3D Streamtube Plots in R

How to create streamtube plots with Plotly.

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Introduction

In streamtube plots, attributes inlcude x, y, and z, which set the coorindates of the vector field, and u, v, and w, which sets the x, y, and z components of the vector field. Additionally, you can use starts to determine the streamtube's starting position. Lastly, maxdisplayed determines the maximum segments displayed in a streamtube.

Basic Streamtube Plot

library(plotly)

df = read.csv('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/plotly/datasets/master/streamtube-basic.csv')

fig <- df %>%
  plot_ly(
    type = 'streamtube',
    x = ~x,
    y = ~y,
    z = ~z,
    u = ~u,
    v = ~v,
    w = ~w,
    sizeref = 0.5,
    cmin = 0,
    cmax = 3
  ) 
fig <- fig %>%
  layout(
    scene = list(
      camera = list(
        eye = list(
          x = -0.7243612458865182,
          y = 1.9269804254717962,
          z = 0.6704828299861716
        )
      )
    )
  )

fig
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Starting Position and Segments

library(plotly)

df = read.csv('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/plotly/datasets/master/streamtube-wind.csv')

fig <- df %>%
  plot_ly(
    type = 'streamtube',
    x = ~x,
    y = ~y,
    z = ~z,
    u = ~u,
    v = ~v,
    w = ~w,
    starts = list(
      x = rep(80, 16),
      y = rep(c(20,30,40,50), 4),
      z = c(rep(0,4),rep(5,4),rep(10,4),rep(15,4))
    ),
    sizeref = 0.3,
    showscale = F,
    maxdisplayed = 3000
  ) 
fig <- fig %>%
  layout(
    scene = list(
      aspectratio = list(
        x = 2,
        y = 1,
        z = 0.3
      )
    ),
    margin = list(
      t = 20, b = 20, l = 20, r = 20
    )
  )

fig
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Reference

See our reference page for more information and chart attribute options!.

What About Dash?

Dash for R 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 for R at https://dashr.plot.ly/installation.

Everywhere in this page that you see fig, you can display the same figure in a Dash for R application by passing it to the figure argument of the Graph component from the built-in dashCoreComponents package like this:

library(plotly)

fig <- plot_ly() 
# fig <- fig %>% add_trace( ... )
# fig <- fig %>% layout( ... ) 

library(dash)
library(dashCoreComponents)
library(dashHtmlComponents)

app <- Dash$new()
app$layout(
    htmlDiv(
        list(
            dccGraph(figure=fig) 
        )
     )
)

app$run_server(debug=TRUE, dev_tools_hot_reload=FALSE)
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