Scatterplot 3D on the web

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This blog is part of the series on new interactive HTML functionality for JMP 19.

Try this on JMP Public.

This video and all images in this blog are captured from interactive HTML running in a web browser, rather than from JMP running on Windows or Mac. You can interact directly with the example marked with Try me, I’m embedded. It is hosted on JMP Public and embedded in this blog. The blog post How to embed JMP Public or JMP Live content in a webpage or blog post shows how it can be done with your own web-based publications hosted on your company’s installation of JMP Live. 

Scatterplot 3D allows the user to examine the relationships of three variables in a three-dimensional (3D) view. It is important to be able to rotate the view to see patterns that only appear from a particular angle. To give you a sense of where each point lies in 3D space, grids and axes are displayed for each variable. Additionally, points that are closer to the front of the view are drawn larger, just like objects closer to you appear larger in real life.

Figure 1: Scatterplot 3D using iris.jmp

Flat marker shapes, like those used in the 2D scatter plot can be used along with color to distinguish different rows of data. In 3D, we orient these shapes to face forward as the view is rotated so that their shape can be more easily perceived.  

When a weight role is provided, spheres are used to represent the relative sizes due to the weight variable. In this case, shading complements the display with customizable lighting.

Try me, I’m embedded. Hints: drag to rotate, scroll wheel (or pinch on mobile) to zoom.

To see more Scatterplot 3D examples, visit JMP Public or watch this video.

Since this is our first entry into 3D drawing, we don’t yet support all the features of JMP’s Scatterplot 3D. These features are not supported in JMP 19:

• Drop lines, connected points, and principal components
• Surfaces such as ellipsoids and contours
• Row labels
• Zooming or panning axes¹
• Tooltips and selection (these may be supported in the maintenance release)

¹ Surprise! This footnote is good news, not bad. If the 3D Scatterplot is zoomed or panned before publishing, that zoom level and panning amount will be respected in the interactive HTML version.

Here’s some more good news. In the future, we can add some of these features or start supporting surface plots – another 3D visualization available in JMP.  Please let us know which ones you would like us to concentrate on first.