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[WIP] [Feature] Plotly extension
I have currently added support for 3D points. Support for others will be added soon.
This extension just outputs json. If you want to view it you will require to wrap it in html.
Do I understand correctly that Plotly is only able to draw plots, so it is not for drawing geometries and what this PR does is allowing to represent Boost.Geometry linear geometry as a scattered line plot?
If that's the case I don't understand how this is useful. A linestring, a geometry, is not a plot line. Plus AFAIU it is not possible to draw other geometries. What is the purpose of using Plotly with Boost.Geometry?
I started brainstorming use of plotly (or others) for general shapes drawing, see https://gitter.im/boostorg/geometry?at=5e6d0b8e17d3e742347c5346
Since plotly can draw geometric shapes, https://plotly.com/python/shapes/, as well as can draw on top of popular maps, https://plotly.com/python/maps/, evaluating its API for general purpose visualisation of geometries seems to me like a valid idea.
Do I understand correctly that Plotly is only able to draw plots, so it is not for drawing geometries and what this PR does is allowing to represent Boost.Geometry linear geometry as a scattered line plot?
If that's the case I don't understand how this is useful. A linestring, a geometry, is not a plot line. Plus AFAIU it is not possible to draw other geometries. What is the purpose of using Plotly with Boost.Geometry?
The main purpose of using plotly is for its mesh plot and it's UI. We can represent every geometry as a plot except that polygons won't be filled in the 2D plot. But plotly is great for showing 3D plots and mesh plots too. And if someone really wants the polygon to be filled, (which can only be done in 2D) they can use the existing svg_mapper. This plugin adds the functionality of displaying 3D geometries which is unavailable in svg mapper.
I started brainstorming use of plotly (or others) for general shapes drawing, see https://gitter.im/boostorg/geometry?at=5e6d0b8e17d3e742347c5346
Since plotly can draw geometric shapes, https://plotly.com/python/shapes/, as well as can draw on top of popular maps, https://plotly.com/python/maps/, evaluating its API for general purpose visualisation of geometries seems to me like a valid idea.
Thanks I needed this. The chart-studio of plotly creates area charts with the the x and y-axis as borders. So I thought it isn't possible to fill polygons. Maybe there is some other way. I will look into that. Thanks a lot.
@mloskot Right, I'm not familiar with Plotly, thanks. So it is possible to represent geometries and (I saw gitter discussion) @sudo-panda needs to display 3D geometries.
as well as can draw on top of popular maps
Do I understand correctly that Plotly use their own data format based on Json? Or did they adapt some well known format for representing geometrical data?
Why not use widely known solution for that (at least according to my limited knowledge of the subject), i.e. GeoJSON? Aside from displaying on maps it would allow to import geometries in various databases and GIS programs?
I have nothing against adding Plotly IO. I'm just confused why this particular format was chosen. I also don't know how widely used it is. If it is well known and popular it could be added it in the official release instead of extensions.
@awulkiew
Why not use widely known solution for that (at least according to my limited knowledge of the subject), i.e. GeoJSON? Aside from displaying on maps it would allow to import geometries in various databases and GIS programs?
I did not suggest plotly as replacement for GeoJSON which on its own is a preferred geo format indeed.
I considered plotly more as an alternative to SVG, for nice rendering of geometries, with axis, with scaling possibility, loadable into plotly-aware viewers, etc. I don't know if plotly does support GeoJSON well.
By the way, there is also MapML, e.g. GDAL/OGR has just received support for it https://github.com/OSGeo/gdal/pull/2374
I just thought exploring new ways to visualise geometries may be of interest to those looking for ways to start digging Boost.Geometry, who are keen in visualisations, I/O formats, etc.