3D Graph vs Surface Color Map

[tebert]

I am trying to utilize LabVIEW's 3D plots to plot data.

I would like to have a 3D plot that:

1. Is Color mapped correctly with peaks having a color gradient
2. Inverts axes easily
3. Can be enabled to have scroll zoom
4. Has a context menu with 3D plot properties at runtime

The 3D Surface and 3D Graph modules have some of these options, but not all.

• The 3D Surface does not have the correct color grading while the 3D Graph does.

• The 3D Graph does not have an invert axis option. Inverting the min/max with auto scale off is a workaround, but it also flips the 3D lighting. It is very apparent if the graph has flat portions.

Normal:

 

Inverted:

 

• The 3D Graph also does not have the property to change view distance programmatically which is needed to add scroll zoom.

In short the 3D Surface has all the options I want/need to manipulate my data but it does not color the plot correctly. On the other hand, the 3D Graph does color the plot correctly but is missing a lot of options that are available to the 3D Surface for transforming.

Does anyone know a way to get either of these modules to work as I want or a third option that I'm not aware of? I've attach my example program.

[alexderjuengere]

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@tebert wrote:

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Does anyone know a way to get either of these modules to work as I want or a third option that I'm not aware of? I've attach my example program.

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it is worth mentioning, the 3d Surface plot (incorrect, which should look like correct) does allow user-defined color ramps, which must be retrieved once from the original 2d image.

e.g. https://forums.ni.com/t5/Machine-Vision/Convert-2d-Gray-color-image-into-3d-x-y-z-graph/m-p/4256891#...

Spoiler

I am using LabView 2020, not 2021 - so please attach future .vis saved for 2020.

[tebert]

I ultimately am just plotting an arbitrary data set onto a 3D plane, not converting a 2D image to a 3D one.

From what I gather from your post though is that 3D Surfaces use Color Ramps while 3D Graphs use Color Maps, which are different data types. Is this correct and if so would it be possible to apply a Color Map to a 3D Surface?

Apologies for not down-saving, I've attached my example vi but saved to the 2017 LabVIEW.