| | .. _toolkit_mplot3d-faq: |
| |
|
| | *********** |
| | mplot3d FAQ |
| | *********** |
| |
|
| | How is mplot3d different from Mayavi? |
| | ===================================== |
| | `Mayavi <https://docs.enthought.com/mayavi/mayavi/>`_ |
| | is a very powerful and featureful 3D graphing library. For advanced |
| | 3D scenes and excellent rendering capabilities, it is highly recommended to |
| | use Mayavi. |
| |
|
| | mplot3d was intended to allow users to create simple 3D graphs with the same |
| | "look-and-feel" as matplotlib's 2D plots. Furthermore, users can use the same |
| | toolkit that they are already familiar with to generate both their 2D and 3D |
| | plots. |
| |
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| |
|
| | My 3D plot doesn't look right at certain viewing angles |
| | ======================================================= |
| | This is probably the most commonly reported issue with mplot3d. The problem |
| | is that -- from some viewing angles -- a 3D object would appear in front |
| | of another object, even though it is physically behind it. This can result in |
| | plots that do not look "physically correct." |
| |
|
| | Unfortunately, while some work is being done to reduce the occurrence of this |
| | artifact, it is currently an intractable problem, and cannot be fully solved |
| | until matplotlib supports 3D graphics rendering at its core. |
| |
|
| | The problem occurs due to the reduction of 3D data down to 2D + z-order |
| | scalar. A single value represents the 3rd dimension for all parts of 3D |
| | objects in a collection. Therefore, when the bounding boxes of two collections |
| | intersect, it becomes possible for this artifact to occur. Furthermore, the |
| | intersection of two 3D objects (such as polygons or patches) cannot be |
| | rendered properly in matplotlib's 2D rendering engine. |
| |
|
| | This problem will likely not be solved until OpenGL support is added to all of |
| | the backends (patches are greatly welcomed). Until then, if you need complex |
| | 3D scenes, we recommend using |
| | `MayaVi <https://docs.enthought.com/mayavi/mayavi/>`_. |
| |
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| |
|
| | I don't like how the 3D plot is laid out, how do I change that? |
| | =============================================================== |
| | Historically, mplot3d has suffered from a hard-coding of parameters used |
| | to control visuals such as label spacing, tick length, and grid line width. |
| | Work is being done to eliminate this issue. For matplotlib v1.1.0, there is |
| | a semi-official manner to modify these parameters. See the note in the |
| | :mod:`.mplot3d.axis3d` section of the mplot3d API documentation for |
| | more information. |
| |
|
