Python Subplot 3d Surface and Heat Map

Question

I plan to create a figure in matplotlib, with a 3D surface on the left and its corresponding contour map on the right.

I used subplots but it only show the contour map (with blank space for the surface), and a separate figure for the surface.

Is it possible to create these plots in one figure side-by side?

EDIT: The code is as follows:

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import axes3d
import numpy as np

x = np.arange(-5, 5, 0.25)
y = np.arange(-5, 5, 0.25)
x, y = np.meshgrid(x, y)
r = np.sqrt(x**2 + y**2)
z = np.sin(r)

fig, (surf, cmap) = plt.subplots(1, 2)

fig = plt.figure()
surf = fig.gca(projection='3d')

surf.plot_surface(x,y,z)

cmap.contourf(x,y,z,25)

plt.show()

Can you show your code for how you are currently doing this? — Ken Syme, Sep 13 '17 at 11:42
There is an [official exaple](https://matplotlib.org/examples/mplot3d/mixed_subplots_demo.html) about this. Please see [ask] and [mcve] if you have a problem of implementation. — ImportanceOfBeingErnest, Sep 13 '17 at 11:56

ImportanceOfBeingErnest · Answer 1 · 2017-09-13T12:50:01.560

I guess it's hard to use plt.subplots() in order to create a grid of plots with different projections.

So the most straight forward solution is to create each subplot individually with plt.subplot.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import axes3d
import numpy as np

x = np.arange(-5, 5, 0.25)
y = np.arange(-5, 5, 0.25)
x, y = np.meshgrid(x, y)
r = np.sqrt(x**2 + y**2)
z = np.sin(r)

ax = plt.subplot(121, projection='3d')
ax.plot_surface(x,y,z)

ax2 = plt.subplot(122)
ax2.contourf(x,y,z,25)

plt.show()

Of course one may also use the gridspec capabilities for more sophisticated grid structures.

Python Subplot 3d Surface and Heat Map

1 Answers1