3D Graph Settings

The Desmos 3D calculator offers a new graph settings menu. Here, you can update your preferences for your current graph, change the graph bounds, turn on and off axes, enter braille mode, and switch between radians (the default) and degrees.

Under preferences, you have the option to turn on reverse contrast and translucent surfaces. Reverse contrast inverts the colors of the background, expression list, and buttons while maintaining the color of your points, lines, and surfaces. The translucent surfaces box allows you to view inside your surfaces and more easily visualize the intersection of different surfaces.

Note: Preferences do not persist between graphs. So, each time you open a new or saved graph, you will need to turn on reverse contrast or translucent surfaces again.

The graph bounds section allows you to easily change the \(x\), \(y\), and \(z\) bounds of your graph. To change all of the bounds simultaneously, type your new bounds in the ‘all axes’ section. To change the bounds individually, open the dropdown menu next to ‘all axes’ where you’ll have the option to edit the bounds of the \(x\), \(y\), and/or \(z\) axes. If your bounds do not center around the origin, a button will show up to the right of the graph bounds header to “Center Origin.” If the range of your axes are different, a “Zoom Square” button will show at the bottom of the graph bounds section that will zoom so that the range of all axes match the range of the \(x\)-axis. You can “Disable Zooming” with the checkbox at the bottom to avoid unintentional zooming.

The graph settings menu allows you to change the default settings for what’s inside the 3D cube. If you want to view your graph in a blank cube, you can press the toggle to the right of the Axes section. If you want to keep the axes but remove the grid on the XY plane, the numbers on the axes, or the \(x\), \(y\), and \(z\) labels, you can uncheck the corresponding box in the Axes section.