Add Regression Plane to 3d Scatter Plot in Plotly

Question

I am looking to take advantage of the awesome features in Plotly but I am having a hard time figuring out how to add a regression plane to a 3d scatter plot. Here is an exa

Answer 1

You need to sample the points based on the predict object created from your lm call. This creates a surface similar to the volcano object which you can then add to your plot.

library(plotly)
library(reshape2)

#load data

my_df <- iris
petal_lm <- lm(Petal.Length ~ 0 + Sepal.Length + Sepal.Width,data = my_df)

The following sets up the extent of our surface. I chose to sample every 0.05 points, and use the extent of the data set as my limits. Can easily be modified here.

#Graph Resolution (more important for more complex shapes)
graph_reso <- 0.05

#Setup Axis
axis_x <- seq(min(my_df$Sepal.Length), max(my_df$Sepal.Length), by = graph_reso)
axis_y <- seq(min(my_df$Sepal.Width), max(my_df$Sepal.Width), by = graph_reso)

#Sample points
petal_lm_surface <- expand.grid(Sepal.Length = axis_x,Sepal.Width = axis_y,KEEP.OUT.ATTRS = F)
petal_lm_surface$Petal.Length <- predict.lm(petal_lm, newdata = petal_lm_surface)
petal_lm_surface <- acast(petal_lm_surface, Sepal.Width ~ Sepal.Length, value.var = "Petal.Length") #y ~ x

At this point, we have petal_lm_surface, which has the z value for every x and y we want to graph. Now we just need to create the base graph (the points), adding color and text for each species:

hcolors=c("red","blue","green")[my_df$Species]
iris_plot <- plot_ly(my_df, 
                     x = ~Sepal.Length, 
                     y = ~Sepal.Width, 
                     z = ~Petal.Length,
                     text = ~Species, # EDIT: ~ added
                     type = "scatter3d", 
                     mode = "markers",
                     marker = list(color = hcolors))

and then add the surface:

iris_plot <- add_trace(p = iris_plot,
                       z = petal_lm_surface,
                       x = axis_x,
                       y = axis_y,
                       type = "surface")

iris_plot

Answer 2

Replacing the plot part of the code with this, also fixes the error:

attach(my_df)
iris_plot <- plot_ly(my_df, 
                     x = ~Sepal.Length, 
                     y = ~Sepal.Width, 
                     z = ~Petal.Length,
                     text = Species, 
                     type = "scatter3d",
                     color = ~Species,
                     colors = c("red","blue","green"),
                     mode = "markers")

Answer 3

I used the same code, but I got this error message when I run the last step to get the surface:

Error in traces[[i]][[obj]] : attempt to select less than one element in get1index

So I add one term in the "add_trace" as:

inherit = F

at the end.

Answer 4

I executed the code but I get an error, I corrected it when text = "Species" and yes it executed correctly