3D or surface chart

[scantor145]

I hope I can explain this well enough for someone to help me.

I would like to create a surface chart from data that represents th
dimensions of a light beam that passes from an exit point, to a foca
point, and finally through an entrance point.

To clarify, the light beam is a point that actually has some horizonta
and vertical dimension that I'm able to measure at three points alon
it's path, at the exit, focal, and entrance points.

Here's an example of the kind of information I have:

I can define one axis (x-axis) as the distance between the exit an
entrance points of the beam. For my example, I would like to specif
the focal point at x=0. The entrance point is located at 13mm (x=-13
from from the focal point and the exit point is 3mm (x=3) from th
focal point.

The beam dimensions are as follows:
At focal point: width = 0.30mm, height = 0.37mm
At Entrance: width = 0.62mm, height = 0.62 mm
At Exit: width = 0.31 mm, height = 0.43mm

Except for the rare occurrence shown for the entrance point, the bea
is usually elliptical in shape.

So, based on the data above is it possible to create a 3D or surfac
plot showing how the shape of the beam changes from entrance to foca
to exit points?

Thank

 

[Jon Peltier]

If you just want to show the dimensions of the beam, make an XY Scatter chart with
two series: height vs. X, and width vs. X.

I could describe increasingly more complicated techniques, using error bars with
custom values to show the dimensions of the beam, or custom elliptical data point
markers, to give a visual indication of the beam size. For ideas you could look
here, or post back.

Error Bars:
http://peltiertech.com/Excel/ChartsHowTo/ErrorBars.html

Custom Markers:
http://peltiertech.com/Excel/ChartsHowTo/CustomMarkers.html

- Jon
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Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Peltier Technical Services
Tutorials and Custom Solutions
http://PeltierTech.com/
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