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CloudChart

The Cloud chart is essentially a scatter-plot in 3 dimensions (maybe you are running an experiment in which you vary pressure and temperature, and are interested in the yield of the result). Rather than fitting a line to show the relationship between input and output, you fit a plane (if the data is linear in both x and y) or a curved surface. The markers are often located in XY-space by drawing risers from the ‘paper’ – this makes it much easier to visualise where they are positioned.

In fact, the Cloudchart is much more versatile than this, as it can also be drawn with lines connecting the points, or planes shaded down to the XY plane (the Z-value is always assumed to be drawn vertically). Multiple charts may be combined using a common set of axes to make quite complex diagrams in 3 dimensions.

SharpPlot sp = new SharpPlot;
sp.SetMargins(0,12,18,4);
sp.SetMarkers(Marker.Bullet);
ydata = new int[] {190,270,310,120,190,230};
xdata = new int[] {17,31,29,14,16,24};
zdata = new int[] {12,65,77,7,9,112};
sp.CloudChartStyle = CloudChartStyles.WallShading|CloudChartStyles.GridLines|
         CloudChartStyles.Risers;
sp.SetMarkers(Marker.Ball);
sp.SetXTickMarks(5);
sp.SetYTickMarks(50);
sp.SetZTickMarks(100);
sp.Perspective = 6;
sp.SetAxisStyle(Color.Gray,LineStyle.Solid,0.5);
sp.DrawCloudChart(xdata,ydata,zdata);

Worked Examples

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