Rotate 3D plot in PowerPoint

I want to be able to rotate a 3D plot in powerpoint. I found a few exchange files that rotate a plot and save it as a gif, but the problem with that is they use a loop to rotate the image. My figure is complicated, and I do not know what angles I need to rotate through without looking. Put more simply, is there a way to rotate a plot using the hand tool and record an animation of that? (any movie type will do, I can convert it to something PowerPoint can use after I've made it). I realize that may be a tall order.

Alternatively, if there is a way to put an interactive plot in powerpoint (the computer used will have MATLAB installed) that would work too.

Thanks

[dmitry luchinskii]

you could also:

1. save your figure as MATLAB fig file
2. write one line matlab function that loads this *.fig file
3. compile this function using Application compiler as a stand alone *.exe application
4. insert the standalone *.exe file *as a link* (to avoid blocking do not insert as an object) into power point
5. during presentation you will have full matlab control of the figure

[Matthew Anderson]

I really appreciate dmitry's suggestion.

Answer 1

[Sean de Wolski]

Thanks for giving my brain one last challenge before I shut it off for the week!

Here is something that seems to work. It starts a timer that gives you x amount of time to rotate the plot. It is recording the rotation. You can then feed the recording into the second function that plays it. Obviously, a lot of numbers here are hardwired (0.5, 500) etc. Right now you get 25 seconds at a frame rate of 20fps.

To record it:

function V2 = RecordRotation

surf(peaks);
n = 500;
V = zeros(n,2);
T = timer('period',0.05,'executionmode','fixedrate',...
    'TimerFcn',@captureAzEl,'TasksToExecute',n);
rotate3d on
drawnow;
start(T);
drawnow;
wait(T);
V2 = V;

      function captureAzEl(src,~)
          cnt = get(src,'TasksExecuted');
          [V(cnt,1), V(cnt,2)] = view;  
          drawnow;
      end

end

And to play it:

function playRecording(V)
frame_period = 0.05;
n = length(V);
T = timer('period',frame_period,'executionmode','fixedrate',...
    'TimerFcn',@playRecording,'TasksToExecute',n);
rotate3d on
drawnow;
start(T);
drawnow;
wait(T);

      function playRecording(src,~)
          cnt = get(src,'TasksExecuted');
          view(V(cnt,1), V(cnt,2));  
          drawnow;        
      end
  end

And then to run the whole thing:

v = RecordRotation;
playRecording(v);

Once the figure appears, you immediately have 25 seconds. After that, it regains control and tells it how to rotate.

Next week I'll polish this up with comments etc.

[Bernoulli Lizard]

Thanks, this works very well.

Now how can I record the playback? This code will save frames as a .gif,

x = 0:0.01:1;
figure(1)
filename = 'testnew51.gif';
for n = 1:0.5:5
y = x.^n;
plot(x,y)
drawnow
frame = getframe(1);
im = frame2im(frame);
[imind,cm] = rgb2ind(im,256);
if n == 1;
imwrite(imind,cm,filename,'gif', 'Loopcount',inf);
else
imwrite(imind,cm,filename,'gif','WriteMode','append');
end
end

but it uses a for loop with n steps. I can't figure out how to access the step that the timer is currently on

[Sean de Wolski]

That's why I don't recommend doing the getframe in real time. Once you have the V vector above (from my code), you can then:

1. loop down it; (similar to playRecording)
2. drawnow;
3. getframe
4. save the image.

This will be completely independent of time and user interaction.

[Bernoulli Lizard]

function playRecording(RecordRotation)

filename = 'Compare data to MC fits.gif';

for i = 1:length(RecordRotation)

    view(RecordRotation(i,1), RecordRotation(i,2));  
    drawnow;
    frame = getframe(gcf);
    im = frame2im(frame);
    [imind,cm] = rgb2ind(im,256);

    if i == 1;
        imwrite(imind,cm,filename,'gif', 'Loopcount',inf);
    else
        imwrite(imind,cm,filename,'gif','WriteMode','append','DelayTime',0.03);
    end

end

[Sean de Wolski]

I'll take a loot at this later today.

Answer 2

[Shibo Zou]

For those who come here to find ways to embed a real interactive 3D plot instead of just a gif in PowerPoint,

Please look at this script which helps embed a real interactive 3D plot in PDF. I suggest you convert your PowerPoint to PDF for presentation. Because the interactive 3D plot won't work if you transfer or embed the PDF in PowerPoint.

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/27245-generate-vertices--faces-and-color-for-u3d-format