Bug report

Bug summary

mpl_toolkits.mplot3d.axes3d.Axes3D.view_init
provides a means to set the elevation and the azimuth, but the z-axis is always aligned with the vertical camera axis.
A third angle would be required to permit any view.

The issue was reported on stackoverflow 3.5 years ago.

Code for reproduction

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import Axes3D

fig = plt.figure()
ax = Axes3D(fig)

ax.set_xlabel('x')
ax.set_ylabel('y')
ax.set_zlabel('z')
plt.show()

Actual outcome

Now, however hard you try to rotate the plot interactively or what angles you set in ax.view_init(), you will never be able to get the z-axis in a horizontalish position that is required to produce the plot below:

Expected outcome

By rotating interactively or via ax.view_init() one should be able to obtain this view below. Unfortunately, this is not possible.

Matplotlib version

• Operating system: Ubuntu 16.04
• Matplotlib version: 3.1.0, py37h5429711_0
• Matplotlib backend: Qt5Agg
• Python version: 3.7.3 (conda)