Date:         Sun, 8 Feb 1998 08:44:34 +1100
Reply-To:     Tim Churches <tchurch@IBM.NET>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From:         Tim Churches <tchurch@IBM.NET>
Subject:      PROC GGRAF and 3D - Am I missing something?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

The question is rhetorical, but something seems to be missing from PROC
GGRAF. SI describe PROC GGRAF as follows (see
http://www.sas.com/rnd/web/ggraf/index.html):
 
"The GGRAF procedure enables SAS programmers to create
 three-dimensional, clickable charts in VRML. When you define a
 PROC GGRAF chart to have drill-down capabilities, you can click
 on a component of the chart (bar or pie slice) and drill down to
 another chart, table, or Web page for more detailed information
 about the selected component."
 
That's fine, and the ability to create clickable Web charts which offer
drill down is great, but how do you get PROC GGRAF to produce a 3
dimensional chart? As far as I can see, it will only produce charts with
one or two data dimensions and there is no syntax to specify a third
data dimension (i.e. z). Granted, the pie charts and bar charts are
presented in "psuedo-3D", but how does that help anyone? Looking at the
back of a row of fence posts (i.e. a "pseudo-3D" bar chart) doesn't
really provide any more information than looking at the front, and the
ability to flip a "pseudo-3D" pie chart so that you can look at its edge
is not terribly useful, although it is technologically spiffy.
 
To be really useful PROC GGRAF need to be able to produce true 3D graphs
i.e. where there are 3 data dimensions, such as the 3D scatter plots
available in SAS/INSIGHT. Perhaps PROC GGRAF can do this already - can
anyone tell me how?
 
Tim Churches