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13.7.1 Drawing the Graph

To draw a surface graph:

  1. Start a new spreadsheet, saving the pie chart spreadsheet as pies.

  2. Enter the following numbers in columns A through G as follows:

    A B C D E F G
    1 1 2 3 4 5 6
    2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
    3 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
    4 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
    5 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
    6 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
    7 6 7 8 9 10 11 1

  3. Select the range A1..G7. The columns will now be highlighted.

  4. Select New Graph from the Graph menu and display its submenu.

  5. Select Surface Graph from the New Graph submenu. NExS displays a window containing a slanted plane divided into 25 squares as shown in Figure 13.14 The points at the corner of each square correspond to the data points in the spreadsheet, and NExS fills in the remaining space between them to create the surface you see in the graph window.

The X coordinates of each point are listed in the first row in range B1..G1. The Y coordinates are in the first column in the range A2..A7. The Z coordinates for each point are listed in the data block B2..G7. Thus, the Z coordinate 7 in cell C6 is paired with the X coordinate 2 in cell C1 and the Y coordinate 6 in cell A6. NExS always assumes the X coordinates of a selected block are along the upper row and the Y coordinates are along the leftmost column.

   figure5069
Figure 13.14: Surface Graph 1

NExS allows one surface to be displayed per window, so only the ranges displayed in the dialog box for Data Set 1 affect the surface graph. You can also change Line Style and Segment Type of the lines on the surface graph. Marker type and Legend Text have no effect, since only one surface can be displayed at a time.

As an additional convenience, NExS does not force you to strictly order your data. For instance, if you swapped the contents of columns D and E in the example so that the X coordinates had the sequence 1,2,4,3,5,6 (the 4 and 3 are now out of order) then NExS would sort all the data before creating the surface graph.


next up previous contents index
Next: 13.7.2 Rotating the Graph Up: 13.7 Making Surface Graphs Previous: 13.7 Making Surface Graphs

NExS User's Guide, Version 1.4.5
Grey Trout Software
11 April 1999