3D Plotting & Advanced Visualizations

Importing 3D Tools

from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import Axes3D
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111, projection='3d')

3D Scatter Plot

ax.scatter(x, y, z, c=colors, cmap='viridis', s=100)
ax.set_xlabel('X')
ax.set_ylabel('Y')
ax.set_zlabel('Z')

3D Surface Plot

Visualize mathematical functions or gridded data:

X, Y = np.meshgrid(x_vals, y_vals)
Z = X**2 + Y**2  # or any function

ax.plot_surface(X, Y, Z, cmap='coolwarm', alpha=0.8)
ax.set_xlabel('X')
ax.set_ylabel('Y')
ax.set_zlabel('Z')

3D Wireframe

Same as surface but shows the grid:

ax.plot_wireframe(X, Y, Z, color='#8b5cf6', linewidth=0.5)

When to use: 3D plots are impressive but hard to read in 2D (on paper/screen). Use 2D projections with color when possible.