Surface charts are the only useful and valid 3D chart types offered by Excel. They have three true dimensions in the data, and can illustrate it reasonable well. Surface charts are useful to show how a variable (Z) changes according to two other variables (X and Y). For example, a topographic map shows how altitude (Z) changes with longitude and lattitude (X and Y).
Surface charts have some limitations:
? Surface charts are not true X-Y-Z charts. X and Y are not treated as numeric data, and must consist of regularly defined, evenly spaced categories. Exactly one Z value is needed for each X-Y pair.
? The surface calculations are rudimentary, drawn by connecting Z values at X-Y nodes with straight lines and planar sections. A saddle point is not accurately drawn if it occurs between the X-Y nodes.
? The color-filled surface charts do not allow transparency, which would help visualize hidden parts of the surface. (Perhaps Excel for the Mac allows this, but that's insufficient cause to trade in your Windows machine for a Mac.)
? The wireframe versions of the surface chart have too many visible line segments, showing both the boundaries marking different values and the lines connecting the nodes. They can only be hidden and displayed together; whereas it would have been a nice feature to show boundaries only, or formatted differently from node connectors.
Despite these and other limitations, surface charts and contour charts, their 2D equivalents, can be quite effective in presenting information.
royjaco wrote:
Surface Chart/Contour Chart options
04-Sep-08
Hello
I am trying to make a 2d surface chart from some data i have collected
When i plot the data using the Wireframe Contour option I get a 2d surface
plot where Excel sets the legend into 5 categories(ie from 0-2, 2-4, 4-6,
6-8, and 8-10). Is there a way to increase these catergories and choose what
data Excel lumps ito these categories so that my graph will have more
countours? (IE so that i could set it to be from 0-1, 1-2, 3-4, 4-5, 5-6,
7-8, 8-9, and 9-10 so that i would have 10 contours on my graph rather then
5?)
Previous Posts In This Thread:
Surface Chart/Contour Chart options
Hello
I am trying to make a 2d surface chart from some data i have collected
When i plot the data using the Wireframe Contour option I get a 2d surface
plot where Excel sets the legend into 5 categories(ie from 0-2, 2-4, 4-6,
6-8, and 8-10). Is there a way to increase these catergories and choose what
data Excel lumps ito these categories so that my graph will have more
countours? (IE so that i could set it to be from 0-1, 1-2, 3-4, 4-5, 5-6,
7-8, 8-9, and 9-10 so that i would have 10 contours on my graph rather then
5?)
Right click on the legend, choose Format, and set the scale on one of the tabs.
Right click on the legend, choose Format, and set the scale on one of the
tabs
- Jo
------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MV
Tutorials and Custom Solution
Peltier Technical Services, Inc. -
http://PeltierTech.co
______
John,I right clicked and choose format from the top screen but I did not see
John
I right clicked and choose format from the top screen but I did not see any
option to choose scale. I clicked the size button and that opened a window
that named "Size and Properties". This had a section called "Size and
rotate", "Scale", "Crop From", and "Origional Size". However the "Scale"
function was grayed out
Regard
Ro
:
Select the chart first so it has eight black "handles" on the corners and
Select the chart first so it has eight black "handles" on the corners and
edges (not white handles). Then right click on the legend, and choose Format
Legend.
- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Tutorials and Custom Solutions
Peltier Technical Services, Inc. -
http://PeltierTech.com
_______
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