Ternary Graphs

Graphical Analytic Techniques

Ribbon bar. Select the Graphs tab. In the More group, click 3D XYZ and from the menu select Ternary Plots to display the Ternary Graphs Startup Panel.

Classic menus. On the Graphs - 3D XYZ Graphs submenu, select Ternary Plots to display the Ternary Graphs Startup Panel.

A ternary (or "trilinear") plot can be used to examine relations between three or more dimensions where three of those dimensions represent components of a mixture (i.e., the relations between them is constrained such that the values of the three variables add up to the same constant for each case). One typical application of this graph is when the measured response(s) from an experiment depends on the relative proportions of three components (e.g., three different chemicals) which are varied in order to determine an optimal combination of those components (e.g., in mixture designs). In ternary plots, the triangular coordinate systems are used to plot four (or more) variables (the components X, Y, and Z, and the responses V1, V2, etc.) in two dimensions (ternary scatterplots or contours) or three dimensions (ternary 3D scatterplots or surface plots). In order to produce ternary graphs, the relative proportions of each component (within each case) are constrained to add up to the same value (e.g., 1). By default, when the graph is produced, the proportions are rescaled so that they add to 1 in each case. Other options to manage cases with invalid sums are given below (see the Data Range option on the Advanced tab).

The Ternary Graphs Startup Panel contains six tabs: Quick, Advanced, Appearance, Categorized, Options 1, and Options 2. The following options are available regardless of which tab is selected.

OK

Click the OK button to produce the graph.

Cancel

Click the Cancel button to close the Startup Panel without creating a graph.

Options

See Options Menu for descriptions of the commands on this menu.

By Group

Click the By Group button to display the By Group specification dialog box.

Sel Cond

Click the Sel Cond button to display the Analysis/Graph Case Selection Conditions dialog box, which is used to create conditions for which cases will be included (or excluded) in the current analysis. More information is available in the case selection conditions overview and syntax summary.

Case Weights. Click the Case Weights button to display the Analysis/Graph Case Weights dialog box, which is used to adjust the contribution of individual cases to the outcome of the current analysis by "weighting" those cases in proportion to the values of a selected variable.

Graphs Gallery

Click the Graphs Gallery button to display the Statistica Graphs Gallery dialog box, which is used to easily switch among different types of graphs.

Updating

Click the Updating button to display the following menu commands:

Auto

Select Auto to disconnect the graph from the graph creation dialog box and connect the graph directly to the spreadsheet. Any changes in the spreadsheet data (including selection condition changes) will be immediately reflected in the graph.

Manual

Select Manual to disconnect the graph from the graph creation dialog box and connect the graph directly to the spreadsheet. Any changes in the spreadsheet data will be reflected in the graph only after a manual update is initiated.

Locked

Select Locked to disconnect the graph from the graph creation dialog box and connect the graph directly to the spreadsheet. The graph is linked to the spreadsheet, but will not be updated when the spreadsheet data changes.  

Analysis

Select Analysis to connect the graph to the graph creation dialog box and disconnect the graph from the spreadsheet. Changes to analysis options (such as fit type) will be applied to all graphs created by the analysis.

Analysis/Updating

Select Analysis/Updating to connect the graph to the graph creation dialog box and disconnect the graph from the spreadsheet. The analysis (while open) will update the graph when the spreadsheet data is changed. Once the analysis is closed, the graph will no longer update when the spreadsheet data is changed.

None

Select None to disconnect the graph from both the spreadsheet and graph creation dialog box.

See also, Conceptual Overviews - Ternary Plots and ternary graphs in the glossary