XYZ Surface plot on the go?

[soleil2500]

Hello Labview experts.

Is there anyone that can help me with plotting an XYZ surface plot on the go?  What i mean by on the go is that I'm scanning two directions (X, Y) on a surface, and for each (X,Y) pair I'm measuring one Z value.  X and Y are pre-determined two 1D arrays, but the Z values are not an array, they are single values one by one at each iteration in a for loop.  Yes, when the the loop is done the Z values will be an array and the XYZ plot will look like the attached picture below, but i want a Surface plot that updates every-time a Z value is acquired.  Your help will be very much appreciated.

[RavensFan]

How do surface plots look when the Z direction is full of NaN values?  Start with that, maintain Z array in a shift register, and replace the elements in the Z array one by one on each iteration.

[soleil2500]

Thanks for the reply.  But the Z is not a direction, it is an indicator (something measured, it has a value).  I don't know why you assumed i have some NaN Z values??? I have no NaN at all

[soleil2500]

When my scan is done and I acquired all the Z values, yes it will plot fine.  But my question is I want it to update the surface plot every time an Z value is acquired.

To simplify, at each iteration on the for-loop I'm sending a pair of (X,Y) values (to move the two stages in X and Y directions to the desired positions), and a sub VI inside the loop returns a value of Z (measured something, can be voltage, current, etc).  Yes when the loop is done, i will have three 1D arrays (one for X, one for Y, and one for Z) and i can plot the surface just fine.  I want the surface plot to get updated at each iteration of the for-loop

[RavensFan · Accepted solution]

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@soleil2500 wrote:

Thanks for the reply.  But the Z is not a direction, it is an indicator (something measured, it has a value).  I don't know why you assumed i have some NaN Z values??? I have no NaN at all

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I'm sorry I used the wrong word.  I meant what happens if the Z "array" is full of NaN.  Initialize an array of NaN values, then replace them one by one as you get real values.  In normal graphs, NaN values are not plotted.

Like attached.

[soleil2500]

In this case, does the graph have to be placed outside the loop or inside the loop?  (inside the loop Z is not an array yet).  If outside the loop it means the array will be completed after the loop is done

[deceased]

RavensFan is correct. I have used this method myself in the past, it works fine with 3D surface graphs.

0xDEAD

[deceased]

Have the graph inside the loop, preallocate a 2D array of NaN outside the loop, maintain it inside a shift register, use replace array subset to insert the Z values.

0xDEAD

[deceased · Accepted solution]

Have a snippet. Its nearly Christmas.

Here X and Y are arrays of 10 elements (0-9)

Z is a 10x10 2D array of NaN.

On each iteration one NaN is replaced with a random number.

[soleil2500]

Thank you very much