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This video shows you how to adjust the appearance of your plot to suit geographical data sets.
In this video we will be making Topographic plots using features of 360 which are particularly useful when working with Geographic data sets.
In this case we will be looking at a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the region around a dam. The data comes in as a single rectangular 2-Dimensional zone and by default the Plot Type is 2D Cartesian.
First, check the contour on the plot sideline. You can see the area of interest around the river where there is useful data. You can also see the extraneous area.
Use blanking to isolate the relevant region of the plot by selecting Plot > Blanking > Value Blanking… Select Blanking as the variable and keep is less than or equal to 0 as the condition. Then toggle on Include value blanking and Active to enable the first blanking group. The region with no relevant data is no longer visible.
If we change the Plot Type from 2D to 3D Cartesian, the elevation contour can be seen on the plot.
To emphasize the elevation differences, select Plot > Axis and change the Dependency to XY dependent, which will lock the x/y axes relative to each other but allow the Z axis to be stretched or compressed.
In our case we would like to increase the Z axis, so we will enter a Size factor of 5, which works well with this particular data set. As the surface now moves beyond the initial view, we can hit Ctrl+F on the keyboard to perform a view fit.
Finally, we would like to improve the coloring of our plot. Opening the Contour details dialog, ensure that the contour variable is set to Z. Toggle on Continuous as the Color map distribution method and reset the range to the Reset to non-blanked contour variable min/max. Then select Sequential Yellow/Green as the color map (other options can be elevation color maps).
Finally, remove the legend from the plot.
Thanks for watching!