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Alex:
Thank you.
OK, this explains my failure.
Would you know of such plug in for Excel?
(A polar coordinate plug in would be nice also.
Seriously.
Often, I have more than 2 variables I could plot them on a polar
projection, then view the surface.)
Leslie
Alex Matulich wrote:
>
> >Given 3 columns of data, columns X, Y, and Z,
> >how do I plot a 3 - dimensional surface topology chart?
>
> You don't, not with just XYZ coordinate data.
>
> The Excel Surface chart is analogous to an Excel Line chart, rather
> than an Excel XY chart. Here are the differences:
>
> In a Line chart, you give Excel one set of data, and it plots a
> curve assuming equally-spaced X values.
>
> In an XY chart, you give Excel two sets of data, X and Y, and it
> plots a curve connecting the X,Y coordinate pairs. I generally find
> this type of chart the most useful for plotting data curves.
>
> In a Surface chart, you give Excel ONE set of data, just like a Line
> chart! Excel assumes that the borders of the table enclosing the
> data correspond to X and Y axes, and that the cells in the table are
> equally spaced in the X and Y directions. The cell values will be
> the Z values for the surface. This is a really crude type of chart
> that becomes unreadable if your data table gets so big that the grid
> squares all run together.
>
> Excel doesn't have an XYZ chart type, where you can give it three
> sets of data representing X, Y, and Z coordinates. You can buy
> Excel add-ons for this, if you want.
>
> And don't get me started on polar plots; they suck in Excel too....
>
> --
> ,|___ Alex Matulich -- alex@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> // +__> Director of Research and Development
> // \
> // __) Unicorn Research Corporation -- http://unicorn.us.com
--
Regards,
Leslie Walko
610-688-2442
--
"Life is a tragedy for those who feel, a comedy for those who
think"
Horace Walpole, 4th earl of Orford, in a letter dated about 1770
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