Waterfall Plots

[mzeftel]

We are looking at waterfall plots. My question is how do you use them?

Do you want them to be 2D plots with an offset, as demonstrated in the Waterfall QuickSheet, or more of a 3D plot, as I've seen in other software.

Several people requested that 2D plots could plot an array as if it were a collection of individual (column) vectors (each column would be a different trace).

Would this fulfil the Waterfall plot spec?

What happens if you have a very large array with over a 100 columns?

Thanks,

Mona

[TomGutman]

>>Several people requested that 2D plots could plot an array as if it were a collection of individual (column) vectors (each column would be a different trace). <<

Isn't that the way Mathcad currently works? (well, not MC', but the real Mathcad.)
__________________
� � � � Tom Gutman

[MichaelMcCann,P]

In response to....
Tom Gutman: "Several people requested that 2D plots could plot an
array as if it were a collection of individual (column) vectors (each
column would be a different trace).
Isn't that the way Mathcad currently works? (well, not MC', but the
real Mathcad.)"

Well, yes, but you have to to expand the X range to greater than the
data range so that the fly-back doesn't show. Once upon a time, maybe
MC4 or MC5, it used to work. I think the key was "line".

While on the topic of graphs:
1. We should be able to put variables in any of the places where a
number is allowed AND not have the ZOOM-UNZOOM mess it up when used
on such a graph.
That includes angles of tilt and rotation on 3D graphs.
2. The ZOOM-UNZOOM should be retrospective: If I ZOOM a graph then
close down the Zoom window I can't go back and unzoom later. That's perverse!
3. I want to be able to have the scales on contour and surface plots
computable from the indices that normally show up. So I can change
the computation and have the pictures track changes in scaling
instead of relying on an index which can be different.
Cheers,
Mike.

[RichardJ]

On 12/4/2009 8:31:00 AM, Michael J McCann wrote:
>In response to....
>Tom Gutman: "Several people
>requested that 2D plots could
>plot an
>array as if it were a
>collection of individual
>(column) vectors (each
>column would be a different
>trace).
>Isn't that the way Mathcad
>currently works? (well, not
>MC', but the
>real Mathcad.)"
>
>Well, yes, but you have to to
>expand the X range to greater
>than the
>data range so that the
>fly-back doesn't show. Once
>upon a time, maybe
>MC4 or MC5, it used to work. I
>think the key was "line".

It works fine for me. I use this feature all the time, and would consider it a necessity, not a luxury.

Richard

[TomGutman]

>>Well, yes, but you have to to expand the X range to greater than the
data range so that the fly-back doesn't show. <<

No. That is necessary if you are trying to use multiple range variables to plot a family of curves, but not if you are plotting columns of a matrix. There is no connection between the end of one column and the beginning of the next column.
__________________
� � � � Tom Gutman

[PhilipOakley]

On 12/4/2009 4:34:32 PM, Mona Zeftel wrote:
>I'm referring to these two
>requests:
>
>"I would like something that
>takes a matrix and plots each
>column as a =separate line
>without having to use column
>extract. Maybe the first
>=column is X values, each
>subsequent column is Y
>series."
>

This one would be useful. In particular think
about being able to immediately plot the output
from the DE solvers.... ! ! These are awkward
matrices that mathcad generates, so mathcad should
handle them 😉

Often data is read in from a txt file or an excel
sheet (or csv) and it has columns of say
sequence#, date, time, then values columns and one
want an easy way of plotting 'the lot'.

It may be that one has a 2d plot mechanism that
simply takes a whole matrix, then in the format
dialog, one can select the appropriate column as
X, and another set as the Y columns. With an
option to 'read data horizontally' [e.g. monthly
results arrange across the page]. Finally don't
forget the "My data has a header row/col"

Summary: plot matrices where one column is X, the
rest Ys.

>"allow 2D plot to plot an
>array as if it were a
>collection of individual
>=(column) vectors (ie, each
>column would be a different
>trace)"
>
>Mona
>

Philip Oakley C.Eng
philipoakley@iee.org

[RichardJ]

On 12/5/2009 5:55:18 AM, Philip Oakley wrote:

>Summary: plot matrices where one column
>is X, the
>rest Ys.

A 2D plot has two placeholders: one on the x-axis and one on the y-axis. Where do you propose to put the matrix?

Personally, it seems easy enough to use submatrix to split the original data matrix into the necessary parts.

Richard

[PhilipOakley]

On 12/5/2009 8:25:45 AM, Richard Jackson wrote:
>On 12/5/2009 5:55:18 AM, Philip Oakley
>wrote:
>
>>Summary: plot matrices where one column
>>is X, the
>>rest Ys.
>
>A 2D plot has two placeholders: one on
>the x-axis and one on the y-axis. Where
>do you propose to put the matrix?
>
>Personally, it seems easy enough to use
>submatrix to split the original data
>matrix into the necessary parts.
>
>Richard

I didn't actually propose anything... 😉 I just
raised the problem. Apparently they are the
developers and we only comment 😉

There has been a comment about having all the
plots integrated (2d just being side on 3d...). It
is sort of an option in this case...

As an aside, It may also be worth reviewing the
'quickplot' action in terms of auto indexing along
a vector/matrix of results. The user shouldn't
have to think up a special 'unused' index just to
force quickplot to start. The graph already
'knows' if the x/y variables are vectors and to
index along them...

just thought: If plotting a 'DE solve Matrix' the
place holder could be just by the 0,0 axis
intersection, with the dialog box enabling one or
(many) other plot style.

Philip Oakley C.Eng
philipoakley@iee.org

[RichardJ]

On 12/5/2009 6:11:34 PM, Philip Oakley wrote:
> Apparently they are
>the
>developers and we only comment 😉

I thought the comment were supposed to be, at least in part, proposals though 🙂

>There has been a comment about having
>all the
>plots integrated (2d just being side on
>3d...). It
>is sort of an option in this case...

Yes. Initially I thought "good idea", but now I'm not so sure. I have a feeling that it might lead to one very confusing graph type, as opposed to two easy to understand ones. They should be consistent though. If we have markers on 2D graphs, we should have them on 3D graphs. The same goes for log scales, backplanes, and any other property that is applicable to both 2D and 3D graphs.

Richard

[RichardJ]

On 12/2/2009 5:28:12 PM, Mona Zeftel wrote:
>We are looking at waterfall
>plots. My question is how do
>you use them?
>
>Do you want them to be 2D
>plots with an offset, as
>demonstrated in the Waterfall
>QuickSheet, or more of a 3D
>plot, as I've seen in other
>software.

3D, like this:



>Several people requested that
>2D plots could plot an array
>as if it were a collection of
>individual (column) vectors
>(each column would be a
>different trace).

That is a necessity. Without that feature lots of Mathcad graphs could not be either imported or (shudder) recreated.

>Would this fulfil the
>Waterfall plot spec?

It's a way to create something, but it's not very versatile.

>What happens if you have a
>very large array with over a
>100 columns?

Just plot it. Why should the number of columns matter?

Richard

[Ninetrees]

I don't use waterfall plots often, but when I do, I use only the 3D version, because it is easier to implement and I need the ability to rotate the plot to more easily see "hidden" regions.

I'd like the ability to 2D plot an array/matrix as if it were a collection of individual (column) vectors instead of listing each column individually in the y placeholder. But I'd still be more likely to use the 3D version for waterfall plots.

Because the data I plot can be crowded and complicated to visualize, I often use colormap with my waterfall plots.

Rich
http://www.downeastengineering.com/

[TedDiehl,PhD]

Mona,

Here are some classic waterfall plots used in analysis of dynamic data (like from vibrating equipment and rotating equipment).

Notice that the "Z" (waterfall) axis is sometimes at an angle and sometimes parallel with the "Y" axis.

In Mathcad the user needs to have control over the "Z" spacing of the curves as well as an "auto spacing" option.

It would be great to be able to label the Z axis of course. And yes, we want to be able to do so either by typing it in or reading a variable string from within the Mathcad doc.

Lastly, we need to ensure we can tweak (move) the labels around - the current 3-D graphs in Mathcad have the problem that the labels often get covered by the data itself.

Ted Diehl