What is the best way to create a figure from an existing axes in a GUI?

Hi all,

Using GUIDE I created a GUI and in it I placed an axes where I plot some graphs. Of course, the size of the plot area is fixed to the size of the axes I created while constructing the GUI. From time to time there is a need to plot the same data on a figure (outside the GUI) where I can change size or just keep it when I plot a different graph on the same axes on the GUI. I know that I can create a figure, recalculate whatever was calculated for the fixed graph and direct the plot to the new figure.

My question is: is there a simple way to direct the data in the existing GUI axes to a newly created 'fig' without re-calculating the data?

Thanks,

Alon

Answer 1

[Jan]

This is a job for copyobj:

function YourGUI
FigH  = figure('Title', 'The GUI');
AxesH = axes('Parent', FigH, ...
             'ButtonDownFcn', @AxesCallback);
plot(1:10, rand(5,10), 'Parent', AxesH);
end

function AxesCallback(AxesH, EventData)
% [EDITED] Reject single left clicks:
DlgH          = ancestor(AxesH, 'figure');
SelectionType = get(DlgH, 'SelectionType');  % Or use the EventData
if strcmpi(SelectionType, 'normal')
  return;
end

newFigHJ = figure;
newAxesH = copyobj(AxesH, newFigH);  % [EDITED, Arguments swapped]
% [EDITED] Adjust position:
set(newAxesH, 'Units', 'normalized', 'Position', [0.1, 0.1, 0.8. 0.8]);
end

The UIContextMenu of the figure or of the axes, or a specific button under the axes would be a nice method to trigger the exprt also.

[Alon Rozen]

Thanks Jan,

I am trying to implement your solution but something doesn't work. Since I am using GUIDE to create my GUI, I doubled clicked the axes in question to open its Property Inspector. There I clicked the 'ButtonDownFcn' and automatically the desired function was created. But whatever code I write into that function, when I run the application and try to click, double click, write or left mouse button on the axes it never reach this function!

What am I doing wrong?

Another question - can I set it to work only on double click?

Thanks,

Alon

[Walter Roberson]

Set the button down callback after you draw in the axes. The implicit cla is removing the callback.

[Alon Rozen]

Thanks Walter - it did the trick :)

Now I was left with two problems:

How to do it with double click instead of one click?

The maximum size of the copied graph is the size of the original graph. How do I copy in a way that when I maximize the new figure size the data will be stretched to fill the figure?

Alon

[Jan]

@Alon: See [EDITED] in my answer above.

[Alon Rozen]

Thanks Jan :)

You solved it all!! The only remark I have is that the order of the variables inside 'copyobj' should be reversed.

Thank you so much!