plotting the projection of 3D plot in three planes using contours

Question

I have a three columns catalogue of data and I would like to make a 3D plot of them plus the projection of each axis as a projected contour in the the plane of the other two axises. So far I could make the 3D plot using matplotlib which still doesn't show anything from the properties of the data.

from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import axes3d
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from numpy import * 
data=loadtxt('test.cat')
X=data[:,0]
Y=data[:,1]
Z=data[:,2]
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111, projection='3d')
ax.scatter(X, Y, Z, c='r', marker='.')
ax.set_xlabel('X')
ax.set_ylabel('Y')
ax.set_zlabel('Z')

plt.show()

How could I plot the projection of the data in each plane with colorbar as well?

Answer 1

hmm, indeed, difficult data to display. Maybe creating some slices along one axis and creating certain number 2D plots would be best. However 3D plots are fancy. I played a bit with the data resulting in one 3D plot as you did and a separate plot with the projections.

• The colors of the points are according the missing axis
• Added transparency to give an idea of density
• Kept axes of both plots the same

from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import axes3d
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

data = np.loadtxt('test.cat', skiprows=1)

X=data[:,0]
Y=data[:,1]
Z=data[:,2]

plt.figure()
ax1 = plt.subplot(111,  projection='3d')

ax1.scatter(X, Y, Z, c='b', marker='.', alpha=0.2)
ax1.set_xlabel('X - axis')
ax1.set_ylabel('Y - axis')
ax1.set_zlabel('Z - axis')

plt.figure()
ax2 = plt.subplot(111,  projection='3d')

plt.hot()

cx = np.ones_like(X) * ax1.get_xlim3d()[0]
cy = np.ones_like(X) * ax1.get_ylim3d()[1]
cz = np.ones_like(Z) * ax1.get_zlim3d()[0]

ax2.scatter(X, Y, cz, c=Z,  marker='.', lw=0, alpha=0.2)
ax2.scatter(X, cy, Z, c=-Y, marker='.', lw=0, alpha=0.2)
ax2.scatter(cx, Y, Z, c=X,  marker='.', lw=0, alpha=0.2)
ax2.set_xlim3d(ax1.get_xlim3d())
ax2.set_ylim3d(ax1.get_ylim3d())
ax2.set_zlim3d(ax1.get_zlim3d())
ax2.set_xlabel('X - axis')
ax2.set_ylabel('Y - axis')
ax2.set_zlabel('Z - axis')