# Makie: adjusting axis scale / limits in 3D
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-adjusting-axis-scale-limits-in-3d/29231
**Category:** Visualization
**Tags:** plotting, makie
**Created:** [September 27, 2019, 12:45pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-adjusting-axis-scale-limits-in-3d/29231 "2019-09-27T12:45:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mihai](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mihai)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2019, 12:45pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-adjusting-axis-scale-limits-in-3d/29231/1 "2019-09-27T12:45:39Z")
Hello,
I would like to use very non-isotropic axis scales in 3D scatter plots. I can set the limits of the axis, but couldn’t find a working way of changing the data scaling in x/y/z (so that the plot is not overly stretched in one dimension). Is there any easy way (without scaling the data itself)? I tried modifying the “scale” attribute of the Axis3D, to no avail.
minimal example:
```julia
using Makie
R = 4.0
x = randn(100_000)
y = randn(100_000)
z = randn(100_000) * R
lim = FRect3D((-4,-4,-4*R),(8,8,8*R))
scatter(x, y, z, markersize = 0.001, transparency=true, alpha=0.1, limits=lim)
```
how do I scale in z-dimension by 1/R ?
---
### Author:  [@sdanisch](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/sdanisch)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2019, 12:54pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-adjusting-axis-scale-limits-in-3d/29231/2 "2019-09-27T12:54:39Z")
using Makie
R = 4.0
x = randn(100\_000)
y = randn(100\_000)
z = randn(100\_000) \* R
lim = FRect3D((-4,-4,-4_R),(8,8,8_R))
scene = scatter(x, y, z, markersize = 0.001, transparency=true, alpha=0.1, limits=lim)
scale!(scene, 1, 1, 1/R)
```julia
Or
```
scene = scatter(x, y, z, markersize = 0.001, transparency=true, alpha=0.1, limits=lim, scale = (1.0, 1.0, 1/R)
```julia
```
---
### Author:  [@mihai](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mihai)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2019, 1:03pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-adjusting-axis-scale-limits-in-3d/29231/3 "2019-09-27T13:03:18Z")
Great, thanks!
Is there also a way to control the pivot point for mouse rotation?
---
### Author:  [@sdanisch](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/sdanisch)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2019, 1:06pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-adjusting-axis-scale-limits-in-3d/29231/4 "2019-09-27T13:06:38Z")
Yeah, via panning with the middle mouse button…
You can also set it via:
[https://github.com/JuliaPlots/AbstractPlotting.jl/blob/master/src/camera/camera3d.jl#L301](https://github.com/JuliaPlots/AbstractPlotting.jl/blob/master/src/camera/camera3d.jl#L301)
```julia
update_cam!(scene, eyeposition, lookat) # lookat == pivot point
```
As you can see in the source, you can get the current eyeposition via `cameracontrols(scene).eyeposition[]`
---
### Author:  [@mihai](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mihai)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2020, 4:36pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-adjusting-axis-scale-limits-in-3d/29231/5 "2020-04-24T16:36:35Z")
Hi and thanks again for the answer!
As I’m coming back to this, I’m having a related problem with the text font size being in data units. If I try to scale that, it fails at larger values, producing graphical glitches… maybe because textsize is an Integer? Or it could just be my GPU (Integrated Intel Iris Pro 5200), I don’t know.
example:
```julia
using Makie
function testTicks(f)
x = [0,1,0,1,0,1,0,1]
y = [0,0,1,1,0,0,1,1]
z = [0,0,0,0,1,1,1,1] .* f
s = Scene(resolution=(500,400))
scatter!(s,x,y,z, markersize=f/50)
Makie.scale!(s,(f,f,1))
s[:limits] = FRect3D((0,0,0),(1,1,1*f))
s[Axis][:ticks,:textsize] = (f*5,f*5,f*5)
return s
end
```
while testTicks(1e6) works for me, I’m seeing random gray triangles with ~1e8 or above.
Any advice, besides rescaling the data and manually setting the tick positions / labels?
---
### Author:  [@rafael.guerra](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/rafael.guerra)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2021, 8:10pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/makie-adjusting-axis-scale-limits-in-3d/29231/6 "2021-02-07T20:10:10Z")
Resurrecting this Makie thread as I cannot get the axes limits to work in 3D surface plots by using the keyword `limits` as indicated above. Running Julia Version 1.6.0-beta1.0 on Win10 VS Code.
_PS: the following workaround sets NaNs outside the z-limits but the plot edges are not properly shaved… Is there any option to smooth the edges?_
```julia
using Makie
x = y = LinRange(-2, 2, 200)
f(x,y) = -(x^2 + y^2)
scene = Scene(resolution = (1000, 1000))
zlimf(x,y) = -2 < (z = f(x,y)) < -0.5 ? z : NaN # z-limiting function (workaround)
surface!(scene, x, y, zlimf)
```
