3D Plot with Matplotlib: Hide axes but keep axis-labels?

11,347

I tried to run your code, but it is not working in my computer.

Below you can see a solution for plotting a sphere. Basically, I turned the color of the panes and spines to alpha=0 by hand and make the ticks to be empty lists (as you pointed out).

from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import axes3d
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from matplotlib import rcParams
import numpy as np
rcParams['axes.labelsize'] = 18
rcParams['font.family'] = 'serif'
rcParams['font.serif'] = ['Computer Modern Roman']
rcParams['text.usetex'] = True

fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111, projection='3d')

u = np.linspace(0, 2 * np.pi, 100)
v = np.linspace(0, np.pi, 100)

x = 10 * np.outer(np.cos(u), np.sin(v))
y = 10 * np.outer(np.sin(u), np.sin(v))
z = 10 * np.outer(np.ones(np.size(u)), np.cos(v))
ax.plot_surface(x, y, z,  rstride=4, cstride=4, color='b')

# Get rid of the panes
ax.w_xaxis.set_pane_color((1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 0.0))
ax.w_yaxis.set_pane_color((1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 0.0))
ax.w_zaxis.set_pane_color((1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 0.0))

# Get rid of the spines
ax.w_xaxis.line.set_color((1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 0.0))
ax.w_yaxis.line.set_color((1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 0.0))
ax.w_zaxis.line.set_color((1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 0.0))

# Get rid of the ticks
ax.set_xticks([]) 
ax.set_yticks([]) 
ax.set_zticks([])

# Add the labels
ax.set_xlabel('Third dimension' )
ax.set_ylabel('Row(s)')
ax.set_zlabel('Column(s)')
plt.show()

And here is my output

enter image description here

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safl
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safl

Updated on June 04, 2022

Comments

  • safl
    safl almost 2 years

    I am using Matplotlib to visualize three-dimensional arrays. I got it almost the way I want it, apart from a minor snag... see the illustration and the description below of what I can get it to do and what I want it to do...

    1. Show a bunch of cubes with labels, but also a bunch of other stuff.
    2. Show a bunch of cubes but no axis-labels.
    3. This is what I want but cannot get it to do... I want to display a bunch of cubes WITH axis-labels but nothing else.

    enter image description here

    I hope you guys can help me out :) See the source below.

    from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import axes3d
    import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
    from matplotlib import rcParams
    import numpy as np
    rcParams['axes.labelsize'] = 14
    rcParams['axes.titlesize'] = 16
    rcParams['xtick.labelsize'] = 14
    rcParams['ytick.labelsize'] = 14
    rcParams['legend.fontsize'] = 14
    rcParams['font.family'] = 'serif'
    rcParams['font.serif'] = ['Computer Modern Roman']
    rcParams['text.usetex'] = True
    rcParams['grid.alpha'] = 0.0
    
    def make_cube():
        """ A Cube consists of a bunch of planes..."""
    
        planes = {
            "top"    : ( [[0,1],[0,1]], [[0,0],[1,1]], [[1,1],[1,1]] ),
            "bottom" : ( [[0,1],[0,1]], [[0,0],[1,1]], [[0,0],[0,0]] ),
            "left"   : ( [[0,0],[0,0]], [[0,1],[0,1]], [[0,0],[1,1]] ),
            "right"  : ( [[1,1],[1,1]], [[0,1],[0,1]], [[0,0],[1,1]] ),
            "front"  : ( [[0,1],[0,1]], [[0,0],[0,0]], [[0,0],[1,1]] ),
            "back"   : ( [[0,1],[0,1]], [[1,1],[1,1]], [[0,0],[1,1]] )
        }
        return planes
    
    def render_array(ary, highlight):
        fig = plt.figure()
        ax = fig.add_subplot(111, projection='3d')
    
        cube = make_cube()
    
        for space in xrange(0, ary.shape[0]):
            for column in xrange(0, ary.shape[1]):
                for row in xrange(0, ary.shape[2]):
                    alpha = 0.01
                    if highlight[space,column,row] == 1:
                        alpha = 1
                    for side in cube:
                        (Xs, Ys, Zs) = (
                            np.asarray(cube[side][0])+space+space*0.2,
                            np.asarray(cube[side][2])+row+row*0.2,
                            np.asarray(cube[side][3])+column+column*0.2
                        )
                        ax.plot_surface(Xs, Ys, Zs, rstride=1, cstride=1, alpha=alpha)
    
        highest = 0                         # Make it look cubic
        for size in ary.shape:
            if size > highest:
                highest = size
        ax.set_xlim((0,highest))
        ax.set_ylim((0,highest))
        ax.set_zlim((0,highest))
    
    
        ax.set_xlabel('Third dimension' )   # Meant to visualize ROW-MAJOR ordering 
        ax.set_ylabel('Row(s)')
        ax.set_zlabel('Column(s)')
    
        #plt.axis('off')    # This also removes the axis labels... i want those...
        #ax.set_axis_off()  # this removes too much (also the labels)
    
        # So I try this instead...
        ax.set_xticks([])          # removes the ticks... great now the rest of it
        ax.set_yticks([])
        ax.set_zticks([])
        #ax.grid(False)             # this does nothing....
        #ax.set_frame_on(False)     # this does nothing....
        plt.show()
    
    def main():
    
        subject = np.ones((3,4,3))
    
        highlight = np.zeros(subject.shape) # Highlight a row
        highlight[1,1,:] = 1
    
        render_array(subject, highlight)    # Show it
    
    if __name__ == "__main__":
        main()
    

    Update, thanks to the answer, here is what I was missing:

    # Get rid of the panes                          
    ax.w_xaxis.set_pane_color((1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 0.0)) 
    ax.w_yaxis.set_pane_color((1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 0.0)) 
    ax.w_zaxis.set_pane_color((1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 0.0)) 
    
    # Get rid of the spines                         
    ax.w_xaxis.line.set_color((1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 0.0)) 
    ax.w_yaxis.line.set_color((1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 0.0)) 
    ax.w_zaxis.line.set_color((1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 0.0))
    

    Which will, together with:

    # Get rid of the ticks                          
    ax.set_xticks([])                               
    ax.set_yticks([])                               
    ax.set_zticks([])
    

    Hide everything but the labels, as illustrated in 3).

    UPDATE

    I've cleaned and got the code into a working state and made it available here: https://github.com/safl/ndarray_plot

    Along with a couple of additional examples here: http://nbviewer.ipython.org/github/safl/ndarray_plot/blob/master/nb/ndap.ipynb

  • safl
    safl about 9 years
    Thanks @nicoguaro, I was missing: "ax.w_xaxis.set_pane_color" and "ax.w_xaxis.line.set_color".
  • nicoguaro
    nicoguaro about 9 years
    Not a problem. Can you fix your code? I'm interested in running it... Maybe I can use it for visualization of tensors later.
  • safl
    safl almost 9 years
    I've cleaned it up and made it available here: github.com/safl/ndarray_plot