3D Surface Plots

Abstract

It is important to understand how these plots are constructed. A two-dimensional grid of X and Z is constructed. The range of this grid is equal to the range of the data. Next, a Y value is calculated for each grid point. This Y value is a weighted average of all data values that are “near” this grid point. (The number of points averaged is specified by the user.) The three-dimensional surface is constructed using these averaged values. Hence, the surface plot does not show the variation at each grid point.