Question

I am looking for a Scatter Plot 3D component for a Web application. Right now I am using JMathPlot (inside a Java Applet) to produce something like this:

alt text http://jmathtools.berlios.de/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=scatterplot3d.png

JMathPlot is fine, but is missing some required functionality (I am especially interested in having tooltips for the plot points).

Are there any alternatives? Any interactive web technology (javascript, java applet, flash, silverlight) is fine. The user should be able to rotate/zoom the plot and see the tooltips, when hovering the mouse over a point.

Answer 1

There are several simple 3D engines for both silverlight (eg. http://www.markdawson.org/Kit3D/ or http://www.codeplex.com/aXelerateSL3D) and flash (list here) given that you know either ActionScript, VB.NET or C# it should be easy to create such a chart yourself.

Version 10 of flash even has a built in simple “3d engine”:

Flash Player 10 allows xyz translation
and xyz rotation of 2D surfaces on the
x, y, and z axes. Flash Player 10 also
displays the perspective and camera
angles you set to create 3D-like
effects.

That’s probably all you need to quickly built it yourself.

Since JMathPlot is open source, adopting it for your needs could be another option.