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Please download on PC (not smartphone) and extract the ZIP file. Then double-click VCSSL.bat (batch file) to execute for Microsoft® Windows®, or execute VCSSL.jar (JAR file) on the command line for Linux® and other OSes.
For details, see How to Use.

Plotting Arrays on a 3D Graph (Point/Line Graph)

This VCSSL program plots the contents of arrays containing coordinate values on a 3D graph. It's a short sample code, perfect as a base for modifications or reuse.

In graph plotting for numerical computations and similar tasks, it's common to write coordinate values to a file using a calculation program, and then read that file later to plot the data. However, reading and writing files can take time, which becomes a bottleneck when creating animations.

In such cases, you can achieve faster plotting by directly transferring coordinate values stored in arrays to the graph software, without going through files.

» Related page: 3D Graph Plotting in Java

How to Use

Download and Extract

At first, click the "Download" button at the above of the title of this page by your PC (not smartphone). A ZIP file will be downloaded.

Then, please extract the ZIP file. On general environment (Windows®, major Linux distributions, etc.), you can extract the ZIP file by selecting "Extract All" and so on from right-clicking menu.

» If the extraction of the downloaded ZIP file is stopped with security warning messages...

Execute this Program

Next, open the extracted folder and execute this VCSSL program.

For Windows

Double-click the following batch file to execute:

For Linux, etc.

Execute "VCSSL.jar" on the command-line terminal as follows:

» If the error message about non-availability of "java" command is output...

After Launching

When the program is launched, the 3D graph software starts, and the contents of arrays filled with calculated coordinate values are plotted.

To change the plotted data, edit the part of the code that assigns values to the coordinate arrays (inside the "for" loop).

Code

Now, let's go through the code of this program. The code is written in VCSSL.

Full Code

Here is the complete code:

coding UTF-8;

// Required to handle 3D graphs
import tool.Graph3D;


// Prepare sample coordinate arrays to plot
float xData[11];
float yData[11];
float zData[11];
for(int i=0; i<=10; i++){
	xData[i] = i;
	yData[i] = xData[i] * xData[i];
	zData[i] = xData[i] * yData[i];
}


// Launch the 3D graph
int graph = newGraph3D();

// Plot the coordinate arrays on the 3D graph
setGraph3DData(graph, xData, yData, zData);

The code first stores sample coordinate values in arrays, and then plots them on the graph.

First Part

Let's look at the first part of the code:

coding UTF-8;

// Required to handle 3D graphs
import tool.Graph3D;

The line "coding UTF-8;" specifies the character encoding of the program. It's not mandatory, but including it helps prevent character corruption.

The line "import tool.Graph3D;" loads the tool.Graph3D library, which is needed to work with 3D graphs.

Preparing Sample Coordinate Arrays

Next is the part where the sample coordinate values are stored in arrays:

// Prepare sample coordinate arrays to plot
float xData[11];
float yData[11];
float zData[11];
for(int i=0; i<=10; i++){
	xData[i] = i;
	yData[i] = xData[i] * xData[i];
	zData[i] = xData[i] * yData[i];
}

This code creates three arrays -- xData, yData, and zData, each with 11 elements -- to store coordinates. It stores 11 points for the functions "y = x * x" and "z = x * y", with x ranging from 0 to 10.

Compared to the method used in Plotting a File on a 3D Graph , where the data was written to a file, assigning values directly to arrays is significantly faster.

This method is especially useful for animating graphs, where writing to files could slow things down -- using arrays enables much smoother plotting.

Plotting

Finally, here is the part that plots the array data on the 3D graph:

// Launch the 3D graph
int graph = newGraph3D();

// Plot the coordinate arrays on the 3D graph
setGraph3DData(graph, xData, yData, zData);

The newGraph3D() function launches the 3D graph software. Each time you call this function, a new graph window is launched and assigned a unique ID number.

For example, if you start multiple graph windows, they might be assigned IDs like Graph #12, #22, #101, and so on. Here, the returned ID is stored in the int variable "graph".

Next, the setGraph3DData() function is used to plot the arrays xData, yData, and zData on the 3D graph. The first argument specifies the graph ID received when the graph was launched. Even if multiple graphs are open, you can control each one individually by using its ID.

License

This VCSSL/Vnano code (files with the ".vcssl" or ".vnano" extensions) is released under the CC0 license, effectively placing it in the public domain. If any sample code in C, C++, or Java is included in this article, it is also released under the same terms. You are free to use, modify, or repurpose it as you wish.

* The distribution folder also includes the VCSSL runtime environment, so you can run the program immediately after downloading. The license for the runtime is included in the gLicenseh folder.
(In short, it can be used freely for both commercial and non-commercial purposes, but the developers take no responsibility for any consequences arising from its use.) For details on the files and licenses included in the distribution folder, please refer to "ReadMe.txt".

* The Vnano runtime environment is also available as open-source, so you can embed it in other software if needed. For more information, see here.

Author of This Article

Fumihiro Matsui
[ Founder of RINEARN, Doctor of Science (Physics), Applied Info Tech Engineer ]

Develops VCSSL, RINEARN Graph 3D and more. Also writes guides and articles.

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