Drawing a rectangle or bar between two points in a 3D scatter plot in Python and matplotlib

Question

I have a 3D scatter plot which, on one of its planes, plots 2 points for each date. I've asked about how to draw a LINE between every pair of points, and received an answer for which I'm thankful. What I want now is to draw a BAR or a RECTANGLE to connect the points instead of just a line. Here's what the plot looks like at the moment, but I want it to look a bit like the plot from the 3D bar demo from matplolib's docs except with the bars "floating" instead of anchored to the axis. I've tried using `Axes3D.bar` (as explained on the matplotlib page) but it expects me to supply a "height" for each bar instead of two actual coordinates, and that height will be anchored to the axis. This is the code, and any help is appreciated. ``` import matplotlib.pyplot from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import Axes3D dates = [20020514, 20020515, 20020516, 20020517, 20020520] highs = [1135, 1158, 1152, 1158, 1163] lows = [1257, 1253, 1259, 1264, 1252] upperLimits = [1125.0, 1125.0, 1093.75, 1125.0, 1125.0] lo…

Accepted Answer

I think it'll be easier to use a PolyCollection. Is this close to what you are after?

```
import matplotlib.pyplot
from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import Axes3D
from matplotlib.collections import PolyCollection
import random

dates       = [20020514, 20020515, 20020516, 20020517, 20020520]
highs       = [1135, 1158, 1152, 1158, 1163]
lows        = [1257, 1253, 1259, 1264, 1252]
upperLimits = [1125.0, 1125.0, 1093.75, 1125.0, 1125.0]
lowerLimits = [1250.0, 1250.0, 1156.25, 1250.0, 1250.0]

zaxisvalues0= [0, 0, 0, 0, 0]
zaxisvalues1= [1, 1, 1, 1, 1]
zaxisvalues2= [2, 2, 2, 2, 2]

fig = matplotlib.pyplot.figure()
ax  = fig.add_subplot(111, projection = '3d')

ax.plot(dates, zaxisvalues1, lowerLimits, color = 'b')
ax.plot(dates, zaxisvalues2, upperLimits, color = 'r')

verts = []; fcs = []
for i in range(len(dates)-1):
   xs = [dates[i],dates[i+1],dates[i+1],dates[i],dates[i]] # each box has 4 vertices, give it 5 to close it, these are the x coordinates
   ys = [highs[i],highs[i+1],lows[i+1],lows[i], highs[i]]  # each box has 4 vertices, give it 5 to close it, these are the y coordinates
   verts.append(zip(xs,ys))
   fcs.append((random.random(),random.random(),random.random(),0.6))

poly = PolyCollection(verts, facecolors = fcs, closed = False)
ax.add_collection3d(poly, zs=[zaxisvalues0[0]] * len(verts), zdir='y') # in the "z" just use the same coordinate

ax.scatter(dates, zaxisvalues0, highs, color = 'g', marker = "o")
ax.scatter(dates, zaxisvalues0, lows, color = 'y', marker = "^")

matplotlib.pyplot.show()
```

Drawing a rectangle or bar between two points in a 3D scatter plot in Python and matplotlib

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