Display a figure on a GUI axes?

Hi, is there any way to display an existing figure onto a GUI axes object?

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

No. A figure can never be a child of anything other than the root object.

Also, an axes can never be the child of another axes.

It is possible to place images within axes, if that is what you are looking for. Just set() the image Parent property to be the target axes. You might also want to set the image XData and YData properties to move the image around within the axes.

[Qingyang]

What I actually wanted was to display a figure with subplots inside a GUI axes. Any way to do that?

[Walter Roberson]

No, a figure can never be a child of anything other than the root object. Also, subplots are actually axes, and axes cannot be children of other axes.

axes can overlap, if you are careful (and subplot() does not make this easy), but they can never contain other axes.

[Image Analyst]

Qingyang, just make a figure (a GUI) and place your axes on the figure (GUI) and plot stuff or display images in the axes. What's wrong with doing it like that (the way everyone does it)?

[Walter Roberson]

Qingyang is possibly using a previously-stored figure (complete with children). Possibly Qingyang wants to create a browser of such stored figures (a speculation on my part.)

[Qingyang]

The thing is that like Walter said, you can't subplot directly onto a GUI axes. Also, Walter's speculation is pretty much correct.

[Walter Roberson]

Our guidance is going to depend upon the extent to which you just want to show something that looks like what is stored, compared to how much it has to act like what is stored. Figures have menu bars, callbacks, independent color maps, individual renderers, and so on. An image of a figure is much less effort to display than an actual figure.

[Qingyang]

Yes, a generated image of a figure would be sufficient for what I need. How do I generate an image of a figure?

[Walter Roberson]

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/28708-imclipboard

Answer 2

[Image Analyst]

To save a figure as an image to an image file, try the FAQ: http://matlab.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ#How_do_I_save_my_figure.2C_axes.2C_or_image.3F_I.27m_having_trouble_with_the_built_in_MATLAB_functions. which recommends using export_fig() - the most downloaded File Exchange file.

[Qingyang]

Thanks for the link, but I do know how to save a figure as an image (with saveas). But, I wish to not save anything but rather convert directly from a figure to an image inside the program. Any way to do this?

[Walter Roberson]

print() to the clipboard, import the clipboard. See the imclipboard() link I provided.

Alternately, display the figure and getframe() a copy of it.

[Image Analyst]

Sorry - I guess I misinterpreted when you said "generate an image." Like Walter said, you can use getframe to get the contents of the figure into a variable in your program, but what are you're going to do with it? What's the point, when you already have the data that went into making up the figure? Why obtain that image if you're not planning on saving it out to disk?

[Qingyang]

Thanks for your guys' support. I'll be using the getframe method.