Plotting 3D Objects with Matplotlib

A Python class for drawing a 3D objects using Python Matplotlib library.

The sole purpose of this library is to provide a few customizable 3D shapes so that you can conveneintly use them for generating 3D plots.

How to Use

1. Add this as a submodule.

   cd /directory/where/you/have/your/python/files
   git submodule add https://github.com/kanishkegb/pyplot-3d.git ./pyplot3d

   Alternatively, you can download the repo as a zip file, extract it, rename it to pyplot3d, and move it your directory with python codes.

2. Use the library in your code.

   from pyplot3d.uav import Uav
   from pyplot3d.utils import ypr_to_R
   
   import numpy as np
   import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
   
   plt.style.use('seaborn')
   
   # initialize plot
   fig = plt.figure()
   ax = fig.gca(projection='3d')
   
   arm_length = 0.24  # in meters
   uav = Uav(ax, arm_length)
   
   uav.draw_at([1, 0, 0], ypr_to_R([np.pi/2.0, 0, 0]))
   
   plt.show()

3. Run the code.

   python3 /name/of/your/file

You can combine multiple objects. For example, the UAV plot is simply a combination of a few other basic shapes defined in basic.py. Just make sure to call all the objects before calling plt.show().

Also, you can use it with combination of animations package. The below code can be used to generate the GIF shown above.

import numpy as np
from matplotlib import pyplot as plt
# %matplotlib inline

from matplotlib import animation

from uav import pyplot3d.Uav
from utils import pyplot3d.ypr_to_R


def update_plot(i, x, R):
    uav_plot.update_plot(x[:, i], R[:, :, i])
    
    # These limits must be set manually since we use
    # a different axis frame configuration than the
    # one matplotlib uses.
    xmin, xmax = -2, 2
    ymin, ymax = -2, 2
    zmin, zmax = -2, 2
    
    ax.set_xlim([xmin, xmax])
    ax.set_ylim([ymax, ymin])
    ax.set_zlim([zmax, zmin])


plt.style.use('seaborn')

fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.gca(projection='3d')

arm_length = 0.24  # in meters
uav_plot = Uav(ax, arm_length)


# Create some fake simulation data
steps = 60
t_end = 1

x = np.zeros((3, steps))
x[0, :] = np.arange(0, t_end, t_end / steps)
x[1, :] = np.arange(0, t_end, t_end / steps) * 2

R = np.zeros((3, 3, steps))
for i in range(steps):
    ypr = np.array([i, 0.1 * i, 0.0])
    R[:, :, i] = ypr_to_R(ypr, degrees=True)

ani = animation.FuncAnimation(fig, update_plot, frames=20, fargs=(x, R,));

# If using Jupyter Notebooks
# from IPython.display import HTML
# HTML(ani.to_jshtml())