MATLAB Function Reference

streamtube

Creates a 3-D stream tube plot

Syntax

• streamtube(X,Y,Z,U,V,W,startx,starty,startz)
  streamtube(U,V,W,startx,starty,startz)
  streamtube(vertices,X,Y,Z,divergence)
  streamtube(vertices,divergence)
  streamtube(vertices,width)
  streamtube(vertices)
  streamtube(...,[scale n])
  h = streamtube(...)
  

Description

streamtube(X,Y,Z,U,V,W,startx,starty,startz) draws stream tubes from vector volume data U, V, W. The arrays X, Y, Z define the coordinates for U, V, W and must be monotonic and 3-D plaid (as if produced by meshgrid). startx, starty, and startz define the starting positions of the stream lines at the center of the tubes. The section Starting Points for Stream Plots in Visualization Techniques provides more information on defining starting points.

The width of the tubes is proportional to the normalized divergence of the vector field.

Generally, you should set the DataAspectRatio (daspect) before calling streamtube.

streamtube(U,V,W,startx,starty,startz) assumes X, Y, and Z are determined by the expression:

• [X,Y,Z] = meshgrid(1:n,1:m,1:p)
  

where [m,n,p] = size(U).

streamtube(vertices,X,Y,Z,divergence) assumes precomputed stream line vertices and divergence. vertices is a cell array of stream line vertices (as produced by stream3). X, Y, Z, and divergence are 3-D arrays.

streamtube(vertices,divergence) assumes X, Y, and Z are determined by the expression:

• [X,Y,Z] = meshgrid(1:n,1:m,1:p)
  

where [m,n,p] = size(divergence)

streamtube(vertices,width) specifies the width of the tubes in the cell array of vectors, width. The size of each corresponding element of vertices and width must be equal. width can also be a scalar, specifying a single value for the width of all stream tubes.

streamtube(vertices) selects the width automatically.

streamtube(...,[scale n]) scales the width of the tubes by scale. The default is scale = 1. When the stream tubes are created using start points or divergence, specifying scale = 0 suppresses automatic scaling. n is the number of points along the circumference of the tube. The default is n = 20.

h = streamtube(...z) returns a vector of handles (one per start point) to surface objects used to draw the stream tubes.

Examples

This example uses stream tubes to indicate the flow in the wind data set. Inputs include the coordinates, vector field components, and starting location for the stream tubes.

• load wind
  [sx sy sz] = meshgrid(80,20:10:50,0:5:15);
  daspect([1 1 1])
  streamtube(x,y,z,u,v,w,sx,sy,sz);
  %-----Define viewing and lighting
  view(3)
  axis tight
  shading interp;
  camlight; lighting gouraud
  
  
  

This example uses precalculated vertex data (stream3) and divergence (divergence).

• load wind
  [sx sy sz] = meshgrid(80,20:10:50,0:5:15);
  daspect([1 1 1])
  verts = stream3(x,y,z,u,v,w,sx,sy,sz);
  div = divergence(x,y,z,u,v,w);
  streamtube(verts,x,y,z,-div);
  %-----Define viewing and lighting
  view(3)
  axis tight
  shading interp
  camlight; lighting gouraud
  
  
  
  
  

See also

divergence, streamribbon, streamline, stream3

Volume Visualization for related functions

Displaying Divergence with Stream Tubes for another example

Specifying Starting Points for Stream Plots for related information

streamslice

strfind