Figure visibility changes upon axes call

Hi,

I have the following issue: I would like to create figures and keep them invisible. However when changing the current axis withhin my figures the visibility changes. Here is a small example showing what I mean:

f = figure('visible','off');
ax = axes;
set(ax,'Position',[0 0 1 1]);
axis manual
axis off
ax2 = axes;
plot(1:2,1:2);
axes(ax);

the last call to reset the current axes to the old axes object makes the whole figure become visible. I can reset this by resetting the visible property. But there will still be a short fraction of time, when the figure becomes visible, something I would like to avoid.

Anyone got an idea what could be causing this and how it could be avoided?

[Stephen23]

The behavior of figure, axes, plot, etc, is usually much more predictable if you use:

• the optional handle input, and
• specify the data and options using Property+Value pairs.

It takes a bit more writing (and learning), but it tends to remove most of these (perhaps unwanted) higher-level behaviors. For example in your code, simply replace

ax = axes;
set(ax,'Position',[0 0 1 1]);

with

ax = axes('Position',[0 0 1 1]);

Also note that plot creates its own axes, if need be.

Answer 1

[Stephen23]

According to the axes help, the syntax axes(h) "makes existing axes h the current axes and brings the figure containing it into focus". I guess "into focus" includes being visible...

The help gives this example " to make an axes the current axes without changing the state of the parent figure", instead of

axes(axes_handle)

you should use

set(figure_handle,'CurrentAxes',axes_handle)

[Thomas Pfau]

Aye, thats it. Stupid me should read the manual properly...

Thanks

Answer 2

[Adam]

axes(ax) brings the figure containing the axes into focus so I guess that includes making it visible too.

Why do you need to call

axes(ax)

though? I used to do that a lot, but now I tend to avoid ever doing it because I don't like having the focus changed in that way.

If you want to plot on a specific axes you can just use:

plot( ax, ... )