LabVIEW
Plotting large range of numbers in 3D
Hi, I have a challenge with plotting a large range of data in 3D graph. The issue is that the image becomes too small in order to display the entire data on the graph. To keep the story simple, I am essentially plotting two vertical and deformed cylinders one inside the other and not necessarily concentric, and the centre points of each of these cylinders varies greatly with height ( which is why the X Y range is large). Any attempt to scale up the radius of both cylinders won't work for me since the clearance between the cylinders needs to remain absolute. There are two possible solutions in mind:
1. Be able to selectively zoom ( in the render window) the X and Y only keeping Z as is.
2. Plot using a 3D picture and apply "scale object" after adding both cylinders to scene
#1 above - don't know if it is even an option/ possible.
#2 above Is not even clear to me how to implement that but it is something I have seen in a different discussion.
any ideas how to handle 3D data with a large range of values that lead to very small images when trying to show the full image in a window?
![[BADGE NAME]](https://forums.ni.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/231669i2EB958E4CA07AC34/image-size/thumb/crop-image/true?v=1.0&px=150/image-size/thumb/is-preview/true?v=1.0&px=150)
I am aware of holding down shift key and dragging to zoom out and In Let me rephrase the question a little simpler. I would like to be able to selectively zoom only the X and Y axis while leaving the z unchanged. In order words zooming at a different aspect ratio. I am sure Altenbach and Schor understand what I am going through 🙂
I am aware of all that. So the point is after you have made your scale range as "tight" as possible ( setting the scale range to just exactly what you need to capture the entire plot) the image is too small already. Any further scale adjustments will either be extending the range which will make your image /plot even smaller, or reducing the scale range further down beyond what is required to capture the plot which cut off some of the plot. So I don't think this is a case of adjusting scales. In some plots this is why logarithmic scales are used but this won't work for me here
I can only offer some thoughts since it has been awhile since I did a similar project.
1) Zooming was a matter of changing the camera position and direction. You could over-ride zoom operations and apply the camera setting you want to force OR disable zooming and expose changing the camera position through other controls you offer on the FP of the VI.
2)
Do not draw it to scale. I did that for an application where we were monitoring the shape of seamless pipe see here and we needed to illustrate the finish shape. This image shows the un-scaled and flattened out displays. The actual radius of the pipes, if used would have dwarfed the variation in the outer surface of the pipe and made evaluating the quality using the 3D display useless.
If memory serves me, that pipe was 30' long and 18" in diameter while the variations were on the order of 0.001".
Ben
Ben looks like you are referring to 3D picture in this case. I found that using a 3D picture Could be quite cumbersome and not as good as the 3D graph in terms of appearance which is quite important to me. ( I could be wrong).
secondly it is absolutely important that the difference between the pipes dimensions remain absolute. This is the only way I can show what I intend to do. - otherwise, it won't work for me
If you could post an image it may suggest another idea. Lacking the picture I have to come back to the camera again.
For what it is worth... I did write my own (not in the images above, that was the CW-3D graph) 3D Graph using the 3D Picture control.
I am not recommending you do that.
Ben
