Surface Plot -------------
surface Var1 Var2 Var3 , saving(string) round(#) orient(string) nowire
The function attempts to draw a wireframe plot from three variables. Var1 specifies the x-coordinate, var2 the y-coordinate and var3 the z-coordinate. Alternatively the function can draw a circle at each point and add a straight line going down to the lowest point.
This function can handle data that is not in the form of a matrix of values. However if there are too many x- and y- values the function will attempt to round the dataset values into a more reasonable spread of values. This will result in very messy figures. However in s uch a case it is the impression that is needed. Many otehr statistical packages require a full matrix of values. This is not a problem for the nowire option.
At present the state of rotating the diagram is limited to interchanging the axes.
saving(filename) this will save the resulting graph in filename.gph. If the file already exists it is DELETED and the new graph will be saved.
nowire this suppresses the drawing of the wire frame in exchange for lines
round(), data is automatically rounded if there are too many x and y values. This option controls the amount of rounding, for example round(1) rounds the x and y values to the nearest integer.
orient() this function must take the letters xyz or a combination of them. Whichever letter comes first is the x-axis, second is y-axis and third is the z-axis. Thus orient(zxy) means that var1 is now the y coordinates, var2 is the z-coordinates and var3 is the x-coordinates. This is different from changing the variables around since the wireframe is still draw across the original x and y values. This is a crude attempt to implement rotation to obtain a clearer picture.
surface x y z, saving(myfile) round(10) orient(zxy)