Scaling a pst-3dplot to fit a Beamer frame

Question

I'm new to pstricks. I was looking for an automatic way of resizing a plot.

I'm trying to fit a 3d plot, generated using pst-3dplot, into a beamer frame. However, I'm not able to make it look good automatically.

If I set some frame coordinates to the pspicture then just a part of the plot appears. And if I set no coordintaes, then there is no plot. I also try using \psset(unit=1mm) but it compresses the plot and doesn't look good. Is there a way to figure it out without having to recompile hundreads of times? Is there a way to make it resize automatically to the frame size?

This is an example of what I'm doing:

\documentclass{beamer}

% For the figures
\usepackage[pdf]{pstricks}
\usepackage{auto-pst-pdf}
\usepackage{pst-node, pst-plot, pst-circ, pst-3dplot}
\usepackage{moredefs}    

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}{3D}
\begin{center}

\begin{pspicture}%(-5,3)(5,-3)%<-uncomment this and just a part appears
\pstThreeDCoor[linecolor=black, IIIDticks,IIIDlabels,xMin=-20,xMax=20,yMin=-20, yMax=20,zMin=0,zMax=35]
\fileplotThreeD[linecolor=blue,plotstyle=line]{data.txt}
\end{pspicture}
\end{center}
\end{frame}    

\end{document}

The data.txt file is here

Answer 1

I use PSTricks a lot, and have struggled with this issue as well. It seems that when you use \psset you don't really have complete control over the size of the resultant figure.

Below is a solution that I use to specify the size of the figure that will calculate the appropriate value of xunit and yunit.

The \setwindow command that I have defined takes 5 arguments, most of which should be self-explanatory: in order they are

• \xmin
• \ymin
• \xmax
• \ymax
• \figurewidth

Here is the MWE

\documentclass{beamer}

% For the figures
\usepackage[pdf]{pstricks}
\usepackage{auto-pst-pdf}
\usepackage{pst-node, pst-plot, pst-circ, pst-3dplot}
\usepackage{moredefs}    

\newlength{\figurewidth}
% setwindow command: takes 6 arguments (1st is optional)
%       [1]. aspect ratio (height = aspect ratio * width) default=1
%         2. xmin (number)
%         3. ymin (number)
%         4. xmax (number)
%         5. ymax (number)
%         6. figurewidth (length)
\makeatletter
\newcommand{\setwindow}[6][1]{\def\xmin{#2}%
                           \def\ymin{#3}%
                           \def\xmax{#4}%
                           \def\ymax{#5}%
                           % set up xunit
                           \pstFPsub\viewingwidth{#4}{#2}%
                           \pstFPdiv\result{\strip@pt#6}{\viewingwidth}%
                           \psset{xunit=\result pt}
                           % set up yunit
                           \pstFPsub\viewingheight{#5}{#3}%
                           \pstFPdiv\result{\strip@pt#6}{\viewingheight}%
                           % set up aspect ratio
                           \pstFPmul\result{\result}{#1}%
                           \psset{yunit=\result pt}%
                           }
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}{3D}

  \centering
\setlength{\figurewidth}{9cm}
\setwindow{-20}{-20}{20}{30}{\figurewidth}
%\begin{pspicture}(-5,3)(5,-3)%<-uncomment this and just a part appears
\begin{pspicture}(\xmin,\ymin)(\xmax,\ymax)
\pstThreeDCoor[linecolor=black, IIIDticks,IIIDlabels,xMin=\xmin,xMax=\xmax,yMin=\ymin, yMax=\ymax,zMin=0,zMax=35]
\fileplotThreeD[linecolor=blue,plotstyle=line]{data.txt}
\end{pspicture}

\end{frame}    

\end{document}

The \setwindow command takes an optional argument which you can use to tweak the aspect ratio. For example, if you use

\setwindow[0.25]{-20}{-20}{20}{30}{\figurewidth}

then the height of the picture will be 1/4 the width.

The nice thing about this approach is that you choose the width and then calculate the values of xunit and yunit and not vice-versa. It removes the guess work involved with \psset.

Answer 2

...
\psset{unit=0.2}
    
\begin{pspicture}(-5,-1)(5,20)
    
...