uifigure alternatives for gcf, gcbf, gco, gcbo, gca, and any other legacy figure based functions

Hello, I was wondering if any alternatives that work with the new uifigure windows are being developed for gcf, gcbf, gco, gcbo, gca, and any other legacy functions that used to work with legacy figures (guihandles, for example).

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

I used to think that those functions simplify didn't apply to uifigure and children. However someone indicated that the real issue is that by default handle visibility is off for those, and that if you turn handle visibility on that the functions will work. I have not tested this.

[Abdou]

That's true! I tested it and it works:

>> fig = uifigure(HandleVisibility = 'on'), f = gcf

fig =

Figure with properties:

Number: []

Name: ''

Color: [0.9400 0.9400 0.9400]

Position: [680 458 560 420]

Units: 'pixels'

f =

Figure with properties:

Number: []

Name: ''

Color: [0.9400 0.9400 0.9400]

Position: [680 458 560 420]

Units: 'pixels'

The default value of HandleVisibility property of a uifigure is set to 'off' to prevent the Figure object from becoming the current figure (gcf) and to prevent functions from making unwanted changes to the UI. MATLAB defaults to using the gcf or gca functions to get the target object for an operation, but these functions depend on the HandleVisibility property of the parent figure being 'on'.

[dpb]

But if it is a uifigure created by the system and not by user code, is there any way to manage to set an unknown handle's 'Visible' property?

[Walter Roberson]

@dpb

You can

findall(groot, 'type', 'figure')

and pick through the resulting list of figures.

[dpb]

@Walter Roberson -- thanks. That will get a list of which uifigures are those which have no .Number property. If there's more than one at that time, it may still be a challenge.

[sst]

Thanks; am I correct in understanding that by setting the HandleVisibility property appropriately, we can use "all" of the previously mentioned legacy functions that have traditionally accepted legacy figure objects as arguments?

[dpb]

Excepting for the uifigure itself, the other objects will still default to 'HandleVisibility','on' so they wouldn't be obscured, anyways. However, it does appear that the builtins are restricted to finding only children of handle-visible figures so the results will depend on the uifigure handle being visible at the time they are calleed.

If the visibility is on, then it appears that would be the case; however, that also leads to the possibility of the problem @Walter Roberson notes above, particularly acute if there's the possibility of user interaction thru a gui that can change focus.

The use of setting the uifigure visibility should probably be restricted to as minimal section of code as is possible and then reset back off in order to avoid that. Locate and save the handle of interest immediately and then use it as the target if calling any of the others. gca on its own will still get a current normal axes if one exists, but if one doesn't, it will create one in a new normal figure, not return the one that may be in the uifigure you just found when not visible.

[Stephen23]

If you want to write repeatable robust code then use explicit object handles.

If you want code that is fragile then use GCF, GCBF, GCO, GCBO, CGA, etc.