Abstract #300991

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JSM 2002 Abstract #300991
Activity Number: 349
Type: Topic Contributed
Date/Time: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
Sponsor: Section on Statistical Graphics*
Abstract - #300991
Title: Scatterplot3d - A Package for R for Visualizing Multivariate Data
Author(s): Uwe Ligges*+ and Martin Maechler
Affiliation(s): Universität Dortmund and ETH Zurich
Address: Vogelpothsweg 87, Dortmund, International, 44221, Germany
Keywords: scatterplot3d ; R ; graphics ; plot
Abstract:

The package "scatterplot3d" for R is designed for plotting a three-dimensional (3D) point cloud. In this paper, it will be discussed why the package was developed, what the benefits of the package are, and how it was developed by exclusively making use of already existing functions of R and its graphics system, the latter showing the extensibility of the R graphics system.

Some of the properties of scatterplot3d that will be described and discussed are the following: A plot is completely generated by the R graphics system, so the appearance of the plot and any other R graphics is homogeneous (important for publications). Most features of the R graphics system can be used in scatterplot3d, among them are mathematical annotation, vectorizing of colors, or plotting symbols, etc. Scatterplot3d can be easily extended by making use of lexical scoping--e.g., adding additional points or drawing regression lines or planes into an already generated plot. The package is platform-independent and can easily be installed, because the only precondition is an installed version of R. Visualization with scatterplot3d is, however, not interactive in any way.

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