Re: How show axes labels with AxesOrigin->{0,0,0} in 3D?
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg119546] Re: How show axes labels with AxesOrigin->{0,0,0} in 3D?
- From: Murray Eisenberg <murray at math.umass.edu>
- Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2011 07:16:15 -0400 (EDT)
Aha! Thanks for spotting that the 3D axes labels are really there. But
they're hardly in an optimal position.
In 2D, the axes labels are at the ends of the axes. So you'd think, for
the sake of Mathematica's much-vaunted consistency, that the same would
be the case in 3D.
The example does not really make a reasonable argument against using
axes in 3D that emanate from the origin. Rather, it makes a convincing
argument that WRI made a dumb design decision when they implemented
AxesOrigin for 3D.
On 6/7/2011 6:46 AM, Robert Rosenbaum wrote:
> Running your example on my Mathematica 7 in OS X, the axes labels appear, but are small and difficult to distinguish from the mesh lines on the surface. I hazard to guess that they appear on your machine too, but you failed to detect them by eye.
>
> The following modification makes the labels more apparent:
>
> mystyle = {Red, 16};
> Plot3D[x^2 - y^2, {x, -2, 2}, {y, -2, 2}, AxesOrigin -> {0, 0, 0},
> AxesLabel -> {Style["x", mystyle], Style["y", mystyle],
> Style["z", mystyle]}, BoxRatios -> {1, 1, 1}, Boxed -> False,
> MeshStyle -> None]
>
> Incidentally, your example makes a reasonable argument against using axes that emanate from the origin. Of course, if axes labels were placed at the ends of the axes instead of along the axes, they would be easier to see in your example. Perhaps there is a way to accomplish this.
>
>
>
> On Jun 6, 2011, at 5:23 AM, Murray Eisenberg wrote:
>
>> Since Mathematica 7, 3D graphics has allowed the AxesOrigin option so
>> that, for example, the axes can go through the origin {0,0,0}, just like
>> the way that mathematicians (or at least college calculus teachers) do
>> it and teach their students to do it.
>>
>> That works, but...
>>
>> If you include an AxesLabel option, the labels do not appear, e.g., from:
>>
>> Plot3D[x^2 - y^2, {x, -2, 2}, {y, -2, 2},
>> AxesOrigin -> {0, 0, 0},
>> AxesLabel -> {x, y, z},
>> BoxRatios -> {1, 1, 1}, Boxed -> False]
>>
>> Is there some way to make the axes labels appear (other than to add them
>> manually using the Text function, say in an Epilog)?
>>
>> [And is this just another instance of WRI protracted stubbornness even
>> in admitting that having 3D axes emanating from the origin is a
>> permissible way of handling 3D graphics? (Scientific/engineering
>> convention seems overwhelmingly to favor axes along edges of a 3D
>> graphic, whereas in math -- as I suggested, at least in multivariable
>> calculus -- axes emanating from the origin is the norm.)
>>
>> --
>> Murray Eisenberg murray at math.umass.edu
>> Mathematics& Statistics Dept.
>> Lederle Graduate Research Tower phone 413 549-1020 (H)
>> University of Massachusetts 413 545-2859 (W)
>> 710 North Pleasant Street fax 413 545-1801
>> Amherst, MA 01003-9305
>>
>
>
> Best,
> Robert
>
>
>
>
>
--
Murray Eisenberg murray at math.umass.edu
Mathematics & Statistics Dept.
Lederle Graduate Research Tower phone 413 549-1020 (H)
University of Massachusetts 413 545-2859 (W)
710 North Pleasant Street fax 413 545-1801
Amherst, MA 01003-9305