title: Python: Matplotlib Surface_plot
body: <p>I'm trying to Plot a high resolution surface_plot, but I would also really like some nice grid lines on top of it. If i use the gridlines in the same argument</p>
  
  <pre><code>ax.plot_surface(x_itp, y_itp, z_itp, rstride=1, cstride=1, facecolors=facecolors, linewidth=0.1)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I get a LOT of grid lines. If I, on the other hand, set "rstride" and "cstride" to higher values, my sphere will become ugly.</p>
  
  <p>I then tried to smash a </p>
  
  <pre><code>ax.plot_wireframe(x_itp, y_itp, z_itp, rstride=3, cstride=3)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>in afterwards, but it just lies on top of the colored sphere.. meaning that I can see the backside of the wireframe and then the surface_plot behind it all.</p>
  
  <p>Have anyone tried this?</p>
  
  <p>Another option was to use "Basemap" which can create a nice grid, but then I will have to adapt my colored surface to that.?!</p>
  
  <p>My plot looks like this:
  <a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/4msAt.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/4msAt.png" alt="surface_plot"></a></p>
  
  <p>If I add edges to the map with a higher "rstride" and "cstride" then it looks like this:</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/1lyhG.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/1lyhG.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
  
  <p>code :</p>
  
  <pre><code>norm = plt.Normalize()
  facecolors = plt.cm.jet(norm(d_itp))
  
  # surface plot 
  fig, ax = plt.subplots(1, 1, subplot_kw={'projection':'3d', 'aspect':'equal'})
  ax.hold(True)
  surf = ax.plot_surface(x_itp, y_itp, z_itp, rstride=4, cstride=4, facecolors=facecolors)
  surf.set_edgecolors("black")
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I want to show the \theta and \phi angles around the sphere.. maybe with 30 degrees apart.</p>
  
  <p>Cheers!
  Morten</p>