If you don't need fancy, Excel can handle this. You need to arrange data like this:

X1 X2 X3 X4 X5
Y1 Z11 Z12 Z13 Z14 Z15
Y2 Z21 Z22 Z23 Z24 Z25
Y3 Z31 Z32 Z33 Z34 Z35
etc.

You need regular arrays of X and Y values, and one Z for each X-Y pair. Leave the
top left cell of the matrix blank. Make a contour or surface chart. You can adjust
the colors by double clicking on the legend.

I've written an article on Surface and Contour charts:

http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/P...cle.asp?ID=447

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Peltier Technical Services
Tutorials and Custom Solutions
http://PeltierTech.com/
_______

bsh152s wrote:

I have some range data based on speed and altitude of a projectile. I would
like to make a singe 2D chart with speed and altitude along the x and y axes.
The range data would then be plotted in different colors/shades. For
instance, the darker the shade, the larger the range. And obviously, the
legend would have to include a color pallete indicating what ranges go with
what colors.

For points with no data, the colors would be interpolated between existing
points.

Another real-world example of this type of plot would be a temperature based
weather map where the x and y axes are latitude/longitude and temperature is
shown in different colors/shades.

Is this possible in Excel? I think that this type of chart would be easy to
read and would also illustrate a lot of information.