Library/tool for drawing ternary/triangle plots [closed]

Answer 1

Created a very basic script for generating ternary (or more) plots. No gridlines or ticklines, but those wouldn't be too hard to add using the vectors in the "basis" array.

from pylab import *


def ternaryPlot(
            data,

            # Scale data for ternary plot (i.e. a + b + c = 1)
            scaling=True,

            # Direction of first vertex.
            start_angle=90,

            # Orient labels perpendicular to vertices.
            rotate_labels=True,

            # Labels for vertices.
            labels=('one','two','three'),

            # Can accomodate more than 3 dimensions if desired.
            sides=3,

            # Offset for label from vertex (percent of distance from origin).
            label_offset=0.10,

            # Any matplotlib keyword args for plots.
            edge_args={'color':'black','linewidth':2},

            # Any matplotlib keyword args for figures.
            fig_args = {'figsize':(8,8),'facecolor':'white','edgecolor':'white'},
        ):
    '''
    This will create a basic "ternary" plot (or quaternary, etc.)
    '''
    basis = array(
                    [
                        [
                            cos(2*_*pi/sides + start_angle*pi/180),
                            sin(2*_*pi/sides + start_angle*pi/180)
                        ] 
                        for _ in range(sides)
                    ]
                )

    # If data is Nxsides, newdata is Nx2.
    if scaling:
        # Scales data for you.
        newdata = dot((data.T / data.sum(-1)).T,basis)
    else:
        # Assumes data already sums to 1.
        newdata = dot(data,basis)

    fig = figure(**fig_args)
    ax = fig.add_subplot(111)

    for i,l in enumerate(labels):
        if i >= sides:
            break
        x = basis[i,0]
        y = basis[i,1]
        if rotate_labels:
            angle = 180*arctan(y/x)/pi + 90
            if angle > 90 and angle <= 270:
                angle = mod(angle + 180,360)
        else:
            angle = 0
        ax.text(
                x*(1 + label_offset),
                y*(1 + label_offset),
                l,
                horizontalalignment='center',
                verticalalignment='center',
                rotation=angle
            )

    # Clear normal matplotlib axes graphics.
    ax.set_xticks(())
    ax.set_yticks(())
    ax.set_frame_on(False)

    # Plot border
    ax.plot(
        [basis[_,0] for _ in range(sides) + [0,]],
        [basis[_,1] for _ in range(sides) + [0,]],
        **edge_args
    )

    return newdata,ax


if __name__ == '__main__':
    k = 0.5
    s = 1000

    data = vstack((
        array([k,0,0]) + rand(s,3), 
        array([0,k,0]) + rand(s,3), 
        array([0,0,k]) + rand(s,3)
    ))
    color = array([[1,0,0]]*s + [[0,1,0]]*s + [[0,0,1]]*s)

    newdata,ax = ternaryPlot(data)

    ax.scatter(
        newdata[:,0],
        newdata[:,1],
        s=2,
        alpha=0.5,
        color=color
        )
    show()