3D Biplot

New in Weasel version 3.5: Released 21st October 2018

The 3D Biplot is an exciting development of the standard 2D Biplot format.  It is useful particularly in a research context or in any flow cytometric analysis where the collection of cell populations (clusters) is not well known. 

Whereas in the standard Biplot, all relevant axes of the full multi-dimensional data space are "flattened" onto a 2D display, in the 3D Biplot, a third axis is retained to create a 3D display. Thus, even less information is lost due to the projection (see the "precision" value below each display). The resultant 3D display can be rotated and tilted using the mouse to reveal population locations; particularly valuable for data processed by the ACluE cluster analysis program. In the figures below, the left hand plot is a conventional 2D biplot. On the right is a 3D biplot. Click on the right plot to animate and show the 3-dimensionality.

The stationary 2D biplot on the left shows the orange (cluster 7), brown (cluster 2) and pale green (cluster 9) populations stacked together with the painting done in order of decreasing cluster size. When the right 3D plot is animated, the stack pulls apart vertically, largely along the CD8 and FSC axis directions, thus indicating the differences in the cluster characteristics.  This is borne out in the following figure showing that clusters 2 and 7 differ in CD8 and clusters 2 and 9 differ in FSC (presumably cluster 9 contains dead versions of cluster 2). Remember, in Weasel, rotation and tilt is adjusted by mouse.

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