Continuous 3D plotting (i.e. figure update) using python-matplotlib?

Question

I have a simulation which calculates surface data for each iteration of the simulation. I would like to continuously plot that data as a surface plot to the same window (upd

Answer 1

I am grateful for the answer from Paul, although I haven't to tried it out yet.

In the meantime I had found another solution that works and renders with OpenGL using MayaVI, which is OK as I only need real-time quick visual feedback. However I had to install the following packages under Ubuntu: python-enthoughtbase and mayavi2

Here's the code:

import numpy as np
import time
from enthought.mayavi import mlab
from enthought.tvtk.tools import visual

    class plot3dClass( object ):

        def __init__( self, systemSideLength, lowerCutoffLength ):
            self.systemSideLength = systemSideLength
            self.lowerCutoffLength = lowerCutoffLength

            rangeMax = self.systemSideLength
            X = np.arange( 0, self.systemSideLength, self.lowerCutoffLength )
            Y = X

            matrixSize = int( round( self.systemSideLength / self.lowerCutoffLength ) )
            heightR = np.zeros( ( matrixSize, matrixSize ) )

            fig = mlab.figure(size=(500,500))
            visual.set_viewer(fig)
            self.surf = mlab.surf( X, Y, heightR, warp_scale = 1e1 ) # NOTE: the warp_scale factor is relative to the scale of the x- and y-axes
            box_extent = ( 0,rangeMax, 0,rangeMax, -1e-7,1e-7 ) # NOTE: the extent options refers to the size and position in the 3D space relative to the origin

            mlab.outline(self.surf, color=(0.7, .7, .7), extent = box_extent )

        def drawNow( self, heightR ):
            self.surf.mlab_source.scalars = heightR
            time.sleep(0.033)

This class is not quite where I would like it to be and I have two immediate issues with it:

1. After a short will the window is grayed by Ubuntu as (I suppose) Ubuntu thinks the application is not responding. Perhaps rather a an Ubuntu issue, but annoying.
2. I have been trying to find out how I can be able to rotate the plot with the mouse while animating.

I will try getting these answered in another thread.

EDIT: Ok. I have just tried the code as suggested by Paul and it also works for me. However, trying it I have become aware that MatPlotLib probably is not the best choice for doing animations in real-time. At least for me it is extremely slow (perhaps only in 3D?).

So in the end I will stick with the MayaVI implementation from above, which except for the two points mentioned, works great.

EDIT: If you go with the MatPlotLib solution, I have found that you can put the line matplotlib.interactive(True) inside the declaration of the plotting class. That way you can have MatPlotLib only defined within the plotting class.