Question

I have a list to which I append Axes3D plots. Like this:

self.myList.append(self.axes.plot(xValues,
                                  yValues,
                                  zValues,
                                  picker=self.line_picker)[0])

When that line of code runs, the instance returned by the plot() function is stored in the list AND the line is automatically plotted, which is what I want. This code runs on program startup and draws a variable number of lines.

Now what I need to do is this:

When the user checks a checkbox, I want to REPLACE the data that is currently plotted with another set of data. Then, when the user unchecks the checkbox, I want the initial data to be plotted again.

I have no problem with clearing the initial data; I simply do:

self.axes.clear()
self.canvas.draw()
self.axes.mouse_init()

and now I have a blank 3D graph.

How can I re-plot the same data once it is cleared? Can I somehow use the plot instances stored in the list and re-plot them?

My ultimate question is, do I have to re-plot the original plot using the raw data like I did the first time, or can I somehow hide/disable the initial axes and then simply restore it?

Answer 1

Probably the easiest solution is to keep a reference of the items and simply toggle the specific artist’s visible attribute:

import numpy as np
from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import Axes3D
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

plt.ion()

ax = plt.axes(projection='3d')
n = 3

xs = np.random.randint(23, 32, n)
ys = np.random.randint(0, 100, n)
zs = np.random.randint(0, 10, n)
scatter = ax.scatter(xs, ys, zs=zs)

plt.draw()
scatter.set_visible(False)
plt.draw()
scatter.set_visible(True)
plt.draw()