[SciPy-user] Simple plot problem

[Guilherme P. de Freitas]

Hi everybody,

I'm running Python 2.5.2 with EPD with Py2.5 4.0.30002

I need to plot three simpe things, in 3d, domain is x, y in [0,3] x
[0,3:

1. the graph of the function f(x,y) = x**(0.3) * y**(0.7)
2. the parametric straight line (x, 2 - 2*x, 0)  for x in [0,1]
3. the parametric curve (x, 2 - 2*x, f(x, 2 - 2*x))


- I thought of matplotlib, mlab (from mayavi2), SymPy and PyX.

- Apparently matplotlib cannot do 3d plots. Is this correct? My
  version of matplotlib is 0.98.

- I could not plot 2 (the parametric line) with mlab. I am not sure
  I understood the syntax of mlab.plot3d, and the examples
  everywhere are too complicated for me to understand how it works.
  I tried "mlab.plot3d([0, 1], [2, 0], [0, 0])" and it gave me a
  short line, very small, that was in the interior of the positive
  quadrant of the xy plane. Imagine the line I wanted and shrink it
  80% to its midpoint, that's what I got.

- I tried SymPy. I could plot everything easily. However, I could
  not change thickness and color of curves. Didn't find anything in
  the documentation. Any ideas? By the way, setting colors of
  objects in both SymPy and Mlab seems to complicated for simple
  use. How do I make the object red, for example?

- PyX apparently has no 3d plotting capabilities. Is this correct?


I could not find an example of a simple plot of a function f : R^2
-> R in any python tool, with explanations of how to change
thickness, color, style and labels of plots. Ideally, labels should
be rendered with TeX. There were all sorts of complicated examples,
but nothing simple like what I needed. And no example simple enough
that I could really understand what was going on for all the
commands I needed. I will gladly write a short tutorial about it if
there is a way to do this and I find out the solution.

Now I will try GnuPlot, and if that does not work, Maple. But I'd
like to do it with Python. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,

-- 
Guilherme P. de Freitas
http://www.gpfreitas.com