Graph3d

Overview

Graph3d is an interactive visualization chart to draw data in a three dimensional graph. You can freely move and zoom in the graph by dragging and scrolling in the window. Graph3d also supports animation of a graph.

Graph3d uses HTML canvas to render graphs, and can render up to a few thousands of data points smoothly.

Contents

Example

The following code shows how to create a Graph3d and provide it with data. More examples can be found in the examples directory. 

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
  <title>Graph 3D demo</title>

  <style>
    body {font: 10pt arial;}
  </style>

  <script type="text/javascript" src="../../dist/vis.js"></script>

  <script type="text/javascript">
  var data = null;
  var graph = null;

  function custom(x, y) {
    return (Math.sin(x/50) * Math.cos(y/50) * 50 + 50);
  }

  // Called when the Visualization API is loaded.
  function drawVisualization() {
    // Create and populate a data table.
    var data = new vis.DataSet();
    // create some nice looking data with sin/cos
    var steps = 50;  // number of datapoints will be steps*steps
    var axisMax = 314;
    var axisStep = axisMax / steps;
    for (var x = 0; x < axisMax; x+=axisStep) {
      for (var y = 0; y < axisMax; y+=axisStep) {
        var value = custom(x, y);
        data.add({
          x: x,
          y: y,
          z: value,
          style: value
        });
      }
    }

    // specify options
    var options = {
      width:  '600px',
      height: '600px',
      style: 'surface',
      showPerspective: true,
      showGrid: true,
      showShadow: false,
      keepAspectRatio: true,
      verticalRatio: 0.5
    };

    // create a graph3d
    var container = document.getElementById('mygraph');
    graph3d = new vis.Graph3d(container, data, options);
  }
  </script>
</head>

<body onload="drawVisualization();">
  <div id="mygraph"></div>
</body>
</html>

Loading

The class name of the Graph3d is vis.Graph3d. When constructing a Graph3d, an HTML DOM container must be provided to attach the graph to. Optionally, data and options can be provided. Data is a vis DataSet or an Array, described in section Data Format. Options is a name-value map in the JSON format. The available options are described in section Configuration Options. 

var graph = new vis.Graph3d(container [, data] [, options]);

Data and options can be set or changed later on using the functions Graph3d.setData(data) and Graph3d.setOptions(options).

Data Format

Graph3d can load data from an Array, a DataSet (offering 2 way data binding), or a DataView (offering 1 way data binding). JSON objects are added to this DataSet by using the add() function. Data points must have properties x, y, and z, and can optionally have a property style and filter.

Definition

The DataSet JSON objects are defined as:

Name Type Required Description
x number yes Location on the x-axis.
y number yes Location on the y-axis.
z number yes Location on the z-axis.
style number no The data value, required for graph styles dot-color and dot-size.
filter * no Filter values used for the animation. This column may have any type, such as a number, string, or Date.

Configuration Options

Options can be used to customize the graph. Options are defined as a JSON object. All options are optional. 

var options = {
    width:  '100%',
    height: '400px',
    style: 'surface'
};

The following options are available.

Name Type Default Description
animationInterval number 1000 The animation interval in milliseconds. This determines how fast the animation runs.
animationPreload boolean false If false, the animation frames are loaded as soon as they are requested. if animationPreload is true, the graph will automatically load all frames in the background, resulting in a smoother animation as soon as all frames are loaded. The load progress is shown on screen.
animationAutoStart boolean false If true, the animation starts playing automatically after the graph is created.
axisColor string '#4D4D4D' The color of the axis lines and the text along the axis.
backgroundColor string or Object Object The background color for the main area of the chart. Can be either a simple HTML color string, for example: 'red' or '#00cc00', or an object with the following properties.
cameraPosition Object Object Set the initial rotation and position of the camera. All parameters are optional.
dataColor string or object Object When dataColor is a string, it will set the color for both border and fill color of dots and bars. Applicable for styles dot-size, bar-size, and line. When an object, it can contain the properties descibed below.
dotSizeRatio number 0.02 Ratio of the size of the dots with respect to the width of the graph.
dotSizeMinFraction number 0.5 Size of minimum-value dot as a fraction of dotSizeRatio. Applicable when using style dot-size.
dotSizeMaxFraction number 2.5 Size of maximum-value dot as a fraction of dotSizeRatio. Applicable when using style dot-size.
gridColor string '#D3D3D3' The color of the grid lines.
height string '400px' The height of the graph in pixels or as a percentage.
keepAspectRatio boolean true If keepAspectRatio is true, the x-axis and the y-axis keep their aspect ratio. If false, the axes are scaled such that they both have the same, maximum with.
onclick function none Event handler for a click event with signature function onclick(point).
Parameter point contains data for the nearest graph element relative to the click in the line of sight. It is an object with the fields:
  • id - id of nearest node to the click
  • x - x-coordinate in graph units
  • y - y-coordinate in graph units
  • z - z-coordinate in graph units
  • style - if present, the data value for this point
showAnimationControls boolean true If true, animation controls are created at the bottom of the Graph. The animation controls consists of buttons previous, start/stop, next, and a slider showing the current frame. Only applicable when the provided data contains an animation.
showGrid boolean true If true, grid lines are drawn in the x-y surface (the bottom of the 3d graph).
showXAxis boolean true If true, X axis and X axis labels are drawn.
showYAxis boolean true If true, Y axis and Y axis labels are drawn.
showZAxis boolean true If true, Z axis and Z axis labels are drawn.
showPerspective boolean true If true, the graph is drawn in perspective: points and lines which are further away are drawn smaller. Note that the graph currently does not support a gray colored bottom side when drawn in perspective.
showLegend boolean none If true, a legend is drawn for the graph (if the graph type supports it). By default a legend is drawn for dot and dot-color style graphs.
showShadow boolean false Show shadow on the graph.
style string 'dot' The style of the 3d graph. Available styles: bar, bar-color, bar-size, dot, dot-line, dot-color, dot-size, line, grid, or surface
tooltip boolean | function false Show a tooltip showing the values of the hovered data point. The contents of the tooltip can be customized by providing a callback function as tooltip. In this case the function is called with an object containing parameters x, y, z, and data (the source JS object for the point) as an argument, and must return a string which may contain HTML.
tooltipStyle Object Object Tooltip style properties. Provided properties will be merged with the default object.
valueMax number none The maximum value for the value-axis. Only available in combination with the styles dot-color and dot-size.
valueMin number none The minimum value for the value-axis. Only available in combination with the styles dot-color and dot-size.
verticalRatio number 0.5 A value between 0.1 and 1.0. This scales the vertical size of the graph When keepAspectRatio is set to false, and verticalRatio is set to 1.0, the graph will be a cube.
width string '400px' The width of the graph in pixels or as a percentage.
xBarWidth number none The width of bars in x direction. By default, the width is equal to the smallest distance between the data points. Only applicable for styles 'bar' and 'bar-color'.
xCenter string '55%' The horizontal center position of the graph, as a percentage or in pixels.
xMax number from data The maximum value for the x-axis. If not set, the largest value for x in the data set is used.
xMin number from data The minimum value for the x-axis. If not set, the smallest value for x in the data set is used.
xStep number none Step size for the grid on the x-axis.
xValueLabel function none A function for custom formatting of the labels along the x-axis, for example function (x) {return (x * 100) + '%'}.
yBarWidth number none The width of bars in y direction. By default, the width is equal to the smallest distance between the data points. Only applicable for styles 'bar' and 'bar-color'.
yCenter string '45%' The vertical center position of the graph, as a percentage or in pixels.
yMax number from data The maximum value for the y-axis. If not set, the largest value for y in the data set is used.
yMin number from data The minimum value for the y-axis. If not set, the smallest value for y in the data set is used.
yStep number none Step size for the grid on the y-axis.
yValueLabel function none A function for custom formatting of the labels along the y-axis, for example function (y) {return (y * 100) + '%'}.
zMax number from data The maximum value for the z-axis. If not set, the largest value for z in the data set is used.
zMin number from data The minimum value for the z-axis. If not set, the smallest value for z in the data set is used.
zStep number none Step size for the grid on the z-axis.
zValueLabel function none A function for custom formatting of the labels along the z-axis, for example function (z) {return (z * 100) + '%'}.
xLabel String x Label on the X axis.
yLabel String y Label on the Y axis.
zLabel String z Label on the Z axis.
filterLabel String time Label for the filter column.
legendLabel String value Label for the style description.

Methods

Graph3d supports the following methods.

Method Return Type Description
animationStart() none Start playing the animation. Only applicable when animation data is available.
animationStop() none Stop playing the animation. Only applicable when animation data is available.
getCameraPosition() An object with parameters horizontal, vertical and distance Returns an object with parameters horizontal, vertical and distance, which each one of them is a number, representing the rotation and position of the camera.
redraw() none Redraw the graph. Useful after the camera position is changed externally, when data is changed, or when the layout of the webpage changed.
setData(data) none Replace the data in the Graph3d.
setOptions(options) none Update options of Graph3d. The provided options will be merged with current options.
setSize(width, height) none Parameters width and height are strings, containing a new size for the graph. Size can be provided in pixels or in percentages.
setCameraPosition (pos) {horizontal: 1.0, vertical: 0.5, distance: 1.7} Set the rotation and position of the camera. Parameter pos is an object which contains three parameters: horizontal, vertical, and distance. Parameter horizontal is a value in radians and can have any value (but normally in the range of 0 and 2*Pi). Parameter vertical is a value in radians between 0 and 0.5*Pi. Parameter distance is the (normalized) distance from the camera to the center of the graph, in the range of 0.71 to 5.0. A larger distance puts the graph further away, making it smaller. All parameters are optional.

Events

Graph3d fires events after the camera position has been changed. The event can be catched by creating a listener. Here an example on how to catch a cameraPositionChange event. 

function onCameraPositionChange(event) {
  alert('The camera position changed to:\n' +
        'Horizontal: ' + event.horizontal + '\n' +
        'Vertical: ' + event.vertical + '\n' +
        'Distance: ' + event.distance);
}
// assuming var graph3d = new vis.Graph3d(document.getElementById('mygraph'));
graph3d.on('cameraPositionChange', onCameraPositionChange);

The following events are available.

name Properties Description
cameraPositionChange
  • horizontal: Number. The horizontal angle of the camera.
  • vertical: Number. The vertical angle of the camera.
  • distance: Number. The distance of the camera to the center of the graph.
 The camera position changed. Fired after the user modified the camera position by moving (dragging) the graph, or by zooming (scrolling), but not after a call to setCameraPosition method. The new camera position can be retrieved by calling the method getCameraPosition.

Data Policy

All code and data are processed and rendered in the browser. No data is sent to any server.