trisurf

Triangular surface plot

Syntax

trisurf(T,x,y,z)

trisurf(TO)

trisurf(___,c)

trisurf(___,Name,Value)

h = trisurf(___)

Description

trisurf(T,x,y,z) plots the 3-D triangular surface defined by the points in x, y, and z, and a triangle connectivity matrix T.

trisurf(TO) plots the surface defined by a 3-D triangulation or delaunayTriangulation object.

trisurf(___,c) also specifies the surface color for either of the previous syntaxes.

trisurf(___,Name,Value) specifies one or more properties of the surface plot using name-value pairs. For example, 'FaceColor','y' sets the face color to yellow.

h = trisurf(___) returns a patch object used to create the surface plot. Use h to query and modify properties of the plot. For more information, see Patch Properties.

Examples

3-D Surface Plot

Create a set of 3-D points and compute the Delaunay triangulation using the delaunay function. Plot the surface defined by the triangulation.

[x,y] = meshgrid(1:15,1:15);
z = peaks(15);
T = delaunay(x,y);
trisurf(T,x,y,z)

Alternatively, you can create and plot a triangulation object.

TO = triangulation(T,x(:),y(:),z(:));
trisurf(TO)

Input Arguments

T — Triangle connectivity

matrix

Triangle connectivity, specified as a 3-column matrix where each row contains the point vertices defining a triangle face.

x — x-coordinates

vector | matrix

x-coordinates, specified as a vector or matrix.

y — y-coordinates

vector | matrix

y-coordinates, specified as a vector or matrix.

z — z-coordinates

vector | matrix

z-coordinates, specified as a vector or matrix.

c — Face color

matrix

Face color, specified as a matrix of colormap indices the same size as z. For more information, see How Surface Plot Data Relates to a Colormap. For additional control over the surface coloring, use the 'EdgeColor' and 'FaceColor' name-value pairs.

TO — Triangulation object

triangulation | delaunayTriangulation

Triangulation object, specified as a triangulation or delaunayTriangulation object.

Name-Value Arguments

Specify optional pairs of arguments as Name1=Value1,...,NameN=ValueN, where Name is the argument name and Value is the corresponding value. Name-value arguments must appear after other arguments, but the order of the pairs does not matter.

Before R2021a, use commas to separate each name and value, and enclose Name in quotes.

Example: trisurf(TO,'FaceColor','r')

The properties listed here are only a subset. For a complete list, see Patch Properties.

FaceColor — Face color

[0.85 0.85 0.85] (default) | color name | RGB triplet | 'none'

Face color, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'FaceColor' and a color name, an RGB triplet, or 'none'.

An RGB triplet is a three-element row vector whose elements specify the intensities of the red, green, and blue components of the color. The intensities must be in the range [0,1]; for example, [0.4 0.6 0.7]. This table lists the long and short color name options and the equivalent RGB triplet values.

Long Name	Short Name	RGB Triplet
'yellow'	'y'	[1 1 0]
'magenta'	'm'	[1 0 1]
'cyan'	'c'	[0 1 1]
'red'	'r'	[1 0 0]
'green'	'g'	[0 1 0]
'blue'	'b'	[0 0 1]
'white'	'w'	[1 1 1]
'black'	'k'	[0 0 0]

FaceAlpha — Face transparency

1 (default) | scalar in range [0,1]

Face transparency, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'FaceAlpha' and a scalar in the range [0,1]. A value of 1 is opaque and 0 is completely transparent. Values between 0 and 1 are semitransparent.

EdgeColor — Edge color

[0 0 0] (default) | color name | RGB triplet | 'none'

Edge color, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'EdgeColor' and a color name, an RGB triplet, or 'none'. The default color of [0 0 0] corresponds to black boundaries.

An RGB triplet is a three-element row vector whose elements specify the intensities of the red, green, and blue components of the color. The intensities must be in the range [0,1]; for example, [0.4 0.6 0.7]. This table lists the long and short color name options and the equivalent RGB triplet values.

Long Name	Short Name	RGB Triplet
'yellow'	'y'	[1 1 0]
'magenta'	'm'	[1 0 1]
'cyan'	'c'	[0 1 1]
'red'	'r'	[1 0 0]
'green'	'g'	[0 1 0]
'blue'	'b'	[0 0 1]
'white'	'w'	[1 1 1]
'black'	'k'	[0 0 0]

LineWidth — Line width

0.5 (default) | positive numeric value

Line width, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'LineWidth' and a positive numeric value in points.

LineStyle — Line style

"-" (default) | "--" | ":" | "-." | "none"

Line style, specified as one of the options listed in this table.

Line Style	Description	Resulting Line
"-"	Solid line
"--"	Dashed line
":"	Dotted line
"-."	Dash-dotted line
"none"	No line	No line

Extended Capabilities

GPU Arrays

Accelerate code by running on a graphics processing unit (GPU) using Parallel Computing Toolbox™.

The trisurf function supports GPU array input with these usage notes and limitations:

• This function accepts GPU arrays, but does not run on a GPU.

For more information, see Run MATLAB Functions on a GPU (Parallel Computing Toolbox).

Distributed Arrays

Partition large arrays across the combined memory of your cluster using Parallel Computing Toolbox™.

Usage notes and limitations:

• This function operates on distributed arrays, but executes in the client MATLAB^®.

For more information, see Run MATLAB Functions with Distributed Arrays (Parallel Computing Toolbox).

Version History

Introduced before R2006a