Using matplotlib to make 3D plot

Question

Just trying to make a 3D plot of a constant (0). So I have

width = 1
dx = 0.1
X = np.arange(-width, width, dx)
Y = np.arange(-width, width, dx)
X, Y = np.meshgrid(X, Y)
Z = []
for i in range(len(X)):
    Z.append(np.zeros(len(X[i])))

But when I try to run Axes3D.plot_wireframe(X,Y,Z) I get plot_wireframe() missing 1 required positional argument: 'Z'. I need help understanding why this is, because Z is a 2D array like it should be, and I can't find many helpful examples with 3D plotting with matplotlib.

ImportanceOfBeingErnest · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-19 17:24:23Z

2

The main point is that you cannot run Axes3D.plot_wireframe(X,Y,Z) by itself. Instead you need to create an instance of Axes3D and call its method [*]. Just like in the 2D case where you wouldn't call matplotlib.axes.Axes.plot(x,y) but ax.plot(x,y) where ax is the instance created e.g. via fig.add_subplot.

An example for the wireframe plot can be found here.

The following code (using the code from the question)

from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import Axes3D
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

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

width = 1
dx = 0.1
X = np.arange(-width, width, dx)
Y = np.arange(-width, width, dx)
X, Y = np.meshgrid(X, Y)
Z = []
for i in range(len(X)):
    Z.append(np.zeros(len(X[i])))

ax.plot_wireframe(X, Y, Z)

plt.show()

produses the following plot

[*] To be precise here; you can call the class method plot_wireframe, but you would then need to supply it with the instance like

Axes3D.plot_wireframe(ax, X, Y, Z)

edited Mar 19, 2017 at 17:24

answered Mar 19, 2017 at 17:18

ImportanceOfBeingErnest

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6 Comments

Nate Stemen Over a year ago

Sorry, forgot to mention I was using Jupyter. So normally when I create plots I don't normally have to create figures or subplot or all the like. So I guess I assumed the line I had would create the 3D plot.

ImportanceOfBeingErnest Over a year ago

You always create figures and subplots, independent of where you type in your code.

Nate Stemen Over a year ago

why is that? jupyter allows you not to, no?

ImportanceOfBeingErnest Over a year ago

Jupyter is just a way to interprete python code. The result of the code may be presented in a different way, but the python code that produces the result is the same everywhere. Any matplotlib plot will consist of a figure and at least one axes object, and they need to be created somewhere.

Nate Stemen Over a year ago

So where are they created in jupyter if I don't explicitly have them?

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DavedeKoning · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-19 17:18:26Z

1

I found this example online. I've pasted it in your code example and I got the following code + plot:

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import Axes3D

width = 1
dx = 0.1
X = np.arange(-width, width, dx)
Y = np.arange(-width, width, dx)
X, Y = np.meshgrid(X, Y)
Z = []
for i in range(len(X)):
    Z.append(np.zeros(len(X[i])))

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

ax.plot_wireframe(X, Y, Z)

plt.show()

Hope this helps! I ran it with python 3.5, using the spyder IDE.

Cheers, Dave

answered Mar 19, 2017 at 17:18

DavedeKoning

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