Assistants Access

The Plot Builder can be accessed from the Standard Menu Bar, under Tools -> Assistants.

When launched in this way, an interactive dialog is displayed where you can enter the expression to be plotted. This is equivalent to calling the PlotBuilder command with no arguments.

 Note: The Tools menu also offers tutors to easily generate plots in several academic subjects. For more information, see Teaching and Learning with Maple.

Context Panel Access

The Plot Builder can also be launched using the context panel for an expression.

Click on the expression you'd like to plot and from the context panel select Plot Builder.  In this case, the Plot Builder Panel opens.

Maple can display two-dimensional graphs and offers numerous plot options such as color, title, and axis styles to customize the plot.

Maple can display multiple expressions in the same plot region to compare and contrast. The Interactive Plot Builder accepts multiple expressions.

By default, Maple displays each plot in a plot region using a different color. You can also apply a line style such as solid, dashed, or dotted for each expression in the graph. For more information, refer to the plot/options help page. To see the Maple syntax used to generate this plot, see Maple commands from Creating Plots: Interactive Plot Builder

Maple can display three-dimensional plots and offers numerous plot options such as light models, surface styles, and shadings to allow you to customize the plot.

Maple can display a conformal plot of a complex expression mapped onto a two-dimensional grid or plotted on the Riemann sphere in 3-D.

Cartesian (ordinary) coordinates is the Maple default. Maple also supports numerous other coordinate systems, including hyperbolic, inverse elliptic, logarithmic, parabolic, polar, and rose in two-dimensions, and bipolar cylindrical, bispherical, cylindrical, inverse elliptical cylindrical, logarithmic cosh cylindrical, Maxwell cylindrical, tangent sphere, and toroidal in three-dimensional plots. For a complete list of supported coordinate systems, refer to the coords help page.

Using the Interactive Plot Builder, you can plot an expression with several of its variables set to numeric values. The Interactive Parameter window allows you to interactively adjust these numeric values within specified ranges to observe their effect.  To access this window, enter an expression with two or more variables and select Interactive Plot with x parameter from the Select Plot Type and Functions drop-down menu.

To see the Maple syntax used to generate this plot, see Maple commands from Creating Plots: Interactive Plot Builder.

For information on customizing plots using the Interactive Plot Builder, refer to Customizing Plots: Interactive Plot Builder Options.

You can also explore an interactive plot with parameters using the Exploration Assistant.  For more information, see Exploration Assistant.

	Example 1 - Display a plot of a single variable expression
	>  $\mathrm{plot}\left(\frac{\sin \left(x\right)}{x}\,x\=-2\mathrm{\π}..2\mathrm{\π}\right)$

Example 2 - Display a plot of multiple expressions in 1 variable

To display multiple expressions in a plot, include the expressions in a list. To enter $\frac{\ⅆ}{\ⅆx}\sin \left(x^2\right)$and $\int \sin \left(x^2\right)\ⅆx\,$use the Expression palette. For more information, see Palettes. >  $\mathrm{plot}\left(\left[\sin \left(x^2\right)\,\frac{\ⅆ}{\ⅆx}\sin \left(x^2\right)\,\∫\sin \left(x^2\right)\ⅆx\right]\,x\=-\mathrm{\π}..\mathrm{\π}\right)$

Example 3 - Display a plot of a multi-variable expression

>  $\mathrm{plot3d}\left(\frac{1\+\sin \left(xy\right)}{x^2\+y^2}\,x\=-2\mathrm{\π}..2\mathrm{\π}\,y\=-2\mathrm{\π}..2\mathrm{\π}\,\mathrm{view}\=0..0.5\,\mathrm{lightmodel}\=\mathrm{light1}\,\mathrm{shading}\=\mathrm{zgrayscale}\,\mathrm{style}\=\mathrm{patchnogrid}\,\mathrm{grid}\=\left[40\,40\right]\right)$

	Example 4 - Display a conformal plot
	A collection of specialized plotting routines is available in the plots package. For access to a single command in a package, use the long form of the command. >  $\mathrm{plots}\left[\mathrm{conformal}\right]\left(z^3\,z\=0..2+2I\,\mathrm{axes}\=\mathrm{normal}\,\mathrm{grid}\=\left[20\,20\right]\right)$

	Example 5 - Display a plot in polar coordinates
	>  $\mathrm{plots}\left[\mathrm{polarplot}\right]\left(1\+4\cos \left(4\mathrm{\θ}\right)\,\mathrm{\θ}\=0..8\mathrm{\π}\,\mathrm{color}\=\mathrm{magenta}\right)$

	Example 6 - Interactive Plotting
	>  $\mathrm{plots}\left[\mathrm{animate}\right]\left(\mathrm{plot}\,\left[x+3\sin \left(xt\right)\,x\=0..5\right]\,t\=0..10\right)$ To play the animation, click the plot and the from the Animation Toolbar, select Play ( ). For information on playing the animation, see Playing Animations.

For more information on the plot options used in this section, refer to the plot/options and plot3d/options help pages.

Some graphs cannot be specified explicitly. In other words, you cannot write the dependent variable as a function of the independent variable, $y\=f\left(x\right)\.$ One solution is to make both the x-coordinate and the y-coordinate depend on a parameter.

Maple can plot an expression of two variables as a surface in three-dimensional space. To customize the plot, include plot3d options in the calling sequence. For a list of plot options, see The plot and plot3d Options.

To plot numeric data, use the pointplot command in the plots package with the data organized in a list of lists structure of the form $\left[\left[x_1\,y_1\right]\,\left[x_2\,y_2\right]\, ..\.\, \left[x_n\,y_n\right]\right]\.$ By default, Maple does not connect the points. To draw a line through the points, use the style = line option. For further analysis of data points, use the Curve Fitting Assistant (Tools→Assistants→CurveFitting), which fits and plots a curve through the points. For more information, refer to the CurveFitting[Interactive] help page.

The matrixplot command plots the values of a plot object of type Matrix. The matrixplot command accepts options such as heights and gap to control the appearance of the plot. For more information on Matrices, see Linear Algebra.

$A≔\left[\begin{array}{cccccc}1& \frac{1}{2}& \frac{1}{3}& \frac{1}{4}& \frac{1}{5}& \frac{1}{6}\\ \frac{1}{2}& \frac{1}{3}& \frac{1}{4}& \frac{1}{5}& \frac{1}{6}& \frac{1}{7}\\ \frac{1}{3}& \frac{1}{4}& \frac{1}{5}& \frac{1}{6}& \frac{1}{7}& \frac{1}{8}\\ \frac{1}{4}& \frac{1}{5}& \frac{1}{6}& \frac{1}{7}& \frac{1}{8}& \frac{1}{9}\\ \frac{1}{5}& \frac{1}{6}& \frac{1}{7}& \frac{1}{8}& \frac{1}{9}& \frac{1}{10}\\ \frac{1}{6}& \frac{1}{7}& \frac{1}{8}& \frac{1}{9}& \frac{1}{10}& \frac{1}{11}\end{array}\right]$

$B≔\left[\begin{array}{rrrrrr}1& 2& 3& 4& 5& 6\\ 2& 1& 2& 3& 4& 5\\ 3& 2& 1& 2& 3& 4\\ 4& 3& 2& 1& 2& 3\\ 5& 4& 3& 2& 1& 2\\ 6& 5& 4& 3& 2& 1\end{array}\right]$

The contourplot command generates a topographical map for an expression or function. To create a smoother and more precise plot, increase the number of points using the numpoints option.

Place your pointer over the graph to see the contour labels.

To add an additional curve to an existing plot region, use the drag-and-drop method.

Advantages of the drag-and-drop method include the ease of adding and removing plots and the independence from plotting command syntax.

Example:

To display multiple expressions in the same plot region, enter the expressions in a list data structure. To distinguish the surfaces, apply different shading options, styles, or colors to each surface.

To display different types of plots in the same plot region, use the display command in the plots package.

This example plots a curve over a hill with the shadow of the curve projected onto the hill.

Maple can draw curves in three-dimensional space.