Develop Reference

How to fix limits after multiple use of ax.voxels method in python

I'm doing a research with 3D point clouds that I receive from Lidar. I split huge amount of points (up to 10 - 100 millions) into cubes, investigate their position and display results in a seperate voxels using Axes3D.voxels method. However, I face some problems while setting appropriate limits of Axes3D after multiple use of this method.
I define add_voxels function in order to display voxels immediately from np.array of positions of cubes inputted:
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import Axes3D
import itertools
def add_voxels(true_ids, ax):
shape_of_filled = true_ids.max(axis=0) + 1 # shape of building
filled = np.zeros(shape_of_filled)
for n in true_ids:
filled[n] = 1
x, y, z = np.indices(np.array(shape_of_filled) + 1)
return ax.voxels(x,y,z, filled)```
Then use it to plot my two clouds of cubes:
fig = plt.gcf() # get a reference to the current figure instance
ax = fig.gca(projection='3d') # get a reference to the current axes instance
cubecloud1 = np.array(list(itertools.product(range(2,4), range(2,4), range(2,4))))
cubecloud2 = np.array(list(itertools.product(range(4,7), range(4,7), range(4,7))))
add_voxels(cubecloud2, ax)
add_voxels(cubecloud1, ax)
plt.show()
It results in bad limits of display of voxel's position:
I'd like to have all the components displayed in a correct bounding box like this:
Or, at least, this (assuming bounding box includes invisible voxels too):

I could only make this work by setting the axis limits explicitly:
# [...]
faces2 = add_voxels(cubecloud2, ax)
faces1 = add_voxels(cubecloud1, ax)
points = list(faces1.keys()) + list(faces2.keys())
data = list(zip(*points))
xmin = min(data[0])
xmax = max(data[0])
ymin = min(data[1])
ymax = max(data[1])
zmin = min(data[2])
zmax = max(data[2])
ax.set_xlim3d(xmin, xmax)
ax.set_ylim3d(ymin, ymax)
ax.set_zlim3d(zmin, zmax)
plt.show()

Draw more axes than default in python matplotlib 3d [duplicate]

I'm doing some 3D surface plots using Matplotlib in Python and have noticed an annoying phenomenon. Depending on how I set the viewpoint (camera location), the vertical (z) axis moves between the left and right side. Here are two examples: Example 1, Axis left, Example 2, Axis right. The first example has ax.view_init(25,-135) while the second has ax.view_init(25,-45).
I would like to keep the viewpoints the same (best way to view the data). Is there any way to force the axis to one side or the other?

I needed something similar: drawing the zaxis on both sides. Thanks to the answer by #crayzeewulf I came to following workaround (for left, righ, or both sides):
First plot your 3d as you need, then before you call show() wrap the Axes3D with a Wrapper class that simply overrides the draw() method.
The Wrapper Class calls simply sets the visibility of some features to False, it draws itself and finally draws the zaxis with modified PLANES. This Wrapper Class allows you to draw the zaxis on the left, on the rigth or on both sides.
import matplotlib
matplotlib.use('QT4Agg')
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import axes3d
class MyAxes3D(axes3d.Axes3D):
def __init__(self, baseObject, sides_to_draw):
self.__class__ = type(baseObject.__class__.__name__,
(self.__class__, baseObject.__class__),
{})
self.__dict__ = baseObject.__dict__
self.sides_to_draw = list(sides_to_draw)
self.mouse_init()
def set_some_features_visibility(self, visible):
for t in self.w_zaxis.get_ticklines() + self.w_zaxis.get_ticklabels():
t.set_visible(visible)
self.w_zaxis.line.set_visible(visible)
self.w_zaxis.pane.set_visible(visible)
self.w_zaxis.label.set_visible(visible)
def draw(self, renderer):
# set visibility of some features False
self.set_some_features_visibility(False)
# draw the axes
super(MyAxes3D, self).draw(renderer)
# set visibility of some features True.
# This could be adapted to set your features to desired visibility,
# e.g. storing the previous values and restoring the values
self.set_some_features_visibility(True)
zaxis = self.zaxis
draw_grid_old = zaxis.axes._draw_grid
# disable draw grid
zaxis.axes._draw_grid = False
tmp_planes = zaxis._PLANES
if 'l' in self.sides_to_draw :
# draw zaxis on the left side
zaxis._PLANES = (tmp_planes[2], tmp_planes[3],
tmp_planes[0], tmp_planes[1],
tmp_planes[4], tmp_planes[5])
zaxis.draw(renderer)
if 'r' in self.sides_to_draw :
# draw zaxis on the right side
zaxis._PLANES = (tmp_planes[3], tmp_planes[2],
tmp_planes[1], tmp_planes[0],
tmp_planes[4], tmp_planes[5])
zaxis.draw(renderer)
zaxis._PLANES = tmp_planes
# disable draw grid
zaxis.axes._draw_grid = draw_grid_old
def example_surface(ax):
""" draw an example surface. code borrowed from http://matplotlib.org/examples/mplot3d/surface3d_demo.html """
from matplotlib import cm
import numpy as np
X = np.arange(-5, 5, 0.25)
Y = np.arange(-5, 5, 0.25)
X, Y = np.meshgrid(X, Y)
R = np.sqrt(X**2 + Y**2)
Z = np.sin(R)
surf = ax.plot_surface(X, Y, Z, rstride=1, cstride=1, cmap=cm.coolwarm, linewidth=0, antialiased=False)
if __name__ == '__main__':
fig = plt.figure(figsize=(15, 5))
ax = fig.add_subplot(131, projection='3d')
ax.set_title('z-axis left side')
ax = fig.add_axes(MyAxes3D(ax, 'l'))
example_surface(ax) # draw an example surface
ax = fig.add_subplot(132, projection='3d')
ax.set_title('z-axis both sides')
ax = fig.add_axes(MyAxes3D(ax, 'lr'))
example_surface(ax) # draw an example surface
ax = fig.add_subplot(133, projection='3d')
ax.set_title('z-axis right side')
ax = fig.add_axes(MyAxes3D(ax, 'r'))
example_surface(ax) # draw an example surface
plt.show()

As pointed out in a comment below by OP, the method suggested below did not provide adequate answer to the original question.
As mentioned in this note, there are lots of hard-coded values in axis3d that make it difficult to customize its behavior. So, I do not think there is a good way to do this in the current API. You can "hack" it by modifying the _PLANES parameter of the zaxis as shown below:
tmp_planes = ax.zaxis._PLANES
ax.zaxis._PLANES = ( tmp_planes[2], tmp_planes[3],
tmp_planes[0], tmp_planes[1],
tmp_planes[4], tmp_planes[5])
view_1 = (25, -135)
view_2 = (25, -45)
init_view = view_2
ax.view_init(*init_view)
Now the z-axis will always be on the left side of the figure no matter how you rotate the figure (as long as positive-z direction is pointing up). The x-axis and y-axis will keep flipping though. You can play with _PLANES and might be able to get the desired behavior for all axes but this is likely to break in future versions of matplotlib.

Drawing log-linear plot on a square plot area in matplotlib

I would like to draw a plot with a logarithmic y axis and a linear x axis on a square plot area in matplotlib. I can draw linear-linear as well as log-log plots on squares, but the method I use, Axes.set_aspect(...), is not implemented for log-linear plots. Is there a good workaround?
linear-linear plot on a square:
from pylab import *
x = linspace(1,10,1000)
y = sin(x)**2+0.5
plot (x,y)
ax = gca()
data_aspect = ax.get_data_ratio()
ax.set_aspect(1./data_aspect)
show()
log-log plot on a square:
from pylab import *
x = linspace(1,10,1000)
y = sin(x)**2+0.5
plot (x,y)
ax = gca()
ax.set_yscale("log")
ax.set_xscale("log")
xmin,xmax = ax.get_xbound()
ymin,ymax = ax.get_ybound()
data_aspect = (log(ymax)-log(ymin))/(log(xmax)-log(xmin))
ax.set_aspect(1./data_aspect)
show()
But when I try this with a log-linear plot, I do not get the square area, but a warning
from pylab import *
x = linspace(1,10,1000)
y = sin(x)**2+0.5
plot (x,y)
ax = gca()
ax.set_yscale("log")
xmin,xmax = ax.get_xbound()
ymin,ymax = ax.get_ybound()
data_aspect = (log(ymax)-log(ymin))/(xmax-xmin)
ax.set_aspect(1./data_aspect)
show()
yielding the warning:
axes.py:1173: UserWarning: aspect is not supported for Axes with xscale=linear, yscale=log
Is there a good way of achieving square log-linear plots despite the lack support in Axes.set_aspect?

Well, there is a sort of a workaround. The actual axis area (the area where the plot is, not including external ticks &c) can be resized to any size you want it to have.
You may use the ax.set_position to set the relative (to the figure) size and position of the plot. In order to use it in your case we need a bit of maths:
from pylab import *
x = linspace(1,10,1000)
y = sin(x)**2+0.5
plot (x,y)
ax = gca()
ax.set_yscale("log")
# now get the figure size in real coordinates:
fig = gcf()
fwidth = fig.get_figwidth()
fheight = fig.get_figheight()
# get the axis size and position in relative coordinates
# this gives a BBox object
bb = ax.get_position()
# calculate them into real world coordinates
axwidth = fwidth * (bb.x1 - bb.x0)
axheight = fheight * (bb.y1 - bb.y0)
# if the axis is wider than tall, then it has to be narrowe
if axwidth > axheight:
# calculate the narrowing relative to the figure
narrow_by = (axwidth - axheight) / fwidth
# move bounding box edges inwards the same amount to give the correct width
bb.x0 += narrow_by / 2
bb.x1 -= narrow_by / 2
# else if the axis is taller than wide, make it vertically smaller
# works the same as above
elif axheight > axwidth:
shrink_by = (axheight - axwidth) / fheight
bb.y0 += shrink_by / 2
bb.y1 -= shrink_by / 2
ax.set_position(bb)
show()
A slight stylistic comment is that import pylab is not usually used. The lore goes:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
pylab as an odd mixture of numpy and matplotlib imports created to make interactive IPython use easier. (I use it, too.)

Expand the line with specified width in data unit

My question is a bit similar to this question that draws line with width given in data coordinates. What makes my question a bit more challenging is that unlike the linked question, the segment that I wish to expand is of a random orientation.
Let's say if the line segment goes from (0, 10) to (10, 10), and I wish to expand it to a width of 6. Then it is simply
x = [0, 10]
y = [10, 10]
ax.fill_between(x, y - 3, y + 3)
However, my line segment is of random orientation. That is, it is not necessarily along x-axis or y-axis. It has a certain slope.
A line segment s is defined as a list of its starting and ending points: [(x1, y1), (x2, y2)].
Now I wish to expand the line segment to a certain width w. The solution is expected to work for a line segment in any orientation. How to do this?
plt.plot(x, y, linewidth=6.0) cannot do the trick, because I want my width to be in the same unit as my data.

The following code is a generic example on how to make a line plot in matplotlib using data coordinates as linewidth. There are two solutions; one using callbacks, one using subclassing Line2D.
Using callbacks.
It is implemted as a class data_linewidth_plot that can be called with a signature pretty close the the normal plt.plot command,
l = data_linewidth_plot(x, y, ax=ax, label='some line', linewidth=1, alpha=0.4)
where ax is the axes to plot to. The ax argument can be omitted, when only one subplot exists in the figure. The linewidth argument is interpreted in (y-)data units.
Further features:
It's independend on the subplot placements, margins or figure size.
If the aspect ratio is unequal, it uses y data coordinates as the linewidth.
It also takes care that the legend handle is correctly set (we may want to have a huge line in the plot, but certainly not in the legend).
It is compatible with changes to the figure size, zoom or pan events, as it takes care of resizing the linewidth on such events.
Here is the complete code.
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
class data_linewidth_plot():
def __init__(self, x, y, **kwargs):
self.ax = kwargs.pop("ax", plt.gca())
self.fig = self.ax.get_figure()
self.lw_data = kwargs.pop("linewidth", 1)
self.lw = 1
self.fig.canvas.draw()
self.ppd = 72./self.fig.dpi
self.trans = self.ax.transData.transform
self.linehandle, = self.ax.plot([],[],**kwargs)
if "label" in kwargs: kwargs.pop("label")
self.line, = self.ax.plot(x, y, **kwargs)
self.line.set_color(self.linehandle.get_color())
self._resize()
self.cid = self.fig.canvas.mpl_connect('draw_event', self._resize)
def _resize(self, event=None):
lw = ((self.trans((1, self.lw_data))-self.trans((0, 0)))*self.ppd)[1]
if lw != self.lw:
self.line.set_linewidth(lw)
self.lw = lw
self._redraw_later()
def _redraw_later(self):
self.timer = self.fig.canvas.new_timer(interval=10)
self.timer.single_shot = True
self.timer.add_callback(lambda : self.fig.canvas.draw_idle())
self.timer.start()
fig1, ax1 = plt.subplots()
#ax.set_aspect('equal') #<-not necessary
ax1.set_ylim(0,3)
x = [0,1,2,3]
y = [1,1,2,2]
# plot a line, with 'linewidth' in (y-)data coordinates.
l = data_linewidth_plot(x, y, ax=ax1, label='some 1 data unit wide line',
linewidth=1, alpha=0.4)
plt.legend() # <- legend possible
plt.show()
(I updated the code to use a timer to redraw the canvas, due to this issue)
Subclassing Line2D
The above solution has some drawbacks. It requires a timer and callbacks to update itself on changing axis limits or figure size. The following is a solution without such needs. It will use a dynamic property to always calculate the linewidth in points from the desired linewidth in data coordinates on the fly. It is much shorter than the above.
A drawback here is that a legend needs to be created manually via a proxyartist.
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from matplotlib.lines import Line2D
class LineDataUnits(Line2D):
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
_lw_data = kwargs.pop("linewidth", 1)
super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)
self._lw_data = _lw_data
def _get_lw(self):
if self.axes is not None:
ppd = 72./self.axes.figure.dpi
trans = self.axes.transData.transform
return ((trans((1, self._lw_data))-trans((0, 0)))*ppd)[1]
else:
return 1
def _set_lw(self, lw):
self._lw_data = lw
_linewidth = property(_get_lw, _set_lw)
fig, ax = plt.subplots()
#ax.set_aspect('equal') # <-not necessary, if not given, y data is assumed
ax.set_xlim(0,3)
ax.set_ylim(0,3)
x = [0,1,2,3]
y = [1,1,2,2]
line = LineDataUnits(x, y, linewidth=1, alpha=0.4)
ax.add_line(line)
ax.legend([Line2D([],[], linewidth=3, alpha=0.4)],
['some 1 data unit wide line']) # <- legend possible via proxy artist
plt.show()

Just to add to the previous answer (can't comment yet), here's a function that automates this process without the need for equal axes or the heuristic value of 0.8 for labels. The data limits and size of the axis need to be fixed and not changed after this function is called.
def linewidth_from_data_units(linewidth, axis, reference='y'):
"""
Convert a linewidth in data units to linewidth in points.
Parameters
----------
linewidth: float
Linewidth in data units of the respective reference-axis
axis: matplotlib axis
The axis which is used to extract the relevant transformation
data (data limits and size must not change afterwards)
reference: string
The axis that is taken as a reference for the data width.
Possible values: 'x' and 'y'. Defaults to 'y'.
Returns
-------
linewidth: float
Linewidth in points
"""
fig = axis.get_figure()
if reference == 'x':
length = fig.bbox_inches.width * axis.get_position().width
value_range = np.diff(axis.get_xlim())
elif reference == 'y':
length = fig.bbox_inches.height * axis.get_position().height
value_range = np.diff(axis.get_ylim())
# Convert length to points
length *= 72
# Scale linewidth to value range
return linewidth * (length / value_range)

Explanation:
Set up the figure with a known height and make the scale of the two axes equal (or else the idea of "data coordinates" does not apply). Make sure the proportions of the figure match the expected proportions of the x and y axes.
Compute the height of the whole figure point_hei (including margins) in units of points by multiplying inches by 72
Manually assign the y-axis range yrange (You could do this by plotting a "dummy" series first and then querying the plot axis to get the lower and upper y limits.)
Provide the width of the line that you would like in data units linewid
Calculate what those units would be in points pointlinewid while adjusting for the margins. In a single-frame plot, the plot is 80% of the full image height.
Plot the lines, using a capstyle that does not pad the ends of the line (has a big effect at these large line sizes)
Voilà? (Note: this should generate the proper image in the saved file, but no guarantees if you resize a plot window.)
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
rez=600
wid=8.0 # Must be proportional to x and y limits below
hei=6.0
fig = plt.figure(1, figsize=(wid, hei))
sp = fig.add_subplot(111)
# # plt.figure.tight_layout()
# fig.set_autoscaley_on(False)
sp.set_xlim([0,4000])
sp.set_ylim([0,3000])
plt.axes().set_aspect('equal')
# line is in points: 72 points per inch
point_hei=hei*72
xval=[100,1300,2200,3000,3900]
yval=[10,200,2500,1750,1750]
x1,x2,y1,y2 = plt.axis()
yrange = y2 - y1
# print yrange
linewid = 500 # in data units
# For the calculation below, you have to adjust width by 0.8
# because the top and bottom 10% of the figure are labels & axis
pointlinewid = (linewid * (point_hei/yrange)) * 0.8 # corresponding width in pts
plt.plot(xval,yval,linewidth = pointlinewid,color="blue",solid_capstyle="butt")
# just for fun, plot the half-width line on top of it
plt.plot(xval,yval,linewidth = pointlinewid/2,color="red",solid_capstyle="butt")
plt.savefig('mymatplot2.png',dpi=rez)

matplotlib - How do you keep the axes constant while adding new data?

I'm using matplotlib to display data that is constantly being updated (changes roughly 10 times per second). I'm using a 3D scatter plot, and I would like the axes to be fixed to a specific range, since the location of the data with respect to the edges of the plot is what is important.
Currently whenever I add new data, the axes will reset to being scaled by the data, rather than the size I want (when I have hold=False). If I set hold=True, the axes will remain the right size, but the new data will be overlayed on the old data, which is not what I want.
I can get it to work if I rescale the axes everytime I get new data, but this seems like an inefficient way to do this, especially since I need to do all other formatting again as well (adding titles, legends, etc)
Is there some way in which I can specify the properties of the plot just once, and this will remain fixed as I add new data?
Here is a rough outline of my code, to help explain what I mean:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import Axes3D
X_MAX = 50
Y_MAX = 50
Z_MAX = 50
fig = plt.figure(1)
ax = fig.add_subplot(111, projection='3d')
ax.set_title("My Title")
ax.set_xlim3d([0, X_MAX])
ax.set_ylim3d([0, Y_MAX])
ax.set_zlim3d([0, Z_MAX])
ax.set_autoscale_on(False)
# This is so the new data replaces the old data
# seems to be replacing the axis ranges as well, maybe a different method should be used?
ax.hold(False)
plt.ion()
plt.show()
a = 0
while a < 50:
a += 1
ax.scatter( a, a/2+1, 3, s=1 )
# If I don't set the title and axes ranges again here, they will be reset each time
# I want to know if there is a way to only set them once and have it persistent
ax.set_title("My Title")
ax.set_xlim3d([0, X_MAX])
ax.set_ylim3d([0, Y_MAX])
ax.set_zlim3d([0, Z_MAX])
plt.pause(0.001)
EDIT:
1. I have also tried ax.set_autoscale_on(False), but with no success
2. I tried this with a regular 2D scatter plot, and the same issue still exists
3. Found a related question which also still doesn't have an answer

I would do something like this (note removal of hold(False) ):
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import Axes3D
X_MAX = 50
Y_MAX = 50
Z_MAX = 50
fig = plt.figure(1)
ax = fig.add_subplot(111, projection='3d')
ax.set_title("My Title")
ax.set_xlim3d([0, X_MAX])
ax.set_ylim3d([0, Y_MAX])
ax.set_zlim3d([0, Z_MAX])
ax.set_autoscale_on(False)
plt.ion()
plt.show()
a = 0
sct = None
while a < 50:
a += 1
if sct is not None:
sct.remove()
sct = ax.scatter( a, a/2+1, 3, s=1 )
fig.canvas.draw()
plt.pause(0.001)
Where you remove just the added scatter plot each time through the loop.