Creative Charts - Excel Art

These are some of my Excel creations: charts based on the equation of circle. Unlimited Excel...

 

Creating Surface Charts 3D

Surface charts in Excel deserve special attention. They allow to see your data in three dimensions and can be particularly useful in engineering applications (design and control of processes) as well as in the art of drawing and painting.

Typical surface chart shows how the dependent variable (z) behaves as a function of two independent variables (x & y). In other words, the chart illustrates outcome of any nonlinear function involving two variables. E.g. we can plot speed of some technological process (reaction) as a function of pressure and temperature.

In this post I'll show how you can prepare a template for creating surface charts based on equations including variety of math functions (algebraic, transcendental, periodic). Such template can be very useful in all kinds of design, as it allows you to visualize plenty of solutions in minutes.

Let's start with just one example of surface chart I've created. This is 3D plot of equation shown in the title of this chart:

 

How can you create similar charts based on your own equations?