Make_subplots with 3d surfaces - how to set camera/scene

šŸ“Š Plotly Python
1

There seems to be no way to set the camera/eye angles when creating a chart with subplots of 3d surfaces. This apparently is because the ā€˜sceneā€™ argument in the traces that you would append in make_subplots means something different than ā€˜sceneā€™ would in a standalone plot. Is that right? Furthermore what does scene mean in this context?

This code:

camera=dict(
eye=dict(x=0,y=0,z=0.5))

swap_surface = dict(type=ā€˜surfaceā€™
,x=x,y=y,z=z
,showscale=False
,cmin = zmin, cmax = zmax
,opacity = 0.9
,lighting = lighting, colorscale = colorscale,scene=dict(camera=camera))

x, y, z = yield_surface(lo=0,hi=100,aggfield=ā€˜treas_yieldā€™)
treas_surface = dict(type=ā€˜surfaceā€™
,x=x,y=y,z=z
,showscale=False
,cmin = zmin, cmax = zmax
,opacity = 0.9
,lighting = lighting, colorscale = colorscale,scene=dict(camera=camera))

figz = tools.make_subplots(rows=2
,cols=1
,specs = [[{ā€˜is_3dā€™:True}],[{ā€˜is_3dā€™:True}]]
,vertical_spacing = 0.1, horizontal_spacing = 0
,subplot_titles = (ā€˜US Treasury Curveā€™,ā€˜Swap Curveā€™)
,shared_xaxes=True
)
figz.append_trace(swap_surface,1,1)
figz.append_trace(treas_surface,2,1)

Produces this error:
ValueError:
Invalid value of type ā€˜builtins.dictā€™ received for the ā€˜sceneā€™ property of surface
Received value: {ā€˜cameraā€™: {ā€˜eyeā€™: {ā€˜xā€™: 0, ā€˜yā€™: 0, ā€˜zā€™: 0.5}}}

The 'scene' property is an identifier of a particular
subplot, of type 'scene', that may be specified as the string 'scene'
optionally followed by an integer >= 1
(e.g. 'scene', 'scene1', 'scene2', 'scene3', etc.)

What are scene1, scene2, and scene3? None of the documentation online shows proper usage of this argument.
How do i simply give these 2 subplots a different starting eye angle setting?
Thanks

2

@datadrinkr, tools.make_subplots() doesnā€™t accept subplot_titles and shared_xaxes (no shared axes in general). When you append each trace to a subplot cell, it has assigned a scene. For the first cell it is scene1, for the second one, scene2.

To understand how it works, just run the code below:

import numpy as np
import plotly.graph_objs as go
from plotly import tools as tls

x=np.linspace(-1, 1, 100)
y=np.linspace(-1, 1, 100)
x, y=np.meshgrid(x, y)
z=x**2+y**3

trace=dict(type='surface',
          x=x,
          y=y,
          z=z,
          colorscale='Viridis',
          showscale=False)
figz = tls.make_subplots(rows=2 ,cols=1,
                           specs = [[{'is_3d':True}],[{'is_3d':True}]],
                           vertical_spacing = 0.02
                           )
                         
figz.append_trace(trace, 1, 1)
figz.append_trace(trace, 2, 1)
fw=go.FigureWidget(figz)
print(fw.layout)


with fw.batch_update():
    fw.layout.update(width=800, height=1000) 
    fw.layout.scene1.camera.eye=dict(x=0, y=0, z=2.15)   
fw

Hence, camera is an attribute to go.Layout.scene, and cannot be set in the trace definition.

3

Thanks @empet , that helps clarify how to use camera. Iā€™m trying to use that in Dash, will attempt to get figurewidget to display in a dcc.Graph placeholder.

To your other point - subplot_titles DOES work with tools.make_subplots, but ONLY if shared_axes is set to True. This is perhaps unintended but is a solution that I found online and actually works here. Otherwise, how would you add titles to each of these subplots (open to an alternative, more ā€˜correctā€™ solution on that one, but subplots absolutely need a title).

Thanks,

4

Another issue is that it appears that figurewidget does not accept dates in the axes.

/apps/valrs/tools/python/python3.6.1/lib/python3.6/site-packages/ipykernel/jsonutil.py in json_clean(obj)
195
196 # we donā€™t understand it, itā€™s probably an unserializable object
ā€“> 197 raise ValueError(ā€œCanā€™t clean for JSON: %rā€ % obj)

ValueError: Canā€™t clean for JSON: datetime.date(2018, 5, 1)

5

@datadrinkr, I converted figz to FigureWidget only to display it faster. You can avoid this conversion and perform the updates on figz(I refer here to my example):

figz.layout.update(width=800, height=`1000)
figz.layout.scene1.camera.eye=dict(x=0, y=0, z=2.15)

Hence you shouldnā€™t find a workaround for displaying a FigureWidget in Dash.

Could you write down here, please, your date example that fails?