NAME

GD::Graph3D - Create 3D Graphs with GD and GD::Graph

SYNOPSIS

        use GD::Graph::moduleName;
        @data = ( 
           ["Sun", "Mon", "Tue", "Wed", "Thu", "Fri", "Sat"],
           [ 1203,  3500,  3973,  2859,  3012,  3423,  1230]
        );
        $graph->set( 
                x_label           => 'Day of the week',
                y_label           => 'Number of hits',
                title             => 'Daily Summary of Web Site',
        );
        $graph = GD::Graph::moduleName->new( 400, 300 );
        my $gd = $graph->plot( \@data );

Where moduleName is one of bars3d, lines3d or pie3d.

DESCRIPTION

This is the GD-Graph3d extensions module. It provides 3D graphs for the GD::Graph module by Martien Verbruggen, which in turn generates graph using Lincoln Stein's GD.pm.

You use these module just as you would any of the GD::Graph modules, except that they generate 3d-looking graphs. Each graph type is described below with only the options that are unique to the 3d version. The modules are based on their 2d versions (e.g. GD::Graph::bars3d works like GD::Graph::bars), and support all the options in those. Make sure to read the documentation on GD::Graph.

GD::Graph::pie3d

This is merely a wrapper around GD::Graph::pie for consistency. It also sets 3d pie mode by default (which GD::Graph does as of version 1.22). All options are exactly as in GD::Graph::pie.

GD::Graph::bars3d

This works like GD::Graph::bars, but draws 3d bars. The following settings are new or changed in GD::Graph::bars3d.

bar_depth

Sets the z-direction depth of the bars. This defaults to 10. If you have a large number of bars or a small chart width, you may want to change this. A visually good value for this is approximately width_of_chart / number_of_bars.

overwrite

In GD::Graph::bars, multiple series of bars are normally drawn side-by-side. You can set overwrite to 1 to tell it to draw each series behind the previous one. By setting overwrite to 2 you can have them drawn on top of each other, that is the series are stacked.

GD::Graph::lines3d

This works like GD::Graph::lines, but draws 3d line. The following settings are new or changed in GD::Graph::line3d.

line_depth

Sets the z-direction depth of the lines. This defaults to 10. If you have a large number of bars or a small chart width, you may want to change this. A visually good value for this is approximately width_of_chart / number_of_bars.

INSTALLATION

You will need to have the GD::Graph version 1.20 or later (recommended 1.22 or later) installed. You should also have Perl version 5.005.

To install, just do the normal:

        perl Makefile.PL
        make
        make install

The documentation is in GD::Graph::Graph3d.pod.

AUTHOR

Jeremy Wadsack for Wadsack-Allen Digital Group. <dgsupport@wadsack-allen.com>

Most of the modules are based on the GD::Graph modules by Martien Verbruggen.

LATEST RELEASE

The latest release is available from CPAN: http://www.cpan.org/.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 1999,2000 Wadsack-Allen. All rights reserved.

Much of the original code is from GD::Graph:

GIFgraph: Copyright (c) 1995-1999 Martien Verbruggen.

Chart::PNGgraph: Copyright (c) 1999 Steve Bonds.

GD::Graph: Copyright (c) 1999 Martien Verbruggen.

This package is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.