The smartplot and smartplot3d routines are used primarily by the graphical user interface to generate initial plots which can be further tailored through use of interactive controls.

The smartplot and smartplot3d commands produce an INTERFACE_SMARTPLOT2D (INTERFACE_SMARTPLOT3D) data structure which provides essential plot options to the graphical user interface.  This "first approximation" of a desired plot command is further processed by the graphical user interface to construct and execute the appropriate plot commands. The result is displayed as a plot.

The smartplot commands accept one or more algebraic expressions or equations. The expressions are analyzed to determine names of variables for each coordinate and distinct colors for each curve or surface. The graphical user interface augments this initial list of plot arguments with additional plot options which are ultimately used in calls to plot procedures such as plot, plot3d, plots[implicitplot], or plots[implicitplot3d] as required. If more than one expression is involved, the resulting individual plots are automatically combined using plots[display].

For two-dimensional plots, a default domain of $\left[\mathrm{-10}..10\right]$ is used.  For three dimensional figures, a default grid of $\left[\mathrm{-5}..5\,\mathrm{-5}..5\right]$ is used. These can be changed in the graphical user interface.

The names are associated with coordinates by analyzing the algebraic expressions and allocating names to coordinates on a first come first served basis. If all coordinates have been allocated names, additional expressions are mapped onto the graph by randomly mapping any new names onto the existing coordinates.

The smartplot procedure cannot be used to plot raw Maple procedures. For example, to plot a sine curve, use smartplot(sin(x)) instead of smartplot(sin).

$\mathrm{smartplot}\left(\cos \left(x\right)+\sin \left(x\right)\right)$

$\mathrm{smartplot}\left(\cos \left(x\right)\,\sin \left(x\right)\right)$

$\mathrm{smartplot}\left(\cos \left(x\right)\,\sin \left(y\right)\right)$

$\mathrm{smartplot3d}\left(\sin \left(x^2+y^2\right)\right)$