Mathematica Mathematica - How to make 3D plots flat

[medwatt]

Hello,
I've been using mathematica the past few days and quite like it. I am trying to add some figures to my word document. Because of the size of the exported emf file from mathematica, I am unwilling to have a document that is 100MB in size. So I was searching for some ways to export mathematica graphics and came across a PDF document with so many plots from mathematica that is less than 2MB. The plots were all saved in vector format and are scalable. I plotted one function in mathematica and realized where the difference was. The contours of the one used in the document were flat while mine was not. I believe the plot was produced by default using mathematica 5.0. I am using 8.0. Is there a way to make my plots the same way. The image on the right is from the document.
Thanks

 

[Bill Simpson]

I don't know that this is going to reduce the image size for your application.

You can force "flat plots" using Interpolation with InterpolationOrder->1

In[1]:= f = Interpolation[
  Flatten[
    Table[{x, y, E^-(x^2 + y^2)}, {x,-1,1,1/10}, {y,-1,1,1/10}],
   1],
  InterpolationOrder->1];
Plot3D[f[x, y], {x, -2/10, 2/10}, {y, -2/10, 2/10}, Mesh->3]

Out[1]= ...PlotOfFlatPlatesSnipped...

 

[medwatt]

The plot on the right was done on mathematica 5. I tried it myself. But mathematica 5 doesn't have all other plot functions like 3d contour plot. Why can't I get the same effect in mathematica 8?

 

[Bill Simpson]

The plot on the right was done on mathematica 5. I tried it myself. But mathematica 5 doesn't have all other plot functions like 3d contour plot. Why can't I get the same effect in mathematica 8?

EITHER

A: Because you/we haven't found just the right combination of options, documented, semi-documented and undocumented, in Mathematica V8 that reproduces the old V5 behavior that you want, if that exact behavior is still even possible. And those will be different in V9 and those will be different in V10 in a few weeks.

OR

B: "I are software writer. That is fire hydrant. I know my role in life is to make it smell different from anyone else's fire hydrant, even different from a previous version of a fire hydrant that I might have written myself and certainly different from anything anyone else ever wrote, even if it seems to you like it should only make sense to have the same functionality."

I have heard, but never figured out the details to actually be able to do this, that you can keep an old version installed and be able to use it after you install a new version. From skimming the description of how to do this I think I remember that you needed to have the old version installed and working and then gently sidestep the install process to be able to keep both. I am guessing that you cannot get them to approve re-installing an old version after you have the new version unless you and they are having a really nice day at exactly the same time or unless you are very well known and they think they will benefit from doing you a favor.