MATLAB: How to rotate an axis about an arbitrary point in MATLAB 7.10 (R2010a)

arbitraryaxisfigureMATLABpointrotate

MATLAB’s ‘Rotate 3D’ icon rotates an axis about its center. However, I would like to rotate an axis about an arbitrarily defined point.

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To rotate an axis about an arbitrary point in MATLAB 7.10 (R2010a), first set the Axis’ CameraTarget property to the desired center of rotation. Then use the Camera Toolbar’s ‘Orbit Camera’ icon (located on the left end of the Camera Toolbar) to interactively rotate the axis. For an example, please refer to the sample code below:

%create a sample Figure to work with
mesh(peaks)
%define an arbitrary center of rotation and plot it
CenterOfRotation = [10,10,0]
hold on
plot3(CenterOfRotation(1),CenterOfRotation(2),...
      CenterOfRotation(3),'o')
%Set the Camera's target to the specified center of rotation
set(gca,'CameraTarget',CenterOfRotation)
%Open the Camera Toolbar
CameraToolbar

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MATLAB: How to use the ROTATE3D Tool along with setting the Camera Up Vector in MATLAB 7.9 (R2009b)

This behavior is expected. The Camera tools and the Rotate tools are two separate active window tools that reset each other. To view an axes for which the camera properties have been set from a different angle, use the Camera Toolbar instead of the Rotate 3D tool.

For example, try the following:

sphere
%%Set the up vector
camup([0 1 0])
% Instead of ROTATE3D stick with the camera tools itself to change view. 
cameratoolbar('Show')

Next, click on the first togglebutton on the camera toolbar. This turns on the Camera Orbit tool. Now set the Coordinate system axis to be 'None' by using the last toggle button for the Principal axis selector in the toolbar (the default is Principal Z). Now if you use the Camera Orbit rather than the Rotate 3D tool, the view of the axis does not reset when you start to rotate the axis.

The CAMORBIT command rotates the camera position around the camera target. The 'coordsys' function parameter allows the user to specify whether the rotation occurs around the point defined by the camera target, or around the axes defined by this point and the direction indicated. Note that the location of the camera target does not change relative to the camera when CAMORBIT is used, but it may change if ROTATE3D is used.

As the following documentation page describes:

http://www.mathworks.com/access/helpdesk/help/techdoc/ref/camorbit.html

"The behavior of CAMORBIT differs from the ROTATE3D function in that while the ROTATE3D tool modifies the View property of the axes, the CAMORBIT function fixes the aspect ratio and modifies the CameraTarget, CameraPosition and CameraUpVector properties of the axes."

For more information about the ROTATE3D and CAMORBIT commands, refer to the documentation for each of these tools:

Rotate camera position around camera target - MATLAB

http://www.mathworks.com/access/helpdesk/help/techdoc/ref/camorbit.html

Rotate 3-D view using mouse - MATLAB

http://www.mathworks.com/access/helpdesk/help/techdoc/ref/rotate3d.html

View Control with the Camera Toolbar :: Defining the View (MATLAB®)

http://www.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2009b/techdoc/visualize/f4-50593.html#f4-54139

Rotate camera position around camera target - MATLAB

http://www.mathworks.com/access/helpdesk/help/techdoc/ref/camorbit.html

MATLAB: How to rotate the 3D plot to achieve an elevation range from +180 to -180 rather than +90 to -90 as allowed by the ROTATE3D command

The ability to achieve an elevation range of -180 to +180 using the ROTATE3D command is not available in MATLAB. To work around this issue, use the CAMORBIT command to achieve this functionality.

The Camera Orbit functionality may be accessed from the Camera Toolbar by clicking on:

 View -> Camera Toolbar

Alternately, you may use CAMORBIT as follows:

camorbit(dtheta, dphi)

where 'dtheta' is the horizontal rotation and 'dphi' is the vertical rotation.

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Related Solutions

MATLAB: How to use the ROTATE3D Tool along with setting the Camera Up Vector in MATLAB 7.9 (R2009b)

MATLAB: How to rotate the 3D plot to achieve an elevation range from +180 to -180 rather than +90 to -90 as allowed by the ROTATE3D command

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