Is there a way to define a default axis position, similar to defaultFigurePosition?

When plotting with the plot command, you can change the position of the axes using e.g.:

set(gca,'Units', 'normalized','Position',[0.1 0.1 0.9 0.9])

which is similar to how a figures position can be changed.

Is there a setting for the default axis positions, analog to setting a default position for figures:

set(0, 'defaultFigurePosition', [0.25   0.25    0.7   0.7])

Or is there any other to set the plot axes in a particular way by default?

Answer 1

[Jan]

Yes.

% A strange small size to be sure, that it works:
set(groot, 'defaultAxesPosition', [0.25, 0.25, 0.2, 0.2])

figure;
plot(1:10)

This is a bad idea, because it modifies all folling axes objects. It is smarter to do this for your own figures only:

% Reset the stuff from above:
set(groot, 'defaultAxesPosition', get(groot, 'factoryAxesPosition'))

figure('defaltAxesPosition', [0.55, 0.55, 0.2, 0.2])
plot(1:10)

Using 0 as root object is outdated since 2014. Prefer groot.

[MrPowerElectronics]

Thank you for your answer, I agree this is not ideal as it affects all axes, is there a way to restrict it to those created by the plot command?

[MrPowerElectronics]

Also do you know if there is any documentation for this?

[Jan]

You find some documentation by:

docsearch factory

For all possible parameters see:

a = get(groot, 'Factory');
a = get(groot, 'Default');

Limiting the effect for axes created implicitly by plot is not possible.

[Martin]

Hello @Jan,

Is your solution still working for uifigure/uiaxes in Matlab 2023b? I am using the Default* properties for years, but now I am moving to uifigures and getting problems.

In the examples below the uiaxes does not work....

Working:

%% working figure/axes

hFig = figure();

set(hFig, 'DefaultAxesUnits', 'normalized')

set(hFig, 'DefaultAxesPosition', [0 0 1 1]);

set(hFig, 'DefaultAxesCreateFcn', @(~,~)disp('created'))

hAx = axes(hFig);

disp(get(hAx, 'Units'))

disp(get(hAx, 'Position'))

disp(get(hAx, 'CreateFcn'))

Not working:

%% not working uifigure/uiaxes

hFig = uifigure();

set(hFig, 'DefaultAxesUnits', 'normalized')

set(hFig, 'DefaultAxesPosition', [0 0 1 1]);

set(hFig, 'DefaultAxesCreateFcn', @(~,~)disp('created'))

hAx = uiaxes(hFig);

disp(get(hAx, 'Units'))

disp(get(hAx, 'Position'))

disp(get(hAx, 'CreateFcn'))

The units are still 'pixels', the location is [10 10 400 300] and no 'created' is displayed. BUT disp(get(hAx, 'CreateFcn')) displays correct!

What is going wrong?

Note the property 'DefaultAxesButtonDownFcn' is working for both.

Thanks in advance,

Martin