How to visualize small values in 3D bar chart

Question

Can any one help me to find solutions for visualizing small values in the following 3D bar chart.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
np.random.seed(10)

#data
time = [[148.64793017553907, 47.00162830693381, 1.3599472795213974, 1.0770502873829435, 0.2416407755443028, 0.051920437812805136],
        [100.7717864097111, 11.489065728868756, 0.5487183400562831, 0.12449462073189865, 0.15135425840105324, 0.030407779557364272],
        [10.223643741910418, 1.6037633759634835, 0.3846410546983991, 0.09999658720833912, 0.07089985779353546, 0.029794696399143727],
        [0.9271023046402703, 0.1371803828648158, 0.3223802804946899, 0.09767089911869589, 0.024286287171500026, 0.029627582005092024],
        [0.11088135128929497, 0.06808395726340152, 0.224113655090332, 0.08966402666909352, 0.022294637135096912, 0.029868837765284897]]

colors = ['r', 'g', 'b', 'y','m']
yticks = [1,2,3,4,5]
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111 ,projection='3d')
ax.set_xlabel('X')
ax.set_ylabel('Y')
ax.set_zlabel('Z')
ax.set_yticks(yticks)
xs=np.array([1,2,3,4,5,6])
for i in range(5):
    ax.bar(xs, time[i], zs=i+1, zdir='y', color=colors[i], alpha=0.8)

plt.tight_layout()
plt.savefig("3d.png")
plt.show()

I have tried to visualize data in 3d bar chart of matplotlib, but small values are not visible in the chart.

I am looking for solutions to make small values clearly represented in the chart.

Answer 1

Log scaling has the issue that log is not finite for 0. You could try using a different sub-linear scaling, such as the square root (or the kth root for any k > 1). Then, you can set the z-tick labels so that they reflect this scaling. Here's an example using the 5th root (scalepower = 1/5).

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.ticker as ticker
import numpy as np

# given the time array from the OP

scalepower = 1/5

colors = ['r', 'g', 'b', 'y','m']
yticks = [1,2,3,4,5]
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111 ,projection='3d')
ax.set_xlabel('X')
ax.set_ylabel('Y')
ax.set_zlabel('Z')
ax.set_yticks(yticks)
xs=np.array([1,2,3,4,5,6])
for i in range(5):
    ax.bar(xs, np.array(time[i])**scalepower, zs=i+1, zdir='y', color=colors[i], alpha=0.8)

plt.tight_layout()
    
def format_ticks(z, pos):
    return f'{z**scalepower:.2f}'

formatter = ticker.FuncFormatter(format_ticks)
ax.zaxis.set_major_formatter(formatter)

plt.savefig("3d.png")
plt.show()