Convert Circular X,Y,Z values to 3D Plot

[Linty_C]

Hi all,

I'm having trouble with converting X, Y, Z coordinates into a usable format so that they can be used in a 3D surface plot. The values are taken in various circular patterns within a circular object. Example of the scan pattern shown below.

The scan takes a set of 625 evenly spaced (except for the few at the bottom of the outer most ring) data points in a counter-clockwise movement. I've used Excel to create a Z-matrix of the data in the correct scan orientation.

Plotting the raw data gives me this.

Plotting the Z-matrix gives me this.

My goal is to translate the data into something similar to this.

So, I suppose that my questions are:

1. What is the best way to transpose the X, Y, Z data into a Z-matrix in LabVIEW so that I don't need to do it in Excel? Is that even needed for what I'm trying to accomplish?
2. How do I transform these values into the picture above? Would converting to polar values first help?
   • In the past, although the same item was scanned, the data that was created was a 200 x 200 Z-matrix that was already in the correct 'shape'. This data set is only a 25 x 25 square.

Thanks in advance for the help.