Legend for a 3D Surface Plot

How can I create a legend for a 3D surface plot? I'm doing a xy-projection and the view direction is directly towards this plane. The plot style is a surface contour plot. I want to display next to the plot the legend in a separate bar where the different colours with each value are displayed. The value for each contour line shall be displayed in the legend.
Patrick

OK,
I remember that thread now. That was the one were you did not want to use interpolate colors and I did. Well I still like to interpolate colors but that presents another challenge when trying to produce a proper color ramp. Without resorting to using the picture control
http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=BreakPoint&message.id=14&jump=true
I decided to play with some of the built in objects.
All of the round objects like knobs and guages include a color ramp. This gave me a ramp but is not quite up to what you get with an intensity graph.
Since I could not get a ramp on any of the straight indicators like sliders etc, I hid most of an intensity graph and just use the Z-scale. It turns out that the same data structure can be used in the intesity graph as the guage.
Can anyone think of other ays of producing a proper color scale when intepolation is turned on?
Ben
Message Edited by Ben on 12-24-2005 08:03 AM
Message Edited by Ben on 12-24-2005 08:03 AM
Ben Rayner
I am currently active on.. MainStream Preppers
Rayner's Ridge is under construction
Attachments:
Scale.vi ‏81 KB
Scale.JPG ‏111 KB

Similar Messages

How to Generate Event on change in Plot Legend for XY Graph

Hi,
I have two XY graphs on the front panel and would like to maintain a common plot legend such that any change in the plot legend affects both graphs.
Objective: I would like any value change in plot legend to fire an event.
How do I program that?
I know of value change event for the graph but am unable to find something specific to the plot legend. Other option is to have the user press a "refresh" button that will fire the event.
Feel free to share thoughts on other elegant methods to achieve the same objective.
Thanks,
Gurdas
Gurdas Singh
PhD. Candidate | Civil Engineering | NCSU.edu

Hi Sarah,
Looks like you are talking of exactly what I want!
I have attached a sample VI to try achieve what I want. But it still has some issues which are:
1) I am unable to configure a Plot Attribute Change Event. I have used a mouse leave event instead. How does one configure a Plot Attribute Change Event?
2) Is there no single property which will transfer all the settings of plot legend from one graph to plot legend of another graph? In my sample VI, I have to read each property of the master graph and feed it into the slave graph.
Kindly note I am using LV FDS 7.1 on Win2000
Thanks,
Gurdas
Message Edited by Gurdas on 03-27-2006 11:51 PM
Gurdas Singh
PhD. Candidate | Civil Engineering | NCSU.edu
Attachments:
Graph_PlotLegend_Event.vi ‏45 KB

Maximum matrix size for surface plot?

Morning,
I've streamed data from an experiment to TDMS, and would like to display it in DIAdem. I have M channels of N data points and would like to display them in a surface plot.
Usually, I'd expect to do the following:
- Build a X axis (Generate Numeric Channel - N points at dX interval)
- Build a Y axis (Generate Numeric Channel - M points at dY interval)
- Build a Z matrix (Convert Matrix from X axis, Y axis and the M channels of N data points)
I can then plot the X Y Z triplets to a surface plot.
Alternatively, I can build the X and Y arrays and plot X Y Z in matrix mode. This has the added benefit of not forcing interpolation, which *always* crashes
Now the kicker. For my dataset, M = 192, N = 290 000 and I'm unable to plot more than the first 20% of the data in X. I suspect that Diadem's limited to displaying 2^16 in surface plots, but no error is returned. Does anyone know if this is the case?
I can decimate my data to fit the limit, but it's never nice to have to throw away data!
(For clarification, the data is a raster scan of a sensor over a surface. I could drop the sampling rate and/or increase the speed over the surface, but that's a secondary concern)
CLD

Actually, it's the creation of an intensity plot that I'm more interested in, for two reasons. I can split my data into smaller segments and then compare measured data against my CAD model, but it's also handy having the global intensity plot available for human overview. Amusingly, almost any way I try to split the data besides decimating means that the split between datasets will be in some region of interest, which makes it awkward for non programmatic review Meanwhile, the problem with decimation is that I have four channels of data for each of those slices: channels 1 and 2 are analogue signals and averaged to give one plot, channel three is another analogue voltage that is plotted in another, but channel four is a digital waveform with some pretty short pulse widths. Decimate too much and you'll barely see any meaningful data when plotted on an intensity plot for this.
My instinct before starting was that DIAdem would handle the large dataset better than LabVIEW, which it did if I only wanted to plot YT data. However, after changing tack and heading back to LabVIEW I found that it was able to churn through things a bit better.
I'm happy to send an email to describe what I'm doing in a bit more detail, as well as provide some of the resulting plots, as it's a sensitive project. Understandably, even if I could upload the data for someone else to work on, I'm not sure how much use 1.7 Gb of TDMS is to anyone else!
CLD

3D Surface Plot Cursor Error

I can't seem to get the cursor(s) to function on the 3D Surface Plot. I right-click on the front panel plot, go to properties, and select cursor - but then I get an error and LabVIEW crashes. Has anybody had any sucess with this? I've tried it in both LabVIEW 6.1 and 7.1

Hi,
I have used the cursors in the 3D graph a couple of times with no problem. There are a couple of advices that I can give. Place the 3D graph strait form the pallet, do not create an ActiveX container and add the 3D graph. Open one of the 3D examples and see if you can add the cursors to a graph that was previously created. You can also try to unregister and reregister the ActiveX control for the 3D graph to make sure that the OS registers the control correctly. You can find the ActiveX control in the system32 folder (cw3dGraph.ocx) and here is a document on how to register the control.
I'm also including here an example that uses cur
sors, see if you can open it and run it. The second attachment is a style file for that 3D graph that includes a cursor. You can load this file by right-clicking on the graph and select "Import Style..". Hopefully you'll be able to load the style and start to work from there.
I hope this helps.
Let me know if you have any further questions.
Regards,
Juan Carlos
N.I.
Attachments:
Torus_with_3D_Cursor.vi ‏312 KB
3DGraphStyle.cwx ‏3 KB

Missing data in 3D surface plot.

Got an easy one for someone to solve. I've created a 3D plot, but the plot doesn't show all of the data.
I'm reading data from a set of .txt files and trying to visualize the results via the 3D plot. Each txt file contains a set of 401 data pairs (y location, measurement). A scalar (x location) is assigned to each file set, then added to an array containing data from previously read files. The resulting array is parsed, rearranged, etc. before going to the 3D Surface Plot control. Looks goofy because this .vi was originally used to combine data from multiple .txt files into a single file.
As you can see from the screen shot, the 3D plot only shows data from 400 to 445 (input data goes to 800). I checked the plot input arrays/matrices to ensure all of the data was read from the .txt files (it's all in there). What am I missing?
The .vi is attached along with a sample .txt file.
Attachments:
incomplete 3d plot.vi ‏23 KB
OE1_CHANNEL1_20100106_141010_58.txt ‏10 KB

You might want to transpose the z array so the dimension better match the x and y array sizes. Also eliminate the zero at the end of the y array.
Delete the first column from the z-matrix, it seems to duplicate the y array.
Your data and array gymnastics are incomprehensible and way too complicated. Can you tell how you want to read the input file in some simple words?
LabVIEW Champion . Do more with less code and in less time .

Converting parametric to a surface plot?

I had previously generated a 3D plot, with the 4D being intensity.
This was done using a parametric plot.
How can i convert the parametric plot to a surface plot.
Attachments:
4D plot.vi ‏61 KB

Fred,
I took a look at the VI you had attached an noticed that your Z matrix only had 1 dimension of data therefore your data will only be points, which it is. Is there any particular reason you are only sending 1D of data to the z matrix?? Second thing I noticed was just the inherent difference between parametric plots and 3D surface plots. The big difference here is that you input relations to surfaces for x,y,and z for the parametric while the 3D surface really only uses z for relative surfaces and the y and x array as skews for the plot. Basically I think you need to figure out the difference in what the plot shows and not try to directly transfer one to the other. The math behind it can be confusing and while looking at a parametric plot it might seem simple to make a surface plot out of it, it is arithmetically hard to do. Look into the issue a little more and let us know what you find, I would be interested to know, given that I am a math nut, but not in 4D space.
Tyler Heikes
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

How to add 3 legends for a single series barchart?? JAVAFX

Here is my code to generate 10 bars of different colors. I want to add legend respectively but it only one shows yellow legend
1. I think it shows only 1 color because there is only 1 series. Is it possible to add more than 1 legend for a single series?
or
2. or can i display another image for legend in barchart??
output :http://i.stack.imgur.com/fSNu7.png
file i want to display in barchart:http://i.stack.imgur.com/cchch.png
public class DynamicallyColoredBarChart extends Application {
    @Override
    public void start(Stage stage) {
        final CategoryAxis xAxis = new CategoryAxis();
        xAxis.setLabel("Bars");
        final NumberAxis yAxis = new NumberAxis();
        yAxis.setLabel("Value");
        final BarChart<String, Number> bc = new BarChart<>(xAxis, yAxis);
        bc.setLegendVisible(false);
        XYChart.Series series1 = new XYChart.Series();
        for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
            // change color of bar if value of i is >5 than red if i>8 than blue
            final XYChart.Data<String, Number> data = new XYChart.Data("Value " + i, i);
            data.nodeProperty().addListener(new ChangeListener<Node>() {
                @Override
                public void changed(ObservableValue<? extends Node> ov, Node oldNode, Node newNode) {
                    if (newNode != null) {
                        if (data.getYValue().intValue() > 8) {
                            newNode.setStyle("-fx-bar-fill: navy;");
                        } else if (data.getYValue().intValue() > 5) {
                            newNode.setStyle("-fx-bar-fill: red;");
            series1.getData().add(data);
        bc.getData().add(series1);
        stage.setScene(new Scene(bc));
        stage.show();
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        launch(args);
...Edited by: 993431 on Mar 12, 2013 1:42 PM

Either:
1. Use a chart which displays multiple series, then you can allow the built-in legend to show OR
2. Use a single dynamically colored series have you have done and create your own custom legend.
import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.scene.*;
import javafx.scene.chart.*;
import javafx.stage.Stage;
public class ThreeSeriesBarChart extends Application {
@Override public void start(Stage stage) {
    final CategoryAxis xAxis = new CategoryAxis();
    xAxis.setLabel("Bars");
    final NumberAxis yAxis = new NumberAxis();
    yAxis.setLabel("Value");
    final BarChart<String, Number> bc = new BarChart<>(xAxis, yAxis);
    XYChart.Series lowSeries = new XYChart.Series();
    lowSeries.setName("Not Achieved");
    XYChart.Series medSeries = new XYChart.Series();
    medSeries.setName("Achieved");
    XYChart.Series hiSeries = new XYChart.Series();
    hiSeries.setName("Exceeded");
    bc.setBarGap(0);
    bc.setCategoryGap(0);
    for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
      final XYChart.Data<String, Number> data = new XYChart.Data("Value " + i, i);
      if (data.getYValue().intValue() > 8) {
        hiSeries.getData().add(data);
      } else if (data.getYValue().intValue() > 5) {
        medSeries.getData().add(data);
      } else {
        lowSeries.getData().add(data);
    bc.getData().setAll(lowSeries, medSeries, hiSeries);
    bc.getStylesheets().add(getClass().getResource("colored-chart.css").toExternalForm());
    stage.setScene(new Scene(bc));
    stage.show();
public static void main(String[] args) {
    launch(args);
import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.beans.value.*;
import javafx.geometry.Pos;
import javafx.scene.*;
import javafx.scene.chart.*;
import javafx.scene.control.Label;
import javafx.scene.layout.*;
import javafx.scene.paint.Color;
import javafx.scene.shape.*;
import javafx.stage.Stage;
public class DynamicallyColoredBarChart extends Application {
@Override public void start(Stage stage) {
    final CategoryAxis xAxis = new CategoryAxis();
    xAxis.setLabel("Bars");
    final NumberAxis yAxis = new NumberAxis();
    yAxis.setLabel("Value");
    final BarChart<String, Number> bc = new BarChart<>(xAxis, yAxis);
    bc.setLegendVisible(false);
    XYChart.Series series1 = new XYChart.Series();
    for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
      // change color of bar if value of i is >5 than red if i>8 than blue
      final XYChart.Data<String, Number> data = new XYChart.Data("Value " + i, i);
      data.nodeProperty().addListener(new ChangeListener<Node>() {
        @Override
        public void changed(ObservableValue<? extends Node> ov, Node oldNode, Node newNode) {
          if (newNode != null) {
            if (data.getYValue().intValue() > 8) {
              newNode.setStyle("-fx-bar-fill: -fx-exceeded;");
            } else if (data.getYValue().intValue() > 5) {
              newNode.setStyle("-fx-bar-fill: -fx-achieved;");
            } else {
              newNode.setStyle("-fx-bar-fill: -fx-not-achieved;");
      series1.getData().add(data);
    bc.getData().add(series1);
    LevelLegend legend = new LevelLegend();
    legend.setAlignment(Pos.CENTER);
    VBox chartWithLegend = new VBox();
    chartWithLegend.getChildren().setAll(bc, legend);
    chartWithLegend.getStylesheets().add(getClass().getResource("colored-chart.css").toExternalForm());
    stage.setScene(new Scene(chartWithLegend));
    stage.show();
class LevelLegend extends GridPane {
    LevelLegend() {
      setHgap(10);
      setVgap(10);
      addRow(0, createSymbol("-fx-exceeded"),     new Label("Exceeded"));
      addRow(1, createSymbol("-fx-achieved"),     new Label("Achieved"));
      addRow(2, createSymbol("-fx-not-achieved"), new Label("Not Achieved"));
      getStyleClass().add("level-legend");
    private Node createSymbol(String fillStyle) {
      Shape symbol = new Ellipse(10, 5, 10, 5);
      symbol.setStyle("-fx-fill: " + fillStyle);
      symbol.setStroke(Color.BLACK);
      symbol.setStrokeWidth(2);
      return symbol;
public static void main(String[] args) { launch(args); }
/** colored-chart.css: place in same directory as other bar chart application files and setup your build system to copy it to the output directory */
.root {
-fx-not-achieved: red;
-fx-achieved:     green;
-fx-exceeded:     blue;
.default-color0.chart-bar { -fx-bar-fill: -fx-not-achieved; }
.default-color1.chart-bar { -fx-bar-fill: -fx-achieved; }
.default-color2.chart-bar { -fx-bar-fill: -fx-exceeded; }
.level-legend {
-fx-padding: 10;
-fx-border-width: 2;
-fx-background-color: rgba(211, 211, 211, 0.5);
-fx-border-color: derive(rgba(211, 211, 211, 0.7), 10%);
}

Is there a way to display the legend for a chart, but not the chart?

Hi,
I have a stacked column chart and a line chart on top of each other. I can't use the legend for the stacked column chart because the data will change from month to month, and the 2 charts will not be aligned. I copied the stacked column chart to another part of the canvas and want to display only the legend, but the chart is still displaying. Is there a way to prevent the chart from displaying? Thanks.

hi Jim Wojewnik,
we can show only the legend in a pie chart by dragging the edges to closer.do the following,
select the pie chart,select the edge of the chart and make it small and u ll find the pie chart shrinking.make it lean such that the pie chart disappear.
try this work around and let me know.
regards,
ravi.

I look for integrated in the legend bloc of diaporama, a widget such as "Accordion" for, with a click, or passing with mouse, open a new legend for each photo. I tried with "Accordion" of Muse, it does not work. I tried copy/paste, mais no result. The wid

Question.
I look for integrated in the legend bloc of diaporama, a widget such as "Accordion" for, with a click, or passing with mouse, open a new legend for each photo. I tried with "Accordion" of Muse, it does not work. I tried copy/paste, mais no result. The widget disappear in bloc legend. disparaître. Have you one solution?
Thank you,
Loïc

Accordion or Tabbed panel should to it, with click and open container.
Please provide site url where this does not work, also if you can provide an example where we can see the exact action then it would help us.
Thanks,
Sanjit

3D surface plot export _ missing scale on the projections

Hi all,
I am using 3D surface plot subvi in LabView 2010 SP1. After plotting the data, I can export the images (.bmp, mata file etc.). While exporting the projections of the images, I am not able to get the axis scales on them, though when I export the isometric view, I do have all the scales in the exported image.
Any clues.
Cheers,
Deepak Arora
LAB View 2010 SP1

Hi Daniel,
I am using surface plot helper to plot a 3D data set. On the front panel indicator of this, there is an option to export the image files in various formats, once you right click on the graph. I have attached two of the exported files. One is an isometric view and another one is the X-Y projection obtained by using the projection palette attached to the 3D surface plot. As you notice, the scale bars are missing from the projection.
Thanks,
Deepak
LAB View 2010 SP1
Attachments:
20110830-PS-r1-FFTAmp.jpg ‏66 KB
20110830-PS-r1-FFTAmp2.jpg ‏50 KB

Different custom colors for a WPF line plot

Dear Sir,
I am trying to create a WPF graph with different colors for different points of time , example Black 0-10,red 11-20, green 21-30...
I saw the nifty video and download the range masking cursor but got stuck.
Thank you
George MAsiello

Here's a quick mockup of the custom renderer version (sorry I did not have time to translate it to VB myself):
    public class CustomRenderer : PlotRenderer {
        private static readonly DataRequirements _dataRequirements = new DataRequirements(
            DataCulling.PreserveLines, DataDecimation.CoLinear,
            new DataDimension( DataDimensionSource.IndexData, DataDimensionScale.IndependentScale ),
            new DataDimension( DataDimensionSource.SampleData, DataDimensionScale.DependentScale ) );
        // The color ranges we want to show on the plot.
        private readonly Tuple<Color, double>[] _colorRanges = new[] {
            Tuple.Create( Colors.Black, 10.0 ),
            Tuple.Create( Colors.Red, 20.0 ),
            Tuple.Create( Colors.Green, 30.0 ),
        private readonly RenderTargetOptions[] _rangeOptions;
        public CustomRenderer( ) {
            // Create render options for each range color.
            _rangeOptions = _colorRanges.Select( colorRange => new RenderTargetOptions( this,
                RenderTargetOption.CreateValue( RenderTargetOptionsProperty.Stroke, new SolidColorBrush( colorRange.Item1 ) ),
                RenderTargetOption.CreateValue( RenderTargetOptionsProperty.StrokeThickness, 1.0 ) ) )
            .ToArray( );
        public override SupportedRenderModes SupportedRenderModes {
            get { return SupportedRenderModes.VectorAndRaster; }
        public override DataRequirements GetDataRequirements( ) {
            return _dataRequirements;
        protected override Freezable CreateInstanceCore( ) {
            return new CustomRenderer( );
        protected override void RenderLegendCore( LegendRenderArgs renderArgs ) { }
        protected override void RenderGraphCore( PlotRenderArgs renderArgs ) {
            // Get the time axis for the renderer.
            Plot plot = (Plot)renderArgs.Plot;
            var timeAxis = plot.GraphParent.GetAxis( plot, Orientation.Horizontal );
            var dataMapper = (IDataMapper<double>)timeAxis.GetDataMapper( plot.GraphParent );
            int startIndex = 0;
            var xData = renderArgs.RelativeData[0];
            var yData = renderArgs.RelativeData[1];
            var renderTarget = renderArgs.RenderTarget;
            for( int i = 0; i < _colorRanges.Length - 1; ++i ) {
                // Draw all data below the current range with the associated color.
                int endIndex = startIndex;
                double range = _colorRanges[i].Item2;
                double offset = dataMapper.Map( range );
                while( endIndex < xData.Size && xData[endIndex] <= offset )
                    ++endIndex;
                RenderSegment( startIndex, endIndex, xData, yData, renderTarget, _rangeOptions[i] );
                startIndex = endIndex;
            // Draw all remaining data with the last color range.
            RenderSegment( startIndex, xData.Size, xData, yData, renderTarget, _rangeOptions.Last( ) );
        private static void RenderSegment( int startIndex, int endIndex, Buffer<double> xData, Buffer<double> yData, IRenderTarget renderTarget, RenderTargetOptions options ) {
            int length = endIndex - startIndex;
            if( length <= 0 )
                return;
            // Join current range with previous.
            if( startIndex > 0 ) {
                --startIndex;
                ++length;
            using( Buffer<double> xSegment = xData.Slice( startIndex, length ) )
            using( Buffer<double> ySegment = yData.Slice( startIndex, length ) )
                renderTarget.DrawLines( options, xSegment, ySegment );
~ Paul H

Legend for multiple waveform chart

I have a Waveform Chart (and legend) with multiple waveforms. I can control the visibility of a given waveform on the chart programmatically using the "ActPlot" and "Plot.Visible?" properties.
Is it possible to programmatically make the legend only contain the plot names that are visible at any given time?
Cheers,
Dan
Dan
CLD

Hello DanB,
Following along the lines of what smercurio_fc suggested, you can use the Legend>Number Of Rows property (LegNumRows) to change the number of rows of your legend to the number of plots you are viewing, and then use the Plot>Plot Name property (Plot.Name) to edit the names of the plots yourself. I cannot see a property to extract these names dynamically, so this is probably your best bet.
I hope this helps, otherwise please do let us know if there is anything further,
Kind Regards,
Michael S.
Applications Engineer
NI UK & Ireland

Constraining the algorithm for assignment of multiple plot colors

I would like to know if there is some way to modify the algorithm that
LabVIEW uses to automatically assign different colors when a graph
displays multiple plots. In particular, given the default background
color (black), it appears that black is never used for a plot color.
However, if I programmatically change the background color to white,
for example, I would like the plot color assignment to not use white. I
would also like to know if it is possible to constrain the plot color
assignment to a single color a priori, without having to go back and
explicitly assign the colors of each plot via the property node in a
loop.
Thanks.
Lyle

I think you will have to create your own plot color assignment function to do this.
You can set the color of each plot by using the active plot property (index of the plot you want to change) and then set the plot color property (just expand one and the same property ndoe to set both at the same time).
You can then make that function check the background color and choose a color table that fits. If this is in a built application you would run this function when a color change is detected, if it's in the development environment you need this feature make the function ask for a VI and plot name (so that it can get a reference to the plot) and put it in your projects folder. That way whenever you need to set the plot colors differently you just select this function from the Tools menu of LabVIEW. An easier alternative though would be to just create the different graphs you need (with the colors for all plots already defined correctly for that background etc.) and save them as custom indicators...
MTO

Legend for 3d graph

I want to know how to make a legend for 3d graph.
I actually posted my question on the following thread but since there havent been any replies, I thought I could just post it here.
http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=170&message.id=160715#M160715
Please click on the link for my question.
Thanks.

Hi kmo,
I'm sure it is possible to get a color map... but I'm affraid I could'nt get to the result you wish I think I'm not far..
Maybe somebody knows hox to get it from the variant, I am not used to use these "tools": Sory...
If you don't need a real 3D graph, it might be easier to use an intensity graph.
When my feet touch the ground each morning the devil thinks "bloody hell... He's up again!"
Attachments:
Wafer.vi ‏99 KB

Position of legend for curves.

HI,
Please look at the picture below.
I need to have curve legend similar to it.
DIAdem provides Vertical,Horizontal and Automatic position.
I am facing problem with position of channel names.
How to do that.?
I hope am clear about my requirement.
Regards,
Bijay
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hi Bijay,
Please have a look at the example: "2D Tables as Legend and Legend for Axis System Labeling". There is a individual legend (based on a 2D table). To create such a legend you need the command "CurveSnippet".
Greetings
Walter

Legend for a 3D Surface Plot

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for