user defined scale for surface plots

[Nels A]

Is it possible to set a z-axis scale with intervals of non-linear magnitude
in surface plots? For example, I have data that ranges for 200-9000 in the
z-scale. Defining the scale to some equal magnitude interval (like 1000)
gives me (for example) 0-1000; 1000-2000; 2000-3000; etc. I am only
interested in the upper end of the data rangefor this particular surface plot
and would prefer to see the scale non-linearly, i.e. 8100-8910; 8910-8990;
and 8990-9000.

 

[Jon Peltier]

My usual tricks for jobbing an axis require hiding the axis and using an XY
series to draw a fake axis with a transformed scale, matching a
transformation applied to the data:

http://peltiertech.com/Excel/Charts/ChartIndex.html#AxisScales

Surface charts and other charts with real or imaginary 3D effects do not
allow combination with other chart types, so you can't use an XY series for
this. I suppose you could go through the tedium of adding lines for tick
marks and text boxes for tick labels, but that doesn't sound very
entertaining to me.

- Jon

 

[Andy Pope]

Hi Jon,

But it is worse than that for a surface plot Z axis, as that is the one
that controls the colouration.

You can not specify non linear increments. You might be able to specify
small increments and format all those point covering the range with the
same colour. But you legend will look silly.

Cheers
Andy