Adding errorbars to 3D plot

Question

I can't find a way to draw errorbars in a 3D scatter plot in matplotlib. Basically, for the following piece of code

from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import axes3d
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111, projection='3d')
X, Y, Z = axes3d.get_test_data(1)
ax.scatter(X, Y, zs = Z, zdir = 'z')

I am looking for something like

ax.errorbar(X,Y, zs = Z, dY, dX, zserr = dZ)

Is there a way to do this in mplot3d? If not, are there other libraries with this function?

I think you'd have to draw little lines around each point yourself, or try to get the 3D quiver to draw the error bars — mdurant
– mdurant, Commented Oct 7, 2014 at 21:27
That's certainly a workaround, I'll keep it in mind as a last resort. — Vlas Sokolov
– Vlas Sokolov, Commented Oct 8, 2014 at 9:10
Well worth getting in touch on the matplotlib forums, there may be such functionality already in development. If not, and you make a reasonable workaround, I'm sure they would be pleased to hear from you. — mdurant
– mdurant, Commented Oct 8, 2014 at 14:06

S.R · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-13 18:09:10Z

10

There is clearly example on forum http://mple.m-artwork.eu/home/posts/simple3dplotwith3derrorbars

Here is the code but is not built-in functionality:

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

fig = plt.figure(dpi=100)
ax = fig.add_subplot(111, projection='3d')



#data
fx = [0.673574075,0.727952994,0.6746285]
fy = [0.331657721,0.447817839,0.37733386]
fz = [18.13629648,8.620699842,9.807536512]

#error data
xerror = [0.041504064,0.02402152,0.059383144]
yerror = [0.015649804,0.12643117,0.068676131]
zerror = [3.677693713,1.345712547,0.724095592]

#plot points
ax.plot(fx, fy, fz, linestyle="None", marker="o")

#plot errorbars
for i in np.arange(0, len(fx)):
    ax.plot([fx[i]+xerror[i], fx[i]-xerror[i]], [fy[i], fy[i]], [fz[i], fz[i]], marker="_")
    ax.plot([fx[i], fx[i]], [fy[i]+yerror[i], fy[i]-yerror[i]], [fz[i], fz[i]], marker="_")
    ax.plot([fx[i], fx[i]], [fy[i], fy[i]], [fz[i]+zerror[i], fz[i]-zerror[i]], marker="_")

#configure axes
ax.set_xlim3d(0.55, 0.8)
ax.set_ylim3d(0.2, 0.5)
ax.set_zlim3d(8, 19)

plt.show()

edited May 13, 2016 at 18:09

answered May 6, 2016 at 6:51

S.R

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1 Comment

Vlas Sokolov Over a year ago

Yeap, drawing the errorbars this way still seems to be the only way to do this. It's a very neat example, I'll mark it as accepted.

Vlas Sokolov · Accepted Answer · 2021-07-26 09:47:18Z

2

I ended up writing the method for matplotlib: official example for 3D errorbars:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

ax = plt.figure().add_subplot(projection='3d')

# setting up a parametric curve
t = np.arange(0, 2*np.pi+.1, 0.01)
x, y, z = np.sin(t), np.cos(3*t), np.sin(5*t)

estep = 15
i = np.arange(t.size)
zuplims = (i % estep == 0) & (i // estep % 3 == 0)
zlolims = (i % estep == 0) & (i // estep % 3 == 2)

ax.errorbar(x, y, z, 0.2, zuplims=zuplims, zlolims=zlolims, errorevery=estep)

ax.set_xlabel("X label")
ax.set_ylabel("Y label")
ax.set_zlabel("Z label")

plt.show()

answered Jul 26, 2021 at 9:47

Vlas Sokolov

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