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I am looking for ways to add points to three different plots in parallel.

I have three scatter plots named s3d1, s3d2 and s3d3 in a single window

layout(matrix(c(1,2,1,3),2, 2, byrow = TRUE))
s3d1<-scatterplot3d(mtcars[,3],mtcars[,4],mtcars[,5],main="common",pch=20)
s3d2<-scatterplot3d(mtcars[,3],mtcars[,4],mtcars[,5],main="common",pch=20)
s3d3<-scatterplot3d(mtcars[,3],mtcars[,4],mtcars[,5],main="common",pch=20)

If I try to add points to s3d1,

s3d1$points3d(mtcars[,3],mtcars[,4],mtcars[,5],col="red")

The points would go to s3d3 but not s3d1. What am I missing ?

More info : I obtain data points while running a program. So, I need to add points to each of these plots as-and-when I get the data specific to that particular plot.

Update :

Tried par() function as well

par(fig=c(0,0.65,0,1), new=TRUE)
s3d1<-scatterplot3d(mtcars[,3],mtcars[,4],mtcars[,5],main="common",pch=20)
par(fig=c(0.7,1,0.5,1), new=TRUE)
s3d2<-scatterplot3d(mtcars[,3],mtcars[,4],mtcars[,5],main="common",pch=20)
par(fig=c(0,0.65,0,1), new=TRUE)
s3d1$points3d(mtcars[,3],mtcars[,4],mtcars[,5],col="red")

s3d1$points3d doesn't add new points to s3d1 (and not even to s3d2). Any ideas ?

384X21
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1 Answers1

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If you look at the source of points3d() by just trying to execute s3d1$points3d, you'll see that it just adds points to an existing plot that is assumed to be already open. In other words, the points/plot are not stored in the s3d1,2,3 objects, but simply the transformation info needed to plot to the different views.

Soo, to do what you're trying to do, you'll just have to use the normal graphics device commands. For instance, dev.new will open a new plot window, and dev.set can switch between the active ones. You could do something like:

dev.new(); h1=dev.cur()
s3d1<-scatterplot3d(mtcars[,3],mtcars[,4],mtcars[,5],main="common",pch=20)
dev.new(); h2=dev.cur()
s3d2<-scatterplot3d(mtcars[,3],mtcars[,4],mtcars[,5],main="common",pch=20)
dev.new(); h3=dev.cur()
s3d3<-scatterplot3d(mtcars[,3],mtcars[,4],mtcars[,5],main="common",pch=20)
dev.set(h1)
s3d1$points3d(mtcars[,3],mtcars[,4],mtcars[,5],col="red")

Also check out ?dev.new for more info.

John Colby
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  • Sorry, I must have informed it earlier : Actually, I am plotting all three in a single window using layout( ). So, using dev.new( ) opens a new window which is not desirable – 384X21 Dec 13 '11 at 17:02
  • Ohhhh...thanks for the clarification! The `points3d` call is using whichever cell was plotted to last, which is the bottom right one. I think the best solution is to just plot from scratch each cycle. Good luck! – John Colby Dec 13 '11 at 17:36
  • @user1029725 Yes, I have found `layout` most useful when I just need to quickly throw up some plots. For more custom subplots I've always used `par(mfrow)`, etc.. – John Colby Dec 13 '11 at 17:54