Car::Scatter3D in R - Labeling Axis Better

car::scatter3d in R - labeling axis better

Oh well. I took it as a challenge.

Obviously you need to:

require(rgl)
require(car)
require(mgcv) # for the example

Copy the car:::scatter3d.default code and paste it back, assigning it to scatter3d.default.

Add these lines early in the code for scatter3d.default:

 showLabels3d <- car:::showLabels3d  
 nice <- car:::nice  
  # since you will be losing their connection to the unexposed fns in car

Then in the code block following the second if(axis.scales){ ...}, substitute this code:

 if (axis.scales) {
   x.labels <-  seq(lab.min.x, lab.max.x, 
                       by=diff(range(lab.min.x, lab.max.x))/4)
   x.at <- seq(min.x, max.x, by=nice(diff(range(min.x, max.x))/4))
      rgl.texts(x.at, -0.05, 0, x.labels, col = axis.col[1])

   z.labels <-  seq(lab.min.z, lab.max.z, 
                       by=diff(range(lab.min.z, lab.max.z))/4)
   z.at <- seq(min.z, max.z, by=diff(range(min.z, max.z))/4)
      rgl.texts(0, -0.1, z.at, z.labels, col = axis.col[3])

   y.labels <-  seq(lab.min.y, lab.max.y, 
                       by=diff(range(lab.min.y, lab.max.y))/4)
   y.at <- seq(min.y, max.y, by=diff(range(min.y, max.y))/4)
      rgl.texts(-0.05, y.at, -0.05, y.labels, col = axis.col[2])
                }

(You may need to replace the code for scatter3d.formula so that doesn't look in the car NAMESPACE for the routinely dispatched scatter method. I simply replaced the scatter3d call inside car:::scatter3d.formula with "scatter3d.default" so the interpreter would first look at the newly defined function.)

Edit: a better method than mucking with scatter3d.formula is to assign the car namespace/environment to the new function with this code:

environment(scatter3d.default) <- environment(car:::scatter3d.formula)

Then if you do this:

scatter3d(prestige ~ income + education, data=Duncan)

You get this (taken with a screenshot program)

How to format labels of points in car::scatter3d?

I don't know the scatter3d function, but if you used rgl's plot3d and text3d it's fairly straightforward. For example,

with(bpmg, {
    rgl::plot3d(x = X, y = Y,z = Z, col = color)
    rgl::text3d(x = X, y = Y, z = Z, col = othercolor, adj = c(0,0),
                cex = 2)
})

This is untested (you didn't include any data in your question).

How to show a coordinate grid in car::scatter3d plot

If you want an interactive plot with a grid, plotly is another solution:

df_runtime <- data.frame(x = c(0L, 20L), 
                         y = c(0L, 10L), 
                         z = c(0L, 50L), stringsAsFactors = FALSE)

plotly::plot_ly(df_runtime, 
                     x = ~x, 
                     y = ~y, 
                     z = ~z,
                type = 'scatter3d',
                mode = 'markers')

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