saveas figure in linux with no terminal causes and error

I am using MATLAB 2011a in CentOS 6.6 and RedHat 6. I have a MATLAB deployed executable that is started by a script using a Linux "at" command to allow me to log off without killing it. Thus, it has no terminal associated with it. It creates several figures, which it saves to PNG files using saveas, which creates the error "Width and height must be > 0". Sure enough, when I dump the figure properties the Position is set to [0 0 1 0]. The exact same code when run interactively with a terminal has a real position vector and works as expected. The renderer is normally set automatically to painters, but, with no terminal, it is set to zbuffer. Trying to set the renderer manually to opengl has no effect. It still ends up as zbuffer with the bad position. Is there a work around to allow MATLAB to create a valid figure with no terminal associated? If not, is there a way to associate a terminal with a daemon?