Free Online Carpet Plot Maker
Visualize two-parameter relationships on a curvilinear grid. Used in aerospace and engineering.
Create Your Carpet Plot Now — It's FreeWhat Is a Carpet Plot?
Key components include the A-parameter curves, B-parameter curves, labeled tick marks along each family of curves, and optional contour overlays for additional output variables. Carpet plots are a staple in aerospace and process engineering where performance envelopes must be read quickly and accurately.
What Data You Need for a Carpet Plot
Honesty warning: the carpet renderer is a fixed demonstration. It ignores your data entirely — the a, b, and y grid values are hardcoded in charts.js (a=[0,1,2,3,...], b=[4,5,6], y=[[2,3.5,4,3],...]) and a single fixed scattercarpet overlay is drawn. Whatever rows you enter, the same illustrative woven grid appears. Use it only to see what a carpet plot looks like; it cannot plot your own parameter sweeps.
When to Use a Carpet Plot
Carpet plots are standard in aerospace, chemical engineering, and materials testing. Choose a carpet plot over a contour plot when the two input axes interact in a way that warps a rectangular grid. Choose a 3D surface chart when you want a perspective view instead of a flat engineering diagram.
Where a Carpet Plot Works Best
- Aircraft performance: reading takeoff field length or fuel burn off crossing curves of gross weight and pressure altitude, the classic flight-manual use.
- Gas turbine and engine maps: showing thrust or specific fuel consumption against simultaneous changes in Mach number and throttle/RPM setting.
- Heat-exchanger and HVAC sizing: trading off two design knobs (flow rate vs. inlet temperature) against an output like heat duty on one compact chart.
- Trade studies in early design: letting an engineer slide along two design parameters at once and interpolate the resulting metric without a 3D surface.
Carpet Plot Example: Illustrative Carpet (demo)
A carpet plot shows how a response varies across two interacting inputs.
Sample data: Note: this chart renders a fixed demonstration grid — it does not yet compute interpolated readings from your own values.
Use it to illustrate the carpet concept; for data-driven surfaces, a contour or 3D-surface chart reads your grid directly.
How to Create a Carpet Plot Online
- Step 1: Open ChartLoad and select the Carpet Plot type from the chart picker on the main page
- Step 2: Enter your A-parameter values in the first column, B-parameter values in the second, and output values in the third
- Step 3: ChartLoad renders two families of curves — one for constant A, one for constant B — forming the carpet grid
- Step 4: Read output values by finding the intersection of the desired A and B parameter curves
- Step 5: Customize curve colors, label placement, axis titles, and gridline styles for engineering readability
- Step 6: Click Export and download your carpet plot as PNG, PDF, SVG, JPEG, or WebP
Carpet Plot Best Practices & Tips
- Label parameter curves clearly with their constant values so the audience can read intersections accurately.
- Use distinct colors or dash patterns for the two families of parameter curves to prevent confusion.
- Carpet plots require two independent parameters — make sure both are meaningfully varying in your dataset.
- Pair a carpet plot with a data table for readers who are unfamiliar with this specialized chart format.
- Test readability with someone outside your engineering domain to ensure the carpet plot communicates clearly.
- Provide a brief explanation of how to read the carpet plot in your report — most audiences are unfamiliar with this format.
- Carpet plots compress complex two-parameter engineering data into a flat, printable format ideal for technical manuals.
Common Carpet Plot Mistakes to Avoid
- Offsetting curve families incorrectly: carpet plots deliberately shear one parameter axis so curves don't overlap. Plot it on a normal Cartesian X-Y grid and you get an unreadable tangle instead of the signature 'carpet' weave.
- Treating a carpet plot like a heatmap of one Z value. It is meant for reading a dependent variable off two crossing rulers, not for showing a color-coded surface; use a contour plot if you only have one Z field.
Frequently Asked Questions
What fields use carpet plots?
Aerospace, chemical engineering, HVAC, and materials science are the most common users.
Can I overlay contours on the carpet?
The carpet itself provides the grid; additional traces can be overlaid.
How is a carpet plot different from a contour plot?
A contour plot shows iso-lines on a regular x-y grid. A carpet plot uses two independent parameters that can produce curvilinear (non-rectangular) grids, making it better suited for engineering performance envelopes where inputs interact nonlinearly.
Related Chart Types
Ready-Made Carpet Plot Templates
Skip the blank canvas — open a free, editable Carpet Plot template, swap in your own data, and export. Browse all templates.
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