3D Streamtube Plots in Python

How to make 3D streamtube plots in Python with Plotly.

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Introduction¶

In streamtube plots, attributes include x, y, and z, which set the coordinates of the vector field, and u, v, and w, which set the x, y, and z components of the vector field. Additionally, you can use starts to determine the streamtube's starting position.

Basic Streamtube Plot¶

In [1]:

import plotly.graph_objects as go

fig = go.Figure(data=go.Streamtube(x=[0, 0, 0], y=[0, 1, 2], z=[0, 0, 0],
                                   u=[0, 0, 0], v=[1, 1, 1], w=[0, 0, 0]))
fig.show()

Starting Position and Segments¶

By default, streamlines are initialized in the x-z plane of minimal y value. You can change this behaviour by providing directly the starting points of streamtubes.

In [2]:

import plotly.graph_objects as go

import pandas as pd

df = pd.read_csv('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/plotly/datasets/master/streamtube-wind.csv').drop(['Unnamed: 0'],axis=1)

fig = go.Figure(data=go.Streamtube(
    x = df['x'],
    y = df['y'],
    z = df['z'],
    u = df['u'],
    v = df['v'],
    w = df['w'],
    starts = dict(
        x = [80] * 16,
        y = [20,30,40,50] * 4,
        z = [0,0,0,0,5,5,5,5,10,10,10,10,15,15,15,15]
    ),
    sizeref = 0.3,
    colorscale = 'Portland',
    showscale = False,
    maxdisplayed = 3000
))

fig.update_layout(
    scene = dict(
        aspectratio = dict(
            x = 2,
            y = 1,
            z = 0.3
        )
    ),
    margin = dict(
        t = 20,
        b = 20,
        l = 20,
        r = 20
    )
)

fig.show()