Graphics and GUIs. with MATLAB THIRD EDITION by Chapman & Hall/CRC

Transcription

1 Graphics and GUIs with MATLAB THIRD EDITION

2 Graphics and GUIs with MATLAB THIRD EDITION PATRICK MARCHAND NVIDIA O. THOMAS HOLLAND The Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division CHAPMAN & HALL/CRC A CRC Press Company Boca Raton London New York Washington, D.C.

3 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Marchand, Patrick. Graphics and GUIs with MATLAB / by Patrick Marchand and O. Thomas Holland. 3rd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN Computer graphics. 2. Graphical user interfaces (Computer systems) 3. MATLAB. I. Holland, O. Thomas. II. Title. T385.M dc This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reprinted material is quoted with permission, and sources are indicated. A wide variety of references are listed. Reasonable efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and the publisher cannot assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or for the consequences of their use. Neither this book nor any part may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The consent of CRC Press LLC does not extend to copying for general distribution, for promotion, for creating new works, or for resale. Specific permission must be obtained in writing from CRC Press LLC for such copying. Direct all inquiries to CRC Press LLC, 2000 N.W. Corporate Blvd., Boca Raton, Florida Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation, without intent to infringe. Visit the CRC Press Web site at No claim to original U.S. Government works International Standard Book Number Library of Congress Card Number Printed in the United States of America Printed on acid-free paper

4 PREFACE First, I must say that it was quite an honor to be asked to update Patrick s seminal work. The original Graphics and GUIs with MATLAB was my introduction to the graphics capabilities of MATLAB, and it was by that book that I came to a working knowledge of handle graphics. That was way back with MATLAB 4. Now we are at MATLAB 6 (release 13 is in beta release at the time of this writing) and MATLAB is more capable, powerful, and user friendly than ever a far cry from MATLAB 4! As with Patrick s earlier text, this book is intended to present a comprehensive discussion of the MATLAB graphics system. This third edition builds on the earlier editions by including the objects and properties new to MATLAB version 6 and includes the new features of the MATLAB environment. The organization of this edition is a little different as well. In teaching MATLAB, I have observed that not everyone wants to be a handle graphics guru (but they don t know what they are missing!). Many just want to be able to plot their data quickly and effectively. MATLAB has addressed this desire by expanding, for instance, the Figure Window tools, and providing the more casual user with a tool to modify many figure properties. Consequently, most of the first half of this book requires little or no knowledge of handle graphics. The second half thoroughly covers the concept of handle graphics, and how to create graphical user interfaces. As with the earlier editions, this book has been written to be useful to anyone, regardless of their level of expertise with MATLAB. If you know nothing about MATLAB programming, you can learn much by starting at the beginning and working through the examples in this book. If you are already conversant with the MATLAB programming language, you will find a great deal of information here that is not readily apparent in the MATLAB documentation. However, I must point out that MATLAB s documentation has improved with the product and you are encouraged to delve into the documentation but be aware, there is a lot of it! The folks at the MathWorks continue to improve MATLAB, and its capabilities have grown well beyond the scope of a single text. New objects have been created for the latest versions, and the integrated development environment is more capable and customizable than ever. MATLAB is a registered trademark of The MathWorks Inc. For production information, please contact: The MathWorks, Inc. 3 Apple Hill Drive Natick, MA , USA Phone: (508) info@mathworks.com

5 The code in this text is written with version 6 in mind, so some of it will not work with earlier versions. The code has been written for clarity, not necessarily efficiency, and the functions kept as simple as possible so that you can focus on the graphics aspects. You can download any of the code in this text by going to and following the links for this book. You will also find the solutions to the end of chapter exercises. If you are familiar with the earlier editions, you will see some familiar things here. Good is good and Patrick did such a fine job that much of what he presented then is still quite applicable and educational. Some things have been dropped, such as Patrick s GUI builder. In many respects, modern MATLAB doesn t need that any more. There are many new ideas in this edition, along of course with the new functions, features, and properties that the latest MATLAB has to offer. Perhaps one of the best aspects of MATLAB is that The MathWorks has continued to develop the product with very little compatibility problems. Although there were some major changes from version 4 to version 5 that led to a few problems for some extreme users, the transition from 5 to 6 has been smooth and has yielded a version that is more user friendly and more capable than ever. So why am I writing this preface instead of Patrick? Patrick is very busy with new challenges in his career that have taken him a little out of the MATLAB world, at least as a regular user. My little consulting company, Infinity Technology Associates, has used his text for some time as a complement to our teachings, and I use MATLAB extensively for modeling and analysis in my position as director of a modeling and simulation facility for the Department of the Navy. Through one turn or another, I was contacted about a follow-up to Patrick s second edition. It has been exciting updating and expanding Patrick s original work and I know you will find this book a valuable tutorial and resource as you grow in your knowledge and skill of programming MATLAB Graphics and GUIs. However, don t stop with this book. Use MATLAB as much as you can, read the abundance of documentation that comes with MATLAB, and by all means experiment. Soon you will wonder how you ever got your work done without MATLAB. Best wishes and happy programming! Thomas Holland

6 DEDICATION This book is first dedicated to the Creator, who has made us with inquisitive minds able to fathom the mysteries of the universe. And secondly to Linda, Katy, and Danny, the best family I could ever have. I also would like to acknowledge the influence of Wendy Martinez and Ronald Gross two GUI gurus with whom it is a pleasure to work with, and of course, Patrick Marchand, who started it all.

7 CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 OVERVIEW 1.2 ORGANIZATION OF THIS BOOK 1.3 TERMINOLOGY AND THE MATLAB PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE Getting Started Getting Help 1.4 OTHER REFERENCES 2 VISUALIZATION CONSIDERATIONS 2.1 WHY VISUALIZE? 2.2 CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD DATA VISUALIZATION 2.3 DATA QUANTITY AND DIMENSION 2.4 COLOR, LIGHT, AND SHADING 2.5 MOTION 2.6 INTERACTION 3 PLOTTING IN TWO DIMENSIONS 3.1 SOURCES OF DATA Function Data Measured Data 3.2 IMPORTING DATA MATLAB Data Formats Importing High-Level Data Importing Low-Level Data 3.3 ELEMENTARY 2-D PLOTS A General Overview of the Plot Command Logarithmic Plots 3.4 SIMPLE 2-D PLOT MANIPULATION Generating Plots with Multiple Data Sets Using Axis to Customize Plots Creating Supporting Text and Legends Text Placement Special Text Character Formats Using Subplot to Create Multiple Axes 3.5 SPECIALIZED 2-D PLOTTING Bar Graphs Histograms Stairstep Graphs Stem Plots Plots with Error Bars Pie Charts Area Plots Working with Complex Data

8 3.5.9 Using the Polar Coordinate System Plotting Functions with MATLAB Creating Filled Plots and Shapes 3.6 PLOT EDITING IN THE MATLAB FIGURE WINDOW Plot Editing Mode The Property Editor Zooming and Rotating Exporting, Copying, and Pasting 3.7 ILLUSTRATIVE PROBLEMS 4 PLOTTING IN THREE DIMENSIONS 4.1 ELEMENTARY 3-D PLOTTING Using Plot Creating 3-D Meshes and Surfaces Waterfall Plots D Plots of Non-Uniformly Sampled Data Creating Shaded Surface Plots Removing Hidden Lines Contour Plots Quiver Plots Combination Plots D Stem Plots Generating Surfaces with Triangles Polygons in a 3-D Space Built-In Surface Functions 4.2 SIMPLE 3-D PLOT MANIPULATION The Camera Toolbar Generalizing the Axis for 3 Dimensions D Plot Rotation Using the View Command 4.3 VOLUME VISUALIZATION Scalar Volume Data Slice Planes Contour Slices Isosurfaces and Isocaps Vector Volume Data Stream Plots Stream Lines Stream Particles Stream Ribbons Stream Tubes Cone Plots 4.4 A WORD ABOUT ANNOTATING 3-D PLOTS 4.5 ILLUSTRATIVE PROBLEMS 5 IMAGE GRAPHICS 5.1 IMAGE FILES AND FORMATS

9 5.1.1 Common Image File Types 5.2 IMAGE I/O Reading a Graphics Image Displaying a Graphics Image Writing a Graphics Image 5.3 IMAGE TYPES AND PROPERTIES Indexed Images Intensity Level Images Truecolor Images 6 GENERATING OUTPUT 6.1 THE QUICKEST WAY TO PAPER Page Setup 6.2 PRINTING COLORED LINES TO BLACK & WHITE PRINTERS 6.3 ELECTRONIC OUTPUT Using File Export Using the Windows Clipboard 6.4 USING THE PRINT COMMAND Creating Hardcopy with PRINT Creating Graphics Files Using Print Adding Additional Figures to a File Publishing Using 4-Color Separation EPS with a Preview Image Rendering Method with -zbuffer or -painters Indicating Which Figure Window to Print Saving Figures for Future Use 7 HANDLE GRAPHICS 7.1 GRAPHICS OBJECTS 7.2 GRAPHICS OBJECTS HIERARCHY 7.3 GRAPHICS OBJECTS HANDLES Determining Handles at Creation Getting Handles of Current Objects 7.4 PROPERTIES The Property Editor Manipulating Properties Universal Object Properties ButtonDownFcn, BusyAction, and Interruptible Children and Parent Clipping CreateFCN and DeleteFCN HandleVisibility HitTest Selected and SelectionHighlight Tag and Type UserData Visible

10 7.5 OBJECT SPECIFIC PROPERTIES Root Properties Display Related Root Properties Root Properties Related to the State of MATLAB Behavior Related Properties of the Root Figure Properties Figure Properties Affecting Position Style and Appearance Properties of the Figure Object Figure Properties that Control the Colormap Figure Properties that Affect Transparency Properties that Affect How Figures are Rendered Properties Related to the Current State of a Figure Figure Properties that Affect the Pointer Figure Properties that Affect Callback Execution Figure Properties that Control Access to Objects Figure Properties that Affect Printing Axes Properties Axes Properties Controlling Boxes and Tick Marks Properties Affecting Axes Character Formats Axes Properties Determining Axis Location and Position Axes Properties Affecting Grids, Lines, and Color Properties Affecting Axis Limits Axes Properties Related to Viewing Perspective Line Properties Rectangle Properties Patch Properties Properties Defining Patch Objects Properties Specifying Lines, Color, and Markers Properties Affecting Lighting and Transparency Surface Properties Image Properties Text Properties 7.6 SETTING DEFAULT PROPERTIES 7.7 UNDOCUMENTED PROPERTIES 7.8 USING FINDOBJ 7.9 ILLUSTRATIVE PROBLEMS 8 USING COLOR, LIGHT, AND TRANSPARENCY 8.1 SIMPLE COLOR SPECIFICATIONS 8.2 COLOR MAPS Effects of Color Maps in General Color Axis Control Color Control with Direct Mapping Color Control with Scaled Mapping Color Maps as they Relate to Graphics Objects Color Maps and the Surface Object Patch Objects and the Color Map Images and the Color Map Color Shading

11 8.2.5 Brightening and Darkening Color Maps Spinning the Color Map Making Use of the Invisible Color with NaN Creating Simple Color Bars The Pseudocolor Plot Texture Mapping 8.3 MODELING OBJECT LIGHTING Light Properties Functions that Make Use of Light Lighting Commands Lighting Models The Diffuse Lighting Model The Ambient Lighting Model The Specular Lighting Model Combining Lighting Models A Final Word on Light Objects Creating Color Varying Lines with Surface Objects 8.4 OBJECT TRANSPARENCY Alpha Properties AlphaData Alphamap ALim ALimMode AlphaDataMapping FaceAlpha EdgeAlpha FaceVertexAlphaData Alpha Functions alpha alphamap alim Setting a Single Transparency Value Mapping Data to Transparency 8.5 ILLUSTRATIVE PROBLEMS 9 ANIMATION 9.1 FRAME-BY-FRAME CAPTURE AND PLAYBACK Taking a Snapshot Playing a Movie Preallocating Memory Practically Speaking Recording the Entire Figure Animating a Portion of the Figure Making an AVI Movie 9.2 ON-THE-FLY GRAPHICS OBJECT MANIPULATION Simple Animation Functions The Wrong and Right Way to Animate Graphics The Need for Speed Animating Lines Animated Rotations

12 9.2.6 Forcing a Graphic to Leave a Trail 9.3 CHOOSING THE RIGHT TECHNIQUE 10 ELEMENTS OF GUI DESIGN 10.1 WHAT IS A MATLAB GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE? 10.2 THE THREE PHASES OF INTERFACE DESIGN Analysis Design User Considerations The Reason for the GUI Cognitive Considerations Physical Considerations Paper Prototyping Appearance Construction 10.3 UI CONTROL ELEMENTS The Styles Check Boxes Editable Text Frames Pop-Up Menus List Boxes Push Buttons Toggle Buttons Radio Buttons Sliders Static Text UI Control Properties Uicontrol BackgroundColor Uicontrol ButtonDownFcn Uicontrol CData Uicontrol CallBack Uicontrol Enable Uicontrol Extent Uicontrol ForegroundColor Uicontrol Font Angle, Name, Size, Units, and Weight Uicontrol HorizontalAlignment Uicontrol Min, Max, and Value Uicontrol SliderStep Uicontrol TooltipString Uicontrol Position Uicontrol String Style ListBoxTop Uicontrol Units

13 Uicontrol Interruptible Uicontrol Tag Uicontrol UserData Uicontrol Visible Other UI Control Properties Creating Uicontrol Objects Uicontrol Object Layering Framing Objects A Stretchable GUI Predefined GUIs and Dialog Boxes 10.4 UIMENU ELEMENTS Uimenu Properties Uimenu Accelerator Uimenu CallBack Uimenu Checked Uimenu Children Uimenu Enable Uimenu ForegroundColor Uimenu Label Uimenu Position Uimenu Separator Uimenu Interruptible Uimenu Tag Uimenu UserData Uimenu Visible Other Uimenu Properties Creating Uimenus Top Level Uimenu Menu Items and Submenu Titles Summary 10.5 LOW-LEVEL MATLAB GUI PROGRAMMING TECHNIQUES Strings of MATLAB Statements and Expressions Programming Approaches in MATLAB Creating All Graphics Elements in the Base Workspace Storing Handles as Global Variables Storing Handles in the UserData Properties Utilizing Tags and the FINDOBJ Command 10.6 HIGH-LEVEL GUI DEVELOPMENT GUIDE The Layout Editor The Property Inspector The Object Browser The Menu Editor Saving the GUI The GUIDE Created FIG-File The GUIDE Created M-File Executing a GUI Editing a Previously Created GUI 10.7 COMMON PROGRAMMING DESIRES WITH UI OBJECTS Creating Exclusive Radio Buttons Linking Sliders and Editable Text Objects Editable Text and Pop-Up Menu

14 Windowed Frame and Interruptions Toggling Menu Labels Customizing a Button with Graphics 10.8 THE MATLAB EVENT QUEUE Event Scheduling and Execution Execution Order of Events Mouse Button Pressed Down Mouse Button Released Mouse Pointer Moved Interruptible vs. Uninterruptible Common Mouse Action Examples Moving Objects with the Mouse Dynamic Boxes Using the RBBOX Function 10.9 CREATING CUSTOM USER INTERFACE COMPONENTS Simulating Buttons with Image Objects Creating a Dial APPENDIX : QUICK REFERENCES