MATLAB: How to set disableDefaultInteractivity for all axes

disabledefaultinteractivity

In Matlab 2018b and later, the cursor is set to automatically interact with the plot. This messes up my plots (accidentally moving axes or adding unwanted data tips), so I would like to turn it off. You can do this for a specific axis ax with disableDefaultInteractivity(ax). However I would like to apply this to all axes I ever make. I know you can set preferences for some axis properties as follows,

set(0,'DefaultAxesColor', 'none');

But the following attemps did not work,

disableDefaultInteractivity(0) % Error: Input must be an axes handle
set(0, 'DefaultInteractivity', 'off') % Error: Too many output arguments

Is there another way to disable the axis interactivity for all axes?

Best Answer

In order to disable default interactivity for all created axes, you can use the following command:

>> set(groot,'defaultAxesCreateFcn','disableDefaultInteractivity(gca)')

But this setting will be reset when MATLAB is restarted.

Related Solutions

MATLAB: Xlim listener for zoom reset and linkaxes strange behavior

It turns out that there is a lot of publicly readable code behind linkaxes, or really, linkprop. After some debugging I discovered the MarkedClean event. More info on this interesting event can be found at: https://undocumentedmatlab.com/blog/undocumented-hg2-graphics-events

I now have the following code:

        %Updated to point to XRuler instead of just axes_handle
        %per Yair's recommendation
        obj.L3 = ...
          addlistener(axes_handle.XRuler,'MarkedClean',@(~,~) obj.cleanListen);
        end
        function cleanListen(obj)
            if isequal(obj.xlim,get(obj.axes_handle,'XLim'))
                return
            end
            obj.listenerCallback();

It seems like MarkedClean is perhaps one of the ultimate 'Always tell me about things' events.

I'm not entirely sure what the answers to my questions are, but this serves as a decent workaround for what I need.

MATLAB: What happened to the figure toolbar? Why is it an axes toolbar? How to put the buttons back

From the R2018b release onwards, you can drag-to-pan and scroll-to-zoom in an axes without having to call any MATLAB functions or select any toolbar buttons. Most types of axes include a default set of built-in interactions, but you can customize them by setting the Interactions property of the axes. For more information about controlling chart interactivity, see the following link:

www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/creating_plots/control-axes-interactions.html

You can also return the tools to the figure toolbar using the "addToolbarExplorationButtons" function. Please refer to the following code for an example:

surf(peaks)
addToolbarExplorationButtons(gcf) % Adds buttons to figure toolbar

You can also hide or remove the axes toolbar with the code below:

ax = gca;
ax.Toolbar.Visible = 'off'; % Turns off the axes toolbar
%or
ax.Toolbar = []; % Removes axes toolbar data

If you would like to ensure that figures always open with the tools in the toolbar and that axes never contain a toolbar, execute the following code:

>>set(groot,'defaultFigureCreateFcn',@(fig,~)addToolbarExplorationButtons(fig))
Execute the below code if you are using R2018b or R2019a release:
>>set(groot,'defaultAxesCreateFcn',@(ax,~)set(ax.Toolbar,'Visible','off'))
Execute the below code if you are using R2019b and onwards release:
>>set(groot,'defaultAxesToolbarVisible','off')

The above settings will be reset when MATLAB re-starts. To ensure that these settings are used even after MATLAB re-starts, place the above "set" commands in a 'startup.m' file. The 'startup.m' file, when placed on the MATLAB Path, is run during the program start-up process. For more information about 'startup.m' files, see the following link:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/startup.html

UPDATE (8/15/19):

Thank you for all of your comments and proposals about the axes toolbar.

We have heard your feedback and worked with members of the community on ways to improve the axes toolbar experience. With R2019a we released several enhancements to the axes toolbar, including faster startup time, ability to hover directly over the toolbar to make it visible, and improved performance with dense surface data. Additionally, with R2018b Update 5 we have made performance improvements to the axes toolbar startup time. We will continue to develop enhancements to the axes toolbar experience, and would like to thank you again for your feedback to help us improve our products.

You can download the latest updates using the following link:https://www.mathworks.com/downloads/web_downloads/

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MATLAB: Xlim listener for zoom reset and linkaxes strange behavior

MATLAB: What happened to the figure toolbar? Why is it an axes toolbar? How to put the buttons back

Related Question