How do I make a mesh or surface plot that is clear in certain places?

I want to create a SURF or MESH plot but would like the surface to have empty regions or holes in specific places.

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

If the surface or mesh data has a NaN (not-a-number) in it, then the location of the NaN will be blank (just as NaNs in 2-d plots leave blanks). The example below illustrates using NaNs to make certain parts of a plot transparent.

%Generate a SURF plot with peaks data

z = peaks;

surf(z)

%Change peaks data so that a portion of that matix is made up of NaNs

m = z;

m(15:30,15:30) = nan;

%Plot the new matrix, m where the x and y information consisting of NaNs

%represents a hole in the SURF plot

figure; 

surf(m)

As of MATLAB 6.0 (R12) you can use transparency to set a face to be transparent.