How can I generate a plane surface in MATLAB?

How can I generate a plane surface in MATLAB?

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

The following are some examples of how the xy-plane can be plotted in MATLAB. A generalized example, showing how to plot any arbitrary plane, follows.

PLOTTING THE XY-PLANE

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The following shows two methods for constructing an xy-plane, bounded at (1,1,0), (-1,1,0), (-1,-1,0), and (1,-1,0).

Method 1: The PATCH Function

You can draw a polygonal graphics object by using the PATCH function and specifying its vertices. By specifying four corners, you can construct the xy-plane as follows:

% Use fourth input for color scale.
patch([1 -1 -1 1], [1 1 -1 -1], [0 0 0 0], [1 1 -1 -1])  

Method 2: The MESHGRID and SURF functions.

Using the MESHGRID function, you can generate data points for the xy-plane. Afterwards, use the SURF function to generate the surface plot.

[x y] = meshgrid(-1:0.1:1); % Generate x and y data
z = zeros(size(x, 1)); % Generate z data
surf(x, y, z) % Plot the surface

Note that by making some simple changes to the above examples, the xz- and yz-planes can be plotted. For example, to plot the xz-plane use:

patch( [1 -1 -1 1] , [0 0 0 0], [1 1 -1 -1], [1 1 -1 -1])

For more information on the PATCH function, see the following URL:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/patch.html

PLOTTING AN ARBITRARY PLANE

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The following shows two methods for constructing, an arbitrary plane of the form:

Ax + By + Cz + D = 0,

where the coefficients "A", "B", "C", and "D" are known values.

Method 1: The PATCH Function

x = [1 -1 -1 1]; % Generate data for x vertices
y = [1 1 -1 -1]; % Generate data for y vertices
z = -1/C*(A*x + B*y + D); % Solve for z vertices data
patch(x, y, z);

Method 2: The MESHGRID and SURF Functions.

[x y] = meshgrid(-1:0.1:1); % Generate x and y data
z = -1/C*(A*x + B*y + D); % Solve for z data
surf(x,y,z) %Plot the surface

For more information on the MESHGRID and SURF functions, see the following URLs:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/meshgrid.html

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/surf.html

Answer 2

[xingxingcui]

For R2024b or later ,please use constantplane function.

[John D'Errico]

I never noticed this function appear. It was probably my feature request that caused it to happen, as a few years back, I asked for exactly this capability in MATLAB. I really should check the release notes more often.

[Sam Chak]

Hi @cui,xingxing

Thank you for promoting this function. It operates similarly to xline and yline, but for 3D.

[X, Y]  = meshgrid(-1:0.05:1);
Z       = exp(- 5*(X.^2 + Y.^2));
mesh(X,Y,Z)

xlabel('x'), ylabel('y'), zlabel('z')
zlim([0, 1.5])
cp  = constantplane("x", 0, FaceAlpha=0.5);

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