Use of the Surf function and examples in Matlab

Does anyone can give me some good and detailed example of using the Surf function in Matlab? I want to plot a 3D view of the data. Mathworks did not provide detailed examples on how to plot the surfaces using this function. Thanks.

Answer 1

[the cyclist]

There are examples in the documentation of surf and in the MATLAB Plot Gallery.

Answer 2

[Star Strider]

I found the MATLAB documentation quite thorough.

What do you want to do that the documentation does not describe? Please go into some detail as to what you want to do. Including your data (preferably as a .mat file) would help.

[sally_wu]

Thanks @ Star Strides!

I am trying to plot the 3D map of my data using the surf function. I have X and Y coordinates and Z value so I would like to plot Z value with the legend on the side.

My problem is I do not know how to read in my file into Matlab, take appropriate columns for X, Y, and Z and read them all, and plot the 3D surf map. I know I have to use this command: surf(X,Y,Z,C), but how? Any examples illustrating my questions would be greatly appreciated. P.S. I am very new to the Matlab.

[Star Strider]

My pleasure.

In order to understand what you need to do, I would have to see your data. Columns of data would not work for surf unless your data turned out to be gridded already, or if not, interpolated to a form surf could use.

If you are having problems reading your data into MATLAB, upload it here so I can look at it and see how best to import it.

To upload your file here, click the ‘paperclip’ icon at the top of the Comment window, then complete both the ‘Choose file’ and ‘Attach file’ steps.

Answer 3

[sally_wu]

I am trying to plot the 3D map of my data using the surf function. I have X and Y coordinates and Z value so I would like to plot Z value with the legend on the side.

My problem is I do not know how to read in my file into Matlab, take appropriate columns for X, Y, and Z and read them all, and plot the 3D surf map. I know I have to use this command: surf(X,Y,Z,C), but how? Any examples illustrating my questions would be greatly appreciated. P.S. I am very new to the Matlab.

[sally_wu]

I also looked up here, but the examples seem not enough...

http://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/surf.html?refresh=true