For questions specific to the Graphics3D command and related 3D graphics functionality.
81
votes
1answer
12k views
Mathematica Minecraft
Some time ago I asked myself: with all these great graphics and interactive capabilities of Mathematica, what kinds of 3D games can be implemented in it? And the answer which came to mind is ...
46
votes
2answers
41k views
Cutting bagels into linked halves
I recently came across this video: Mathematically correct breakfast, which shows how a bagel can be neatly sliced into two identical linked halves.
I'd like to try this with Mathematica. Here's a ...
38
votes
1answer
1k views
Implementing a first person view of 3D objects in a scene
I've created the following scene with a Chinese-style building surrounded by trees, and a horse and a rabbit grazing on the grass in Mathematica (don't ask me why there's a bust of Beethoven in ...
33
votes
4answers
2k views
How to make a 3D globe?
There are many ways to create a 3D Earth that is rotatable (see here, here, related here), but most of them have some drawbacks. These issues mainly stem from either ...
33
votes
2answers
2k views
How to show solid bodies using volumetric rendering?
Note: This question was asked when Mathematica 8 was latest release. Version 9 has built-in support for volume rendering through Image3D.
There's an example on ...
32
votes
2answers
820 views
My donut has holes in it!
More than one hole, I mean…
I’m trying to export from Mathematica into the X3D format, with the longer term goal of generating 3D figures for PDF inclusion. But I'm stuck at the first step:
...
32
votes
0answers
740 views
How to construct a treemap using non-rectangles?
I've written the standard version of a tree map (a graphic that shows nested data) and I'm looking to improve on this layout by switching to different types of polygons or perhaps circles. Can anyone ...
24
votes
2answers
601 views
How to create blurred Graphics3D objects?
Initially I was interested in renderring a 3D analog of a blurred disk like this
...
22
votes
1answer
367 views
On drilling holes with minimal redundancy (and with colors!)
The old Mathematica package Graphics`Shapes` featured the function PerforatePolygons[], which drilled a hole in any ...
20
votes
3answers
761 views
How to extrude a 3D image from a binary 2D image
I'm trying to extrude a nice 3D form from the 2D binary image below using the code posted, but I haven't had any luck in figuring out the error that's keeping ...
19
votes
3answers
582 views
19
votes
1answer
954 views
Autorotating 3D plots
These days, I have to produce quite a few 3D surface plots (mostly functions of the type $\rho(\theta,\phi)$ plotted with SphericalPlot3D). To exchange these ...
18
votes
4answers
941 views
Can 2D and 3D plots be combined so that the 2D plot is the bottom surface of the 3D plot boundary?
I have a ListlinePlot function, that I would like to combine with both a Graphics3D plot and a ...
18
votes
3answers
442 views
RegionPlot3D in cylindrical or spherical coordinates?
RegionPlot3D is awesome. Unfortunately, it appears to work only for Cartesian coordinates. While there are ways to draw surfaces in spherical or cylindrical coordinates, I can't find a way to draw ...
16
votes
2answers
1k views
3D heatmap density plot
I have a set of data that looks like {{x1, y1, z1}, {x2, y2, z2}, ...} so it describes points in 3D space. I want to make a heatmap out of this data. So that points ...
16
votes
3answers
863 views
How to make hollow polyhedra?
I found a version of the Mathematica spikey in 3D printable format (STL) at the Shapeways site that was hollow. Here it is when viewed in MeshLab:
You can see there's a bit cut out of the end, and ...
15
votes
3answers
464 views
3D view of a route shown on a map
You should have already seen such a thing, specially in documentaries about ancient life: the movement of a tribe is shown on an ancient map along a route with a dashed arrow. I want to do the same ...
15
votes
2answers
925 views
How to calculate volume of convex hull and volume of a 3D object
I have a random 3D data points.
How to calculate volume of the convex hull and volume of the object.
14
votes
4answers
526 views
Mathematica for teaching orthographic projection
Edit: All the four answers to this question are great, and if you're interested, you should take a look at all the answers. Nevertheless, belisarius' code was accepted since it was closest to what I ...
13
votes
4answers
831 views
How to draw a great circle on a sphere?
I apologize for the text description, but new users are not allowed to post images.
I want to draw a circle that cuts through the center of a sphere and has an inclination of 15 degrees with the ...
13
votes
3answers
507 views
How can locators be added to the points on a 3D grid?
Here is a pared down example of some 3D data that I want to make dynamic and add locators to each set of points. Is that possible?
...
13
votes
3answers
538 views
How can I set the view vector in a 3D scene by tracking my face's position?
Faking 3D with 2D tracking data is something that I've long wanted to implement for use with my front facing laptop camera. A first step to solving this would be dynamically setting the viewpoint ...
13
votes
2answers
618 views
Texture mapping and resizing a sphere primitive in Mathematica
Background Info
In Mathematica, it's only possible to texture map a sphere through the use of SphericalPlot3D or ...
12
votes
1answer
317 views
Is it possible to produce anaglyphs with Mathematica?
I'd like to prepare some presentations in Mathematica to help students visualize functions of two variables (it's a usual calculus course). I thought it would be both cool and useful to have the ...
12
votes
1answer
172 views
Easy way to export Graphics3D as triangles with VertexNormals?
I would like to export an arbitrary Graphics3D object as a text file containing:
list of vertices
vertex normals
triangle faces
...
12
votes
0answers
255 views
How to get shadows in Graphics3D?
It was a shock to me when I found that in Graphics3D a surface is always transparent to the light sources:
...
11
votes
3answers
322 views
How to plot a 3D surface with a simple black and white style?
Mathematica has great plotting capabilities. However, sometimes what is needed is a very basic black and white plot without textures, lighting, glow and other complex features. So, here is my ...
11
votes
4answers
1k views
How to draw an ellipse arc in 3D?
There is no Circle or Disk object in 3D. I quickly found a way to use Cylinder (thin lines, no faces, very flat):
...
11
votes
2answers
600 views
Finding a Concave Hull
I have a 3d clustered data:
Is there any other way to get concavehull of 3D data points?
11
votes
3answers
178 views
Representing a Stencil of a Finite Difference Operator with Mathematica's Graphics3D
I have the following finite difference operator:
$$
Lu_{ijk}:=
du_{ijk} +c(u_{i-1,j,k} + u_{i+1,j,k} + u_{i,j-1,k} + u_{i,j+1,k} + u_{i,j,k-1} + u_{i,j,k+1})\\
-u_{i-1,j+1,k}-u_{i-1,j-1,k} - ...
11
votes
2answers
375 views
Calculating morphometric properties
Is it possible to calculate segment length, segment diameter and branch angles for three dimensional geometry. Geometry contains vertex points and polygon surfaces as
...
11
votes
1answer
215 views
Facegrids at ticks
I want to plot a 3D graphic and I want facegrids at the ticks that I specify. I've tried several solutions but I cannot get this working. The result with the code provided below is that it does its ...
11
votes
2answers
270 views
Which ray-tracing software is compatible with Graphics3D?
I am interested in working alternative to Mathematica's FrontEnd for rendering Graphics3D produced by Mathematica. The requrements are:
An ability to import ...
10
votes
2answers
203 views
How to get the real PlotRange of Graphics with GeometricTransformations in it?
For demonstrating the problem, have a look at the following example, and try adjusting the rotation angle a and/or the Locator ...
10
votes
1answer
314 views
How do I generate the Mathematica Version 2 Spikey in Mathematica?
As we all know, Mathematica changes its logo design with every new version, while still maintaining the dodecahedral/icosahedral motif.
I have been able, through much digging around, to finally ...
10
votes
2answers
377 views
Why is ListDensityPlot unable to plot datasets with extreme ranges
Consider the following dataset:
data = Flatten[
Table[{x 10^-9, y 10^-9, x^2 + y^2},{x, -100, 100, 10}, {y, -100,100, 10}]
, 1];
If I try to ...
10
votes
2answers
326 views
Graphics3D: Finding intersection of 3d objects and lines
I found these two nice links 1) intersecting graphics 2) Implementation of Balaban's Line intersection algorithm in Mathematica which works for 2d.
However, I need to find whether a ray(line) ...
10
votes
1answer
187 views
Forming Cone with Tube fails to work in version 9.0.1
I use two different radii in a Tube expression to draw a cone. I know for a fact that this worked in Mathematica 8, but when I reevaluated my code in versio 9.0.1
...
10
votes
0answers
204 views
How do I stop my joystick from rotating a 3D graphic?
I am trying to use Mathematica to illustrate mixed strategies in Game Theory. I want my students to be able to use common joysticks as controllers. What I find, however, is that in addition to doing ...
9
votes
4answers
334 views
How to draw a higher-genus surface
NB: By higher-genus surface, I mean a closed orientable surface of genus at least 2.
This question has come up before on math.SE, and even MathOverflow, but most posters suggested using either ...
9
votes
4answers
369 views
ParametricPlot3D output without the meshlines
Caveat: Mathematica version 3.0. if (or when) it matters.
I define a 3D-object with ParametricPlot3D, say, the following:
...
9
votes
3answers
2k views
How to convert a 2D image into a 3D graphics?
I have an image I would like to make into a .dxf and to do this I need a Graphics3D object. Is there anyway I can do this?
Can ...
9
votes
2answers
163 views
Drawing Cylindrical Segment with Graphics3D
For a visualization I need a combination of 3 Cylindrical segments to visualize the incident, reflected and refracted beam of light at a surface. I got as far as the following code.
...
9
votes
1answer
448 views
3D plots with parallel projection
It is easy to make 3D Plots with Mathematica, e.g. use:
Plot3D[Sin[x+y^2],{x,-3,3},{y,-2,2}]
But I want to have nice plots in my thesis, so I decided to use ...
9
votes
1answer
257 views
Outline around sphere
Is there an easy way to draw an outline around a sphere? Is there something like EdgeForm[] that will work?
I'm looking for perhaps a thick red line; I'm making a ...
9
votes
0answers
117 views
What is PointForm?
I stumbled across a function called PointForm but the only documentation I can find is the pop-up line offered by autocomplete, which contains the same information ...
9
votes
0answers
177 views
Unintended edge extensions in 3D Cube rendering
I have arranged a certain configuration of cubes in 3D using the following code:
...
8
votes
3answers
183 views
How do I remove a bounding box (i.e. set Boxed -> False) after rendering a 3D graphic?
I have an old notebook with an output from Graphics3D, however, I've lost the data behind the output and recomputing it would take days. I simply want to remove the bounding box Mathematica usually ...
8
votes
2answers
472 views
What are the possible ways of visualizing a 4D function in Mathematica?
I have a function $F$ that maps the xyz space to a set of reals, more clearly:
$c = F[x,y,z]$
Where $c$,$x$,$y$ and $z$ are reals.
What are the possible ways of visualizing this 3d function in ...
8
votes
3answers
389 views
Filling between two 3D surfaces
I know it is possible to create a filling in between two curves on a 2D plot, but is it possible to do the same in 3D?
My attempt like this:
...
