How to change the subplot positioning in an existing figure?

Dear experts,

a while ago I created a figure with two subplots in the configuration subplot(1,2,x) (one row, two columns). I saved the figure as 'fig' file for later use. Now I would prefer the plots to be in subplot(2,1) (two rows, one column) configuration. I only have the .fig file and have no access to the relevant data to replot the figure.

Is there a way the accomplish this?

I opened the figure and tried the following:

hF = gcf;
hSub11 = subplot(1,2,1);
hSub12 = subplot(1,2,2);

nF = figure;
hSub21 = subplot(2,1,1);
copyobj(allchild(hSub11),hSub21)
hSub22 = subplot(2,1,2);
copyobj(allchild(hSub12),hSub22)

But besides the legends, titles and axis labels are missing, the plots show white spaces on top and bottom or left and right of the figure, especially when being resized.

Does anyone have an advice or an overall better solution for me?

Thank you very much! (I am using MATLAB 2014b)

[dpb]

You can try the 'legacy' option to see if it helps but I'm guessing probably won't be fully satisfactory, either...there's just too much "behind the scenes" stuff going on...

Don't show us what the plots are, but I'm guessing the only real way will be to retrieve the data from the existing plots and recreate them.

[Lenwo]

Thanks for your reply! That's an good idea, I will try this. I hope things won't get more complicated since I am using contour plots.

[dpb]

Can you build a sample that duplicates this that can post that folks can play with easily?

I've not tried Jan's idea; I can see why it didn't do what you expected exactly as is, but it may be able to be made to do so...I'll poke around little and try something.

Answer 1

[Jan]

This swaps the positions of the two axes:

hFig    = gcf;
hAxes   = findobj(allchild(hFig), 'flat', 'Type', 'axes');
axesPos = get(hAxes, 'Position');
set(hAxes(1), 'Position', axesPos{2});
set(hAxes(2), 'Position', axesPos{1});

[EDITED] Thismove the first axes to the subplot(2,1,1) position, the 2nd to (2,1,2):

hFig    = gcf;
hAxes   = findobj(allchild(hFig), 'flat', 'Type', 'axes');
hSub    = subplot(2,1,1);
set(hAxes(1), 'Position', get(hSub, 'Position'));
delete(hSub);
hSub    = subplot(2,1,2);
set(hAxes(2), 'Position', get(hSub, 'Position'));
delete(hSub);

Please try it and explain, how the legends, white spaces etc. are effects.

Did you try to use the property editor? Open the figure, activate the toolbar, click on the arrow and move the objects around or resize with the mouse.

[Lenwo]

Thanks for your reply! But this Code does only switch the plots, but they remain in two columns, one row.

[Jan]

Sorry, I misunderstood the question. See EDITED.

[dpb]

I got sidetracked, but that's the answer, Jan. :)

Can be done with

for i=1:2, hAxRef(i)=subplot(1,2,i); end % create reference positions
set(hAxes,{'position'},{hAxRef.Position}.')

using the cell notation to set multiple properties at one call.

[Lenwo]

Hey Jan and dpb, thank you very much, it worked out for me. I combined your answers and rescaled the axes since the countour legends were cut off. That's what I finally came up with:

hFig    = gcf;
hAxes   = findobj(allchild(hFig), 'flat', 'Type', 'axes');

hTempFig = figure;
for i=1:2, hAxRef(i)=subplot(2,1,3-i); end % create reference positions
set(hAxes,{'position'},{hAxRef.Position}.')

delete(hTempFig);

axPosition = hAxes(1).Position;
set(hAxes(1), 'Position', [axPosition(1) axPosition(2) axPosition(3)-0.15 axPosition(4)]);

axPosition = hAxes(2).Position;
set(hAxes(2), 'Position', [axPosition(1) axPosition(2) axPosition(3)-0.15 axPosition(4)]);

I bet there is a more efficient way for the rescaling part, but it works just fine!

Thanks again!!

[dpb]

Welcome, Jan got me to realize it would work that way; I initially was thinking about the subplot behavior that would delete the underlying axes if another occludes an existing one's position -- but at the lower level of directly manipulating the 'position' vectors there's no checking that that occurs...