Charts, Histograms and Filtering
The Charts panel plots whatever attribute is currently active, and it is the quickest way to answer three questions about a model you have just built or imported: what is the range of this attribute, where does most of the data sit, and which parts of the model fall inside the range I care about.
It is not a passive display. Dragging on a histogram filters the attribute, and the 3D view follows immediately.
Opening the panel
On the Home ribbon tab, in the Windows group, click Charts Tab. The panel docks like any other; drag its title bar to move or float it.
The chart always follows the active attribute on the active object. Make an attribute active in the Data Tree and the chart redraws for it — there is no separate data picker to keep in step.
Choosing a chart
A toolbar sits across the top of the panel with the common chart types on it; the right-click menu carries the rest, plus every display option below.
| Chart | Best for |
|---|---|
| Histogram | A continuous attribute — intensity, roughness, dip, height, reprojection error. The default, and the one that filters. |
| Pie chart | A discrete attribute — facies codes, classification results, anything with a small set of values. Shows the proportion each value takes. |
| Bar chart | Comparing values across categories. |
| Scatter | The spread of an attribute rather than its binned shape. |
| Stereonet | Orientation data — poles, planes, contours and a rose diagram, mirroring the Stereonet window so you can keep it beside the model. |
It shares its settings with the full Stereonet window — contour method, rose shape, regional correction and the rest — so a change in one appears in the other. The Stereonet User Guide covers all of it; this page covers the attribute charts.
Reading and shaping the histogram
Right-click the chart for the options. The ones that change what you conclude:
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Bins | A fixed bin count, or Auto (Sturges) / Auto (Freedman–Diaconis). Sturges assumes a roughly normal distribution and gives few, wide bins; Freedman–Diaconis works from the interquartile range and copes far better with the long tails and outliers that outcrop attributes usually have. If a distribution looks suspiciously smooth, change the bin rule before believing it. |
| Y Axis | Count, Log Count, Percent of Total or Density. Log count is the one that reveals a small but real population hiding beside a large one — the handful of high-error points among a million good ones. |
| Cumulative | Plots the running total instead of the per-bin count. Read a percentile straight off it. |
| Density Curve (KDE) | Overlays a smooth kernel density estimate, which is independent of the bin choice — a useful check that a peak is real and not an artefact of the bins. |
| Statistics ▸ Show Statistics, Mean Line, Median Line | The summary figures, and vertical markers on the plot. Mean far from median means a skewed attribute, which is worth knowing before you set a threshold on it. |
| Include No Data | Whether points with no value for this attribute are counted. Off by default, and worth switching on once to see how much of the model actually carries the attribute. |
| Gridlines, Titles & Axis Labels, Solid | Presentation, for when the chart is going into a report. |
Reset Chart Options puts all of this back to the defaults, and Reset View (Zoom & Pan) undoes navigation without touching the settings.
Filtering from the histogram
This is the part worth knowing about.
The histogram carries two handles, one at each end of the range. Drag one and you set the minimum or maximum of the attribute's filter; the 3D view redraws to show only the data inside it. Shade Filtered Range marks the kept range on the chart so you can see what you are keeping while you drag.
It is the fastest way to answer "where in the model is this?" — set the range on the distribution, look at the outcrop, adjust. A few examples:
- Isolate the steep faces by dragging the low end of a dip histogram up.
- Find the poorly resolved parts of a photo-textured mesh by keeping only the coarse end of Texture GSD.
- Strip noise out of a comparison by keeping the middle of an M3C2 distance distribution and seeing what survives.
Reset Filter on the toolbar clears it and brings the whole attribute back. The filter belongs to the attribute's colour map, so it is the same filter you can set in the object's properties — the chart is simply a much faster way to drive it.
Filtering hides data; it does not delete it, and it does not alter the attribute. Clear the filter before you judge a result or export anything, or reach for Reset Filter if a model looks emptier than it should.
Navigating a chart
- Mouse wheel — zoom.
- Middle button drag — pan.
- Reset View (Zoom & Pan) from the right-click menu returns to the whole range.
The stereonet remembers its own zoom and pan when you switch chart types and come back, rather than resetting.
Getting a figure or the numbers out
Right-click ▸ Export:
| Choice | Gives you |
|---|---|
| Copy to Clipboard | The chart as an image, for pasting straight into a document or an analysis report. |
| SVG Document… | A vector file that stays sharp at any size and can be edited in Illustrator or Inkscape. Use this for anything going into print. |
| CSV Data… | The binned numbers themselves — bin edges and counts — for your own plotting or statistics. |
The stereonet and rose diagram have their own SVG Document entries, under the stereonet part of the menu.
An analysis report can take a figure captured live from the Charts panel, so the histogram you used to make a decision can be the one that appears in the write-up.
See also
- Attributes — creating the attributes these charts plot.
- Texture Attributes — the per-triangle attributes a texture bake writes.
- Stereonet User Guide — orientation data, contouring and rose diagrams in full.
- Analysis Reports — collecting figures into a document.