[Tex/LaTex] pgfplots: Color a 3D surf plot based on y-value

3dcolorpgfplotstikz-pgf

I'm not sure if things have changed since version 1.7, but this is the closest thing I could find. I'm wondering if there's an easier way to use the y-value with a colormap to determine the color, or even some arbitrary scalar-valued function with a color map. In the link, you have to basically define the RGB dependence on x,y,z values and I don't see how to use a pre-defined colormap.

Best Answer

The color is determined by the meta value for each coordinate. By default, in 3D plots this is the z value of the coordinate. You can tell PGFPlots to use the y value instead by setting point meta=y. You can also use more complex expressions, like point meta=sqrt(x^2+y^2).

Here's an example that uses a custom colormap with the values for the parula colormap:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\begin{document}

\pgfplotsset{
    colormap={parula}{
        rgb=(0.2081,0.1663,0.5292)
        rgb=(0.2116,0.1898,0.5777)
        rgb=(0.2123,0.2138,0.627)
        rgb=(0.2081,0.2386,0.6771)
        rgb=(0.1959,0.2645,0.7279)
        rgb=(0.1707,0.2919,0.7792)
        rgb=(0.1253,0.3242,0.8303)
        rgb=(0.0591,0.3598,0.8683)
        rgb=(0.0117,0.3875,0.882)
        rgb=(0.006,0.4086,0.8828)
        rgb=(0.0165,0.4266,0.8786)
        rgb=(0.0329,0.443,0.872)
        rgb=(0.0498,0.4586,0.8641)
        rgb=(0.0629,0.4737,0.8554)
        rgb=(0.0723,0.4887,0.8467)
        rgb=(0.0779,0.504,0.8384)
        rgb=(0.0793,0.52,0.8312)
        rgb=(0.0749,0.5375,0.8263)
        rgb=(0.0641,0.557,0.824)
        rgb=(0.0488,0.5772,0.8228)
        rgb=(0.0343,0.5966,0.8199)
        rgb=(0.0265,0.6137,0.8135)
        rgb=(0.0239,0.6287,0.8038)
        rgb=(0.0231,0.6418,0.7913)
        rgb=(0.0228,0.6535,0.7768)
        rgb=(0.0267,0.6642,0.7607)
        rgb=(0.0384,0.6743,0.7436)
        rgb=(0.059,0.6838,0.7254)
        rgb=(0.0843,0.6928,0.7062)
        rgb=(0.1133,0.7015,0.6859)
        rgb=(0.1453,0.7098,0.6646)
        rgb=(0.1801,0.7177,0.6424)
        rgb=(0.2178,0.725,0.6193)
        rgb=(0.2586,0.7317,0.5954)
        rgb=(0.3022,0.7376,0.5712)
        rgb=(0.3482,0.7424,0.5473)
        rgb=(0.3953,0.7459,0.5244)
        rgb=(0.442,0.7481,0.5033)
        rgb=(0.4871,0.7491,0.484)
        rgb=(0.53,0.7491,0.4661)
        rgb=(0.5709,0.7485,0.4494)
        rgb=(0.6099,0.7473,0.4337)
        rgb=(0.6473,0.7456,0.4188)
        rgb=(0.6834,0.7435,0.4044)
        rgb=(0.7184,0.7411,0.3905)
        rgb=(0.7525,0.7384,0.3768)
        rgb=(0.7858,0.7356,0.3633)
        rgb=(0.8185,0.7327,0.3498)
        rgb=(0.8507,0.7299,0.336)
        rgb=(0.8824,0.7274,0.3217)
        rgb=(0.9139,0.7258,0.3063)
        rgb=(0.945,0.7261,0.2886)
        rgb=(0.9739,0.7314,0.2666)
        rgb=(0.9938,0.7455,0.2403)
        rgb=(0.999,0.7653,0.2164)
        rgb=(0.9955,0.7861,0.1967)
        rgb=(0.988,0.8066,0.1794)
        rgb=(0.9789,0.8271,0.1633)
        rgb=(0.9697,0.8481,0.1475)
        rgb=(0.9626,0.8705,0.1309)
        rgb=(0.9589,0.8949,0.1132)
        rgb=(0.9598,0.9218,0.0948)
        rgb=(0.9661,0.9514,0.0755)
        rgb=(0.9763,0.9831,0.0538)
    }
}

\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[domain=0:pi]
\addplot3 [surf, point meta=y] {cos(deg(x)) * sin(deg(y))};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}
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