surface

The set surface command is only relevant for 3D plots (splot).

Syntax:

      set surface {implicit|explicit}
      unset surface
      show surface

unset surface will cause splot to not draw points or lines corresponding to any of the function or data file points. This is mainly useful for drawing only contour lines rather than the surface they were derived from. Contours may still be drawn on the surface, depending on the set contour option. To turn off the surface for an individual function or data file while leaving others active, use the nosurface keyword in the splot command. The combination unset surface; set contour base is useful for displaying contours on the grid base. See also set contour.

If a 3D data set is recognizable as a mesh (grid) then by default the program implicitly treats the plot style with lines as requesting a gridded surface. See grid_data. The command set surface explicit suppresses this expansion, plotting only the individual lines described by separate blocks of data in the input file. A gridded surface can still be plotted by explicitly requesting splot with surface.