Question about combining surf and plot3

Hello all,

I would like to plot a 3D plot in which I plot some scattered 3D points and at the same time I would like to plot surfaces which correspond to the limits of the ranges of my three variables. I attach a .dat file which contains the variables, the variable 'parameters' contain the 3D data which to be plotted, they are 500 data points for each of the three variables. The variables p1, p2 and p3 contain the ranges of my three variables, I would like to plot the surfaces which correspond to the limits of these variables, for example for the third variable, this will do the job for the lower limit:

surf(p3(1)*ones(size(parameters,2),size(parameters,2)),'FaceColor','r','FaceAlpha',0.3,'EdgeColor','none')

I have a problem which is that after I use the command plot3 to plot the data as follows:

figure('units','normalized','outerposition',[0 0 1 1])
surf(p3(1)*ones(size(parameters,2),size(parameters,2)),'FaceColor','r','FaceAlpha',0.3,'EdgeColor','none')
hold on
plot3(parameters(1,:),parameters(2,:),parameters(3,:),'*r','MarkerSize',15)
hold on
plot3(parameters(1,IDEIM_mu),parameters(2,IDEIM_mu),parameters(3,IDEIM_mu),'ko','MarkerSize',20)
xlim([0.8*p1(1) 1.2*p1(2)]);
ylim([0.8*p2(1) 1.2*p2(2)]);
zlim([0.8*p3(1) 1.2*p3(2)]);

Then the first surface plot disappers. Could you please let me know how I could combine the two kind of plots ? Thanks.

[Aquatris]

My guess is your axis limits are not covering the surface plot. Comment them out and see if your surface plot is still there. If it is still there, you should adjust your axis limits

[X,Y] = meshgrid(1:0.5:10,1:20);
Z = sin(X) + cos(Y);

xDot = [8 6 1];
yDot = [2 12 16];
zDot = [.5 1 .8];
surf(X,Y,Z)
hold on
plot3(xDot,yDot,zDot,'r-*' )
hold off

[Saddam N Y]

Thank you very much for your answer, you are right it is a problem of the limits of my plot.

Answer 1

[Star Strider]

TThe first ‘surface plot’ is just a patch plot at that goes from 0 to 500 in each (x,y) direction, at a z-value of 0.002, as can be seen when plottting it. Since xlim is set to [4E+7 6E+9] the surface plot simply never appears, since it is outside those limits.

load('Question.mat')
whos('-file','Question.mat')

  Name            Size             Bytes  Class                                            Attributes

  IDEIM_mu        1x20               160  double                                                     
  line1           2x1                 16  matlab.graphics.chart.decoration.ConstantLine              
  line2           2x1                 16  matlab.graphics.chart.decoration.ConstantLine              
  p1              2x1                 16  double                                                     
  p2              2x1                 16  double                                                     
  p3              2x1                 16  double                                                     
  parameters      3x500            12000  double                                                     
  t               1x501             4008  double                                                     

Data_Presented_To_surf = p3(1)*ones(size(parameters,2),size(parameters,2))

Data_Presented_To_surf = 500x500

0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020 0.0020

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format shortG

figure('units','normalized','outerposition',[0 0 1 1])
surf(p3(1)*ones(size(parameters,2),size(parameters,2)),'FaceColor','r','FaceAlpha',0.3,'EdgeColor','none')
hold on
plot3(parameters(1,:),parameters(2,:),parameters(3,:),'*r','MarkerSize',15)
hold on
plot3(parameters(1,IDEIM_mu),parameters(2,IDEIM_mu),parameters(3,IDEIM_mu),'ko','MarkerSize',20)
xlim([0.8*p1(1) 1.2*p1(2)]);
xlim

ans = 1x2

1.0e+00 * 4e+07 6e+09

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ylim([0.8*p2(1) 1.2*p2(2)]);
ylim

ans = 1x2

0.016 0.132

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zlim([0.8*p3(1) 1.2*p3(2)]);

zlim

ans = 1x2

0.0016 0.0132

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EDIT — (28 Jun 2024 at 02:37)

To make the red surface aappear, just give it tthe appropriate (x,y) coorinates —

xs = linspace(min(ylim), max(xlim), 500);
ys = linspace(min(ylim), max(ylim), 500);

figure('units','normalized','outerposition',[0 0 1 1])
surf(xs, ys, p3(1)*ones(size(parameters,2),size(parameters,2)),'FaceColor','r','FaceAlpha',0.3,'EdgeColor','none')
hold on
plot3(parameters(1,:),parameters(2,:),parameters(3,:),'*r','MarkerSize',15)
hold on
plot3(parameters(1,IDEIM_mu),parameters(2,IDEIM_mu),parameters(3,IDEIM_mu),'ko','MarkerSize',20)
xlim([0.8*p1(1) 1.2*p1(2)]);
xlim

ans = 1x2

1.0e+00 * 4e+07 6e+09

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ylim([0.8*p2(1) 1.2*p2(2)]);
ylim

ans = 1x2

0.016 0.132

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zlim([0.8*p3(1) 1.2*p3(2)]);

... and there it is!

.

[Saddam N Y]

Thank you very much for your answer, it makes perfect sense to include the coordinates for the surface plot.

[Star Strider]

As always, my pleasure!