How can I put existing figures in different subplots in another figure in MATLAB 6.5 (R13)?

I want to make several plots, each in their own figure. I then want to create a final figure which contains subplots which have the contents of the original figures.

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

The ability to make subplots from a set of figures interactively has been incorporated in MATLAB 7.2 (R2006a) using 'Plot Tools'. To do this, perform the following steps:

1. Plot a figure.

2. Click on the white icon, "Show Plot Tools and dock figure", on the top of the figure.

3. Select all objects by pressing CTRL-A

4. Copy the objects by pressing CTRL-C

5. Open a new figure window in Plot Tools by clicking on the white icon, "New Figure" on the left.

6. Paste the objects by pressing CTRL-V

7. Repeat the steps 1-4 for the other figures you want to copy and paste them into the final figure.

The sub-plots in the final figure can now be resized and moved as desired.

To work around this issue in previous releases, read the following:

The COPYOBJ function will allow you to copy objects between parent objects. In order to copy several sets of axes into a subplot, you will need to use two steps:

1. Copy the contents of your original figure into your destination figure.

2. Modify the position properties of the axes so that they match a subplot's position. Following is an example code which should help you to set the position property. This code is designed only to work with a 4-by-1 set of subplots. You may need to modify the code to work with your data.

% First, create 4  figures with four different graphs (each with  a 

% colorbar):

figure(1)

surf(peaks(10))

colorbar

figure(2)

mesh(peaks(10))

colorbar

figure(3)

contour(peaks(10))

colorbar

figure(4)

pcolor(peaks(10))

colorbar

% Now create destination graph

figure(5)

ax = zeros(4,1);

for i = 1:4

    ax(i)=subplot(4,1,i);

end

% Now copy contents of each figure over to destination figure

% Modify position of each axes as it is transferred

for i = 1:4

    figure(i)

    h = get(gcf,'Children');

    newh = copyobj(h,5)

    for j = 1:length(newh)

posnewh = get(newh(j),'Position');

possub  = get(ax(i),'Position');

set(newh(j),'Position',...

[posnewh(1) possub(2) posnewh(3) possub(4)])

    end

    delete(ax(i));

end

figure(5)

[KAE]

Can you update these instructions for R2019b?

[Walter Roberson]

@Megna Hari comments:

This doesnt work for an mxn layout where n>1.

it should be this but theres some reputation points requirement now so I cant post:

set(newh(j),'Position',[possub(1)+(posnewh(1)*possub(3)), possub(2)+(posnewh(2)*possub(4)), posnewh(3)*possub(3), posnewh(4)*possub(4)])

Answer 2

[Eric Sargent]

Starting in R2019b, you can use tiledlayout to manage several axes. You can reparent each of your axes into a layout, and set the tile number of each axes as appropriate.

% Get a list of all of the open figures
figlist=get(groot,'Children');
 
newfig=figure;
tcl=tiledlayout(newfig,'flow')
 
for i = 1:numel(figlist)
    figure(figlist(i));
    ax=gca;
    ax.Parent=tcl;
    ax.Layout.Tile=i;
end

[KAE]

Thanks!

[Eric Sargent]

What do you mean by "keep the names"? What are you looking to do?

[Eric Sargent]

See Adam's answer here:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/542096-adding-a-global-legend-to-a-tiledlayout