.. _ngw-node-traceContour:

============
traceContour
============

.. figure:: img/contour_plot.png
   :name: ngw-node-traceContour-figure
   :alt: Example contour plot
   :width: 400
   :align: center
   
   Example contour plot

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Description
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Creates a contour plot from a three-dimensional dataset.

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Properties
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- **Trace Name**: The name of the trace. If this node is the final destination on the way to displaying
  the plot, this field will be used as the plot's title that displays across the top. Otherwise,
  this field can be used to identify the trace among several traces (for instance, by using the legend
  provided with the plotWindow node).
- **Contour Lower Edge**: The lower bound on the Z-axis where data for contours should be considered.
- **Contour Upper Edge**: The upper bound on the Z-axis where data for contours should be considered.
- **Contour Division Range**: The range on the Z-axis used to determine how frequently contour lines should be drawn.
- **Contour Coloring Style**: There are different modes available for coloring contour plots. 

  - *Fill*: Coloring is done evenly between each contour level.
  - *Heatmap*: A heatmap gradient coloring is applied between each contour level.
  - *Lines*: Coloring is done only on the contour lines.
  - *None*: No coloring is applied on this trace.
  
- **Color Scale Settings**: The Color Scale settings group allows you to create ranges of colors across your plot. Refer to the main :ref:`Color Scale documentation <chartreuse-color-scales>` for more information.
- **Show Color Scale Legend**: Display a bar next to your plot that indicates color scale ranges.

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Input Ports
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- **X**: Data for the X axis.
- **Y**: Data for the Y axis.
- **Z**: Data for the Z axis.

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Output Ports
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- **trace**: The data of the plot trace. Use this to forward the plot trace for further aggregation onto aplot canvas.
- **plotFileDataOut**: A complete, serialized version of the plot that can be written out to a file for later viewing.Use a file node to save your plot to a file.
