3-D Surface Plot

S

swimmingbum

I have a dataset consisting of three columns which are the following: X, Y
and Z. I would like to create a surface plot of the data. Is this possible in
excel? If yes, some basic instruction on how to do this would be appreciated.

Thanks
 
M

Mike Middleton

swimmingbum -

Use Excel's online Help to search for "Creating a Surface chart."

Or, browse directly to
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HA011179391033.aspx?pid=CL100570551033

For a Surface chart, the X and Y axes are category (labels) axes, so the
text values are displayed equally-spaced. Therefore, to avoid distortion,
the numerical values for the X and Y axes must be equally-spaced.

And, the data must be arranged in a rectangular range with X labels in a row
at the top, Y labels in a column on the left, and Z numerical values in the
intersection cells of the range.

You may be able to use a pivot table to arrange your X,Y,Z data for the
chart.

If you leave the top left cell empty and select that cell along with the X
labels, the Y labels, and the Z values, Excel will guess correctly and
create the Surface chart.

- Mike Middleton
http://www.DecisionToolworks.com
Decision Analysis Add-ins for Excel
 
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