Hello experts,

I've been messing around with processing for a little while now, and I'd like to take the next step and do some 3D stuff.  I've got a file with thousands of coordinates (x,y,z) corresponding to a virtual map, and I'd like to be able to plot them in space (and eventual explore them by looking at it from different angles, but first things first).  I suppose it is possible to do this, and I am looking for some assistance on where to start with plotting these in 3d.  Any assistance is greatly appreciated, this forum has been very helfpul in the past.

Thanks!

Quote:

Not sure I understand...why not use point(x,y,z) for all the coordinates?

here's the code that gets me most of the way there. the only drawback is that using points doesn't scale the size of the points in the distance, and it appears that i have too many coordinates (over 5000) to use spheres. this makes it a little difficult to get perspective on the data.  thanks for all you help guys!  

import de.bezier.data.*;
XlsReader reader;
import peasy.*;

PeasyCam cam;

float [] xpos = new float[7000];
float [] ypos = new float [7000];
float [] zpos = new float [7000];

void setup() {
 size(1300, 1000, P3D);
 smooth();

 cam = new PeasyCam(this, 100);
 cam.setMinimumDistance(10);
 cam.setMaximumDistance(200);

 reader = new XlsReader( this, "blah.xls" );

 float xmax = getColMax(6);
 float xmin = getColMin(6);
 float ymax = getColMax(7);
 float ymin = getColMin(7);
 float zmax = getColMax(8);
 float zmin = getColMin(8);

 for (int d = 1; d < reader.getLastRowNum(); d++){
   xpos[d]= map(reader.getFloat(d, 6),xmax,xmin,0,abs(xmax-xmin));
   ypos[d]= map(reader.getFloat(d, 7),ymax,ymin,0,abs(ymax-ymin));
   zpos[d]= map(reader.getFloat(d, 8),zmax,zmin,0,abs(zmax-zmin));
 }
}

void draw() {
 background(0);
 stroke(250,250,25);
 strokeWeight(2);
 point(xpos[0], ypos[0], zpos[0]);

 for (int g = 1; g <5000; g++){
   point(xpos[g], ypos[g], zpos[g]);
 }

 for (int h = 0; h < 100; h++){//draw x axis
   stroke(255,h*5,0);
   point(h,0,0);
 }

 for (int h = 0; h < 100; h++){// draw y axis
   stroke(h*5,255,0);
   point(0,h,0);
 }

 for (int h = 0; h < 100; h++){// draw z axis
   strokeWeight(3);
   stroke(0,255,h*5);
   point(0,0,h);
 }
}

Cedric,

I'd like to be able to share the actual data with you, but in this case I I can't, at least not now.  Sorry.

Cedric, create an xls (excel) file with 9 columns. put random x coordinates in column 7, y coordinates in column 8, z coordinates in column 9. each row is therefore a set of x.y,z coordinates. save it as blah.xls in your data file.  sorry about not being able to share the data, especially when i get so much help on these forums.

oh and whats the range of your coordinates in the xls file ?i just put in numbers between 0-9 but could be anything...

hmm still having problems,
now i get the error message :

the fuction getColMax(int) doesnt exist.
the library examples work though
Do i miss something?