I used the plot command to plot a figure and then changed lots of its properties using set command. I also store the handle of the plot (say h1).
What I need is to use the handle to plot the same figure again later in my code. I checked the plot command and did not find any version that accepts handle. I also thought of getting the Xdata and Ydata and use them to re-plot the same figure.
What is the simplest solution?
Edit 1: A working sample code based on copyobj that PeterM suggested.
hf(1) = figure(1);
plot(peaks);
hf(2) = figure(2);
plot(membrane);
hf(3) = figure(3);
ha(1) = subplot(1,2,1);
ha(2) = subplot(1,2,2);
for i = 1:2
hc = get(hf(i),'children');
hgc = get(hc, 'children');
copyobj(hgc,ha(i));
end
Edit 2: I also found this function that can copy figures (including legend) into a subplot.
I have run into this situation before. Depending on what you are trying to do the function copyobj may be appropriate. This function lets you take the contents of one axes and copy it to a new figure.
Improving #PeterM nice answer, one easier way would be:
fig2H=copy(gcf) % or change gcf to your figure handle
But it depends on what you want, if you want only the axes, or the whole figure… (btw, it doesn't seem to copy the legend handle).
You can use saveas to save the figure in a file, and the open to load the exact same figure from this file.
This would be the laziest way to accomplish what you want.
% Sample plot
f1 = figure(1);
plot(0:0.1:2*pi, sin(0:0.1:2*pi));
f2 = figure(2);
% The code you need
saveas(f1, 'temp.fig')
f2 = hgload('temp.fig')
delete('temp.fig')
I have used the function figs2subplots (given in Edit2 in the original question) - it does the work and is very easy to use.
Related
Let's say I have two figures stored in separate files A.fig and B.fig which contain two separate plots. Is there a way to load A.fig and then do something like hold on and then load B.fig in the figure created for A.fig so that I have both plots in the same axes?
I think the question is not really a duplicate of this one. The OP does not ask for a way to extract the data but for a way to combine the two stored figures. Admittedly, he could extract the data and plot it again. But there is a more elegant solution...
The actual plots are children of axes which is a child of figure. Therefore you can achieve what you want by copying the children of the second axes into the first axes with copyobj. Before that, load the figures with openfig. This method has the advantage to copy different types of 'plots' (line, area, ...).
The code to copy from B.fig to A.fig is as follows and works starting from R2014b:
fig1 = openfig('A');
fig2 = openfig('B', 'invisible');
copyobj(fig2.Children.Children, fig1.Children);
If you have a Matlab version prior to R2014b, you need to use the set and get functions since you cannot use .-notation. More information can be found here. You can either use gca to get the current axes after loading the figure like this:
fig1 = openfig('A');
ax1 = gca;
fig2 = openfig('B', 'invisible');
ax2 = gca;
copyobj(get(ax2,'children'), ax1);
... or get them manually from the figure-handle like this:
fig1 = openfig('A');
fig2 = openfig('B', 'invisible');
copyobj(get(get(fig2,'children'),'children'), get(fig1,'children'));
The following script creates two figures and then applies the above code to combine them.
If you are have Matlab version R2013b or higher, replace hgsave with savefig as suggested in the documentation.
%% create two figure files
x = linspace(0,2*pi,100);
figure; hold on;
plot(x,sin(x),'b');
area(x,0.5*sin(x));
set(gca,'xlim',[0,2*pi]);
hgsave('A');
figure; hold on;
plot(x,cos(x),'r');
area(x,0.5*cos(x),'FaceColor','r');
hgsave('B');
%% clear and close all
clear;
close all;
%% copy process
fig1 = openfig('A');
fig2 = openfig('B', 'invisible');
copyobj(get(get(fig2,'children'),'children'), get(fig1,'children'));
close(fig2);
This gives the following result if manually combined in subplots:
When in Matlab I use openfig(filename); to open a saved figure, it always opens a new window. All the 'reuse' argument does is not load the file when it appears to already be open. However, I wish to open the file into a given figure, and just overwrite its contents. Is there a way to pass a figure handle to openfig, or is there another function that would accomplish this?
So in code, what I would like to do is something along the following lines:
f = figure;
openfig(filename, 'Figure',f);
and then the figure would be displayed in figure f rather than having opened a second figure window.
I think you can arrange something close to what you want with the copyobj function. Here is a try with a docked figure:
% --- Create sample figure
h = figure;
ezplot('sin(x)');
set(gcf, 'Windowstyle', 'docked');
pause
% --- Replace the axes
clf
g = openfig('test.fig', 'invisible');
copyobj(get(g, 'CurrentAxes'), h);
delete(g);
Which gives me a smooth replacement of the axes, without flickering of the figure.
However, I don't know how this would behave with a fullscreen figure, it surely depends on the method you choose. Check also the doc of copyobj in detail, it's not copying everything so you may want to use the legacy option.
I have a problem, where I already have a handle to a figure created, and I want to somehow now draw a line, given that handle. For example, I have:
f1 = figure(1);
a1 = gca;
For commands like plot and surf, I can pass the axes and/or figure handles to tell it to plot to that particular figure. However, how do you do this with the line command? There does not seem to be a way as far as I know... thank you.
The line function, like patch is a low level function. The plot command are built on top of these. However you can do this:
f1 = figure(1);
a1 = gca;
line([0 1],[0 1],'Parent',a1); % Parent has to be an axis handle
You can find more line options here: line properties or type doc Line_Props in the Matlab command window.
Have you tried the `Parent' property?
line( x, y, 'Parent', a1 );
see line properties for more info.
If f is the figure handle, I wanted to use plot3(..) on it just like I would use plot(..), but this didn't work:
>> plot3(f, t, real(Y), imag(Y))
Error using plot3
Vectors must be the same lengths.
Then I figured out that the way to do this is to:
First make the relevant figure current.
Then use the plot3(..) function.
I can find what the current figure is using gcf, but how do I make a figure current (via its handle)?
This method has my personal preference:
set(0, 'currentfigure', f); %# for figures
set(f, 'currentaxes', axs); %# for axes with handle axs on figure f
because these commands are their own documentation. I find
figure(f)
and the like confusing on first read -- do you create a new figure? or merely make an existing one active? -> more reading of the context is required.
It is actually as simple as feeding the f back into the figure(..) command:
figure(f) %Makes the figure current.
Also, if I did something like this:
f = figure('IntegerHandle','off'); % With unique, non-reusable handle.
top = subplot(2, 1, 1);
bot = subplot(2, 1, 2);
Then I can make the axes top or bottom current by issuing a command like this:
subplot(top);
This also works:
axes(top);
But the two types of handles cannot be intermixed: axes(..) and subplot(..) work on axes handles, while figure(..) works on figure handles.
While others have provided you exactly what you've asked for (how to make an axes or figure the current one). My preferred way for dealing with this, is to explicitly specify the parent of your plot in the call to plot3.
If you look at the documentation, you will see that you can specify the parent axes as the first parameter to the function. If looks like you attempted to do this in your example, but you provided a handle to a figure rather than an axes.
f = figure()
ax = axes('Parent', f)
im = plot3(ax, X, Y, Z);
Alternately, I prefer the explicit solution
im = plot3(X, Y, Z, 'Parent', ax)
The nice thing about this explicit parameter/value specification of the parent is that it is accepted by all graphics objects. Functions like plot and plot3 are actually helper functions that wrap the functionality of line and allow for the convention of passing the parent first. The parameter/value approach is widely accepted regardless of whether you're working with a higher level function (plot, plot3, imshow) or the lower level objects (line, image, etc.)
The two benefits here are that you remove the overhead of MATLAB trying to figure out where to put your plot and also, it prevents MATLAB from having to change which figure is currently displayed, forcing a re-rendering which is one of MATLAB's slowest tasks.
give handle name to figure, give you a little example
f1 = figure;
imshow(image1);
f2 = figure;
imshow(image2);
% edit image 1
figure(f1);
text(2,3,'done');
Usually when I plot in MATLAB, it always draws on the same figure. How do I make it draw in a new figure?
I know it is pretty elementary, but I'm not finding it using Google Search.
figure;
plot(something);
or
figure(2);
plot(something);
...
figure(3);
plot(something else);
...
etc.
While doing "figure(1), figure(2),..." will solve the problem in most cases, it will not solve them in all cases. Suppose you have a bunch of MATLAB figures on your desktop and how many you have open varies from time to time before you run your code. Using the answers provided, you will overwrite these figures, which you may not want. The easy workaround is to just use the command "figure" before you plot.
Example: you have five figures on your desktop from a previous script you ran and you use
figure(1);
plot(...)
figure(2);
plot(...)
You just plotted over the figures on your desktop. However the code
figure;
plot(...)
figure;
plot(...)
just created figures 6 and 7 with your desired plots and left your previous plots 1-5 alone.
The other thing to be careful about, is to use the clf (clear figure) command when you are starting a fresh plot. Otherwise you may be plotting on a pre-existing figure (not possible with the figure command by itself, but if you do figure(2) there may already be a figure #2), with more than one axis, or an axis that is placed kinda funny. Use clf to ensure that you're starting from scratch:
figure(N);
clf;
plot(something);
...
As has already been said: figure will create a new figure for your next plots. While calling figure you can also configure it. Example:
figHandle = figure('Name', 'Name of Figure', 'OuterPosition',[1, 1, scrsz(3), scrsz(4)]);
The example sets the name for the window and the outer size of it in relation to the used screen.
Here figHandle is the handle to the resulting figure and can be used later to change appearance and content. Examples:
Dot notation:
figHandle.PaperOrientation = 'portrait';
figHandle.PaperUnits = 'centimeters';
Old Style:
set(figHandle, 'PaperOrientation', 'portrait', 'PaperUnits', 'centimeters');
Using the handle with dot notation or set, options for printing are configured here.
By keeping the handles for the figures with distinc names you can interact with multiple active figures. To set a existing figure as your active, call figure(figHandle). New plots will go there now.
Another common option is when you do want multiple plots in a single window
f = figure;
hold on
plot(x1,y1)
plot(x2,y2)
...
plots multiple data sets on the same (new) figure.
As simple as this-
figure, plot(yourfigure);