Trisurf Plots in Python

How to make tri-surf plots in Python with Plotly. Trisurfs are formed by replacing the boundaries of a compact surface by touching triangles.

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Trisurf plots can be made using a figure factory as detailed in this page.

Torus¶

In [1]:

import plotly.figure_factory as ff

import numpy as np
from scipy.spatial import Delaunay

u = np.linspace(0, 2*np.pi, 20)
v = np.linspace(0, 2*np.pi, 20)
u,v = np.meshgrid(u,v)
u = u.flatten()
v = v.flatten()

x = (3 + (np.cos(v)))*np.cos(u)
y = (3 + (np.cos(v)))*np.sin(u)
z = np.sin(v)

points2D = np.vstack([u,v]).T
tri = Delaunay(points2D)
simplices = tri.simplices

fig = ff.create_trisurf(x=x, y=y, z=z,
                         simplices=simplices,
                         title="Torus", aspectratio=dict(x=1, y=1, z=0.3))
fig.show()

Mobius Band¶

In [2]:

import plotly.figure_factory as ff

import numpy as np
from scipy.spatial import Delaunay

u = np.linspace(0, 2*np.pi, 24)
v = np.linspace(-1, 1, 8)
u,v = np.meshgrid(u,v)
u = u.flatten()
v = v.flatten()

tp = 1 + 0.5*v*np.cos(u/2.)
x = tp*np.cos(u)
y = tp*np.sin(u)
z = 0.5*v*np.sin(u/2.)

points2D = np.vstack([u,v]).T
tri = Delaunay(points2D)
simplices = tri.simplices

fig = ff.create_trisurf(x=x, y=y, z=z,
                         colormap="Portland",
                         simplices=simplices,
                         title="Mobius Band")
fig.show()

Boy's Surface¶

In [3]:

import plotly.figure_factory as ff

import numpy as np
from scipy.spatial import Delaunay

u=np.linspace(-np.pi/2, np.pi/2, 60)
v=np.linspace(0, np.pi, 60)
u,v=np.meshgrid(u,v)
u=u.flatten()
v=v.flatten()

x = (np.sqrt(2)*(np.cos(v)*np.cos(v))*np.cos(2*u) + np.cos(u)*np.sin(2*v))/(2 - np.sqrt(2)*np.sin(3*u)*np.sin(2*v))
y = (np.sqrt(2)*(np.cos(v)*np.cos(v))*np.sin(2*u) - np.sin(u)*np.sin(2*v))/(2 - np.sqrt(2)*np.sin(3*u)*np.sin(2*v))
z = (3*(np.cos(v)*np.cos(v)))/(2 - np.sqrt(2)*np.sin(3*u)*np.sin(2*v))

points2D = np.vstack([u, v]).T
tri = Delaunay(points2D)
simplices = tri.simplices

fig = ff.create_trisurf(x=x, y=y, z=z,
                         colormap=['rgb(50, 0, 75)', 'rgb(200, 0, 200)', '#c8dcc8'],
                         show_colorbar=True,
                         simplices=simplices,
                         title="Boy's Surface")
fig.show()

Reference¶

For more info on ff.create_trisurf(), see the full function reference

What About Dash?¶

Dash is an open-source framework for building analytical applications, with no Javascript required, and it is tightly integrated with the Plotly graphing library.

Learn about how to install Dash at https://dash.plot.ly/installation.

Everywhere in this page that you see fig.show(), you can display the same figure in a Dash application by passing it to the figure argument of the Graph component from the built-in dash_core_components package like this:

import plotly.graph_objects as go # or plotly.express as px
fig = go.Figure() # or any Plotly Express function e.g. px.bar(...)
# fig.add_trace( ... )
# fig.update_layout( ... )

from dash import Dash, dcc, html

app = Dash()
app.layout = html.Div([
    dcc.Graph(figure=fig)
])

app.run_server(debug=True, use_reloader=False)  # Turn off reloader if inside Jupyter