Export rotable 3D plots from Python to HTML

Question

I need to export a rotable 3D plot to HTML, just like WriteWebGL does in R, but from Python / matplotlib.

When ran in a Jupyter notebook, you can generate a in interactive plot like this:

%matplotlib inline
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
...
ax.scatter3D(xdata, ydata, zdata, c=zdata, cmap='Greens');

(source code for this sample here)

As noted, 3D plots can be rotated by the user. How can I get this interactivity exported to HTML from Python?

Answer 1

Does it have to be matplotlib? You could use plotly for that.

Here is a simple example. This modifies an existing empty file called test.html which you then can open in web browser to use the interactive 3D-plot.

import plotly.graph_objects as go
import numpy as np
import plotly.express as px

# Helix equation
t = np.linspace(0, 20, 100)
x, y, z = np.cos(t), np.sin(t), t

fig = go.Figure(data=[go.Scatter3d(
    x=x,
    y=y,
    z=z,
    mode='markers',
    marker=dict(
        size=12,
        color=z,                # set color to an array/list of desired values
        colorscale='Viridis',   # choose a colorscale
        opacity=0.8
    )
)])

# tight layout
fig.update_layout(margin=dict(l=0, r=0, b=0, t=0))
fig.write_html("test.html") #Modifiy the html file
fig.show()