MATLAB: How to display figure on a specific monitor when there are multiple screens

MATLAB

I use a computer with multiple screens. I would like to have my new figures spawn on a screen that I specify instead of the main display screen. It would be wonderful if MATLAB could detect the number of displays connected, and let me pass the display number to "figure". If the display vanishes during the execution, fall back to alternate displays.

It would be nice to have a method where I did not have to compute the pixels. If the code executes after a monitor gets disconnected the figure is out of the viewable screen.

Best Answer

There is no way to use "figure" to explicitly set which monitor the figure displays on, but there is a workaround that is fairly straightforward.

Using the "MonitorPositions" root object you can get the position of each display in MATLAB "Position" arguments

https://www.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2018b/matlab/ref/matlab.ui.root-properties.html#buc8_0n-MonitorPositions

And then you can set the "Position" of the figure to that. To do this for the secondary monitor execute the following MATLAB commands:

>> p = get(0, "MonitorPositions")
>> f.Position = p(2, :) % second display
>> f.WindowState = "maximized"

Using "WindowState" set to "maximized" prevents overlap with docks and status bars on the screen.

To do this for the primary monitor, this code applies:

>> f.Position = p(1, :) % first display 
>> f.WindowState = "maximized"

If you want every figure to open in the size the current figure is, you can set the "DefaultFigurePosition" in the graphics root settings, see the "Default Property Values" documentation page for more information:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2018b/matlab/creating_plots/default-property-values.html

>> set(0, "DefaultFigurePosition", f.Position

To undo this and return figures to their standard default settings, execute\n

>> set(0, "DefaultFigurePosition", 'remove')

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In order to do this, consider using the 'CreateFcn' callback for a figure. This callback is designed to execute when a figure is created or opened. Using the 'CreateFcn' figure callback to set the zoom option to be on will allow the figure to be zoomable when it opens.

For example, refer to the following lines of code:

>> f=figure;     % Create a figure
>> plot(1:10);  % Create a plot on the figure
>> zoom on     % Set the zoom option to be 'on'
>> f.CreateFcn='zoom on';  % Modify the 'CreateFcn' figure callback so that the zoom is turned on when the figure is created
>> savefig('Test1')  % Save the figure to a file called 'Test1.fig'

After executing the code and opening the 'Test1.fig' file in MATLAB, the zoom option should be set to 'on'. For details of each line of code above, refer to the comment at the end of each line. For more information about figure callbacks and properties, please refer to the following link:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/matlab.ui.figure-properties.html

MATLAB: Can’t I see figure windows in the multiple monitor setup

A possible workaround to solve the issue is:

Use "matlabroot" command to get the directory of your MATLAB R2020b. For example, I get the following path: E:\MATLAB.
Then find MATLAB\R2020b\toolbox\local\hgrc.m file under the path you get in the step 1.
Try to locate and change the following line in hgrc.m file for changing the default figure position:

>> screen = screenPos(1,:);

>> screen = screens(and(screens(:,1)==1,screens(:,2)==1),:);

Best Answer

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