3DLine Plot? I am able to use 3D Graph Properties -> Plots -> Overlay to change the thickness of all lines, but can't figure out how to change individual lines. Is it even possible?

Hello jmountney,
The overlay for a line can be set on a plot-by-plot basis, and you can do this either via the 3D Graph Properties window (right-click>>3D Graph Properties) or via property nodes. There are a couple things to keep in mind:
1) The overlay is assigned to a given plot index. The best way to set up indices is in the 3D Graph Properties window. The Plots tab will allow you to assign plot IDs and overlay styles for each index.
2) You'll need to build each line you want to manipulate separately as its own plot. This is done by specifying a Plot ID when using the create_plot_line function. I would recommend pre-assigning Plot IDs for the range of plots you anticipate using in the 3D Graph Properies window.
3) You can configure overlays dynamically (at runtime) via property nodes. Set the plot index you want to modify using the Active Plot property, then change the overlay parameters. Any changes you make will affect the current Active Plot.
4) The plot ID is NOT equivalent to the plot index. The plot ID is the number displayed in the 3D Graph Properties window and is the number you use when specifying a plot to add a vector to (This can be any positive or negative integer). The plot index is the index of the plot ID array. If you specify a Plot ID that's not currently in use at runtime (wire an unused number to the create_plot_line function), it will create and occupy the next available plot index. This means that unless you assign plot IDs in sequence (0,1,2,3...) the Plot IDs will not match the plot indices. Just something to keep in mind.
Hope that helps!
Tom L.

3D vector plot

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