surfaceshow

R2026b

Display surface

Since R2026b

Syntax

s = surfaceshow(data)

s = surfaceshow(data,viewer)

s = surfaceshow(___,Name=Value)

Description

s = surfaceshow(data) creates a Surface object that displays the 3-D surface data data. You can rotate and zoom in and out on the display interactively using the mouse. Use s to query and modify properties of the Surface object after you create the object.

s = surfaceshow(data,viewer) creates a Surface object that displays the 3-D surface s in the 3-D viewer.

s = surfaceshow(___,Name=Value) specifies additional display options using name-value arguments, in addition to any combination of input arguments from previous syntaxes.

Examples

Display Label as Colored Surface

Read a 3-D labeled volume, and create a binary volume for the label 1.

datadir = fullfile(toolboxdir("images"),"imdata","BrainMRILabeled");
load(fullfile(datadir,"labels","label_001.mat"));
mask1 = (label == 1);

Display the binary data as a surface in a 3-D scene.

surf1 = surfaceshow(mask1,Color="r",Alpha=0.4);

Input Arguments

data — Surface data

3-D logical array | triangulation object | surfaceMesh object

Surface data displayed in the viewer, specified as a 3-D logical array, a triangulation object containing 3-D points, or a surfaceMesh (Point Cloud Toolbox) object.

viewer — 3-D viewer

Viewer object

3-D viewer that is the parent of the Surface object, specified as a Viewer object. To create a Viewer object configured for 3-D display, use the viewer3d function.

Name-Value Arguments

Specify optional pairs of arguments as Name1=Value1,...,NameN=ValueN, where Name is the argument name and Value is the corresponding value. Name-value arguments must appear after other arguments, but the order of the pairs does not matter.

Example: s = surfaceshow(data,Alpha=0.5) creates a Surface object with a transparency of 0.5.

Parent — Parent

Viewer object

Parent of the Surface object, specified as a Viewer object. To create a Viewer object configured for 3-D display, use the viewer3d function. When you call surfaceshow without specifying a parent, the function creates a new Viewer object and sets that object as the parent.

Specifying the Parent name-value argument is equivalent to specifying the viewer input argument.

Visible — Surface is visible

"on" (default) | on/off logical value

Surface is visible in the 3-D scene, specified as "on" or "off", or as a numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). A value of "on" is equivalent to true, and "off" is equivalent to false. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type OnOffSwitchState.

Pickable — Picking state

"visible" (default) | "on" | "off"

Picking state of the surface, specified as one of the strings in the table.

Value	Description
"visible"	The viewer can pick the surface if it is visible in the scene, and cannot pick the surface if it is not visible. Control the visibility of the surface by using the Visible name-value argument.
"on"	The viewer can pick the surface.
"off"	The viewer cannot pick the surface.

Transformation — Transformation applied to surface

affinetform3d object | rigidtform3d object | simtform3d object | transltform3d object

Transformation applied to the surface in the 3-D scene, specified as an affinetform3d, rigidtform3d, simtform3d, or transltform3d object. Use the Transformation property to increase the size of the surface, rotate the surface, or perform other affine transformations. The default value is an affinetform3d object that performs an identity transformation.

Alpha — Transparency of surface

1.0 (default) | number in range [0, 1]

Transparency of the surface, specified as a number in the range [0, 1]. Fully opaque surfaces render most quickly, and specifying a value other than 1.0 (the default) can increase rendering time.

Color — Color of surface

RGB triplet | color name | short color name | hexadecimal color code | n-by-3 numeric matrix

Color of the surface, specified as one of these values.

• RGB triplet, color name, short color name, or hexadecimal color code — Use the same color for all the vertices on the surface.

• n-by-3 numeric matrix representing n RGB triplets — Use a different color for each vertex on the surface. Each row of the matrix defines one color. The number of rows must equal the number of vertices.

For a custom color, specify an RGB triplet or a hexadecimal color code.

• An RGB triplet is a three-element row vector whose elements specify the intensities of the red, green, and blue components of the color. The intensities must be in the range [0,1], for example, [0.4 0.6 0.7].

• A hexadecimal color code is a string scalar or character vector that starts with a hash symbol (#) followed by three or six hexadecimal digits, which can range from 0 to F. The values are not case sensitive. Therefore, the color codes "#FF8800", "#ff8800", "#F80", and "#f80" are equivalent.

Alternatively, you can specify some common colors by name. This table lists the named color options, the equivalent RGB triplets, and the hexadecimal color codes.

Color Name	Short Name	RGB Triplet	Hexadecimal Color Code	Appearance
"red"	"r"	[1 0 0]	"#FF0000"
"green"	"g"	[0 1 0]	"#00FF00"
"blue"	"b"	[0 0 1]	"#0000FF"
"cyan"	"c"	[0 1 1]	"#00FFFF"
"magenta"	"m"	[1 0 1]	"#FF00FF"
"yellow"	"y"	[1 1 0]	"#FFFF00"
"black"	"k"	[0 0 0]	"#000000"
"white"	"w"	[1 1 1]	"#FFFFFF"

This table lists the default color palettes for plots in the light and dark themes.

Palette	Palette Colors
"gem" — Light theme default Before R2025a: Most plots use these colors by default.
"glow" — Dark theme default

You can get the RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes for these palettes using the orderedcolors and rgb2hex functions. For example, get the RGB triplets for the "gem" palette and convert them to hexadecimal color codes.

RGB = orderedcolors("gem");
H = rgb2hex(RGB);

Example: Color="r"

Example: Color="green"

Example: Color=[0 0.4470 0.7410]

Example: Color="#00FFFF"

ClippingPlanes — Clipping planes

[] (default) | N-by-4 matrix

Clipping planes applied locally to the object, specified as an N-by-4 matrix where each row corresponds to the equation for a clipping plane. The maximum number of clipping planes N is six. Each clipping plane is specified as a 1-by-4 vector, in world coordinates, following the Hessian normal form where the first three values represent the normal vector of the plane and the fourth value is the signed distance from the origin to the plane.

Wireframe — Display surface as wireframe mesh

"off" (default) | on/off logical value

Display surface as wireframe mesh, specified as "on" or "off", or as a numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). A value of "on" is equivalent to true, and "off" is equivalent to false. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type OnOffSwitchState.

When this value is "on", the surface is rendered as a wireframe mesh. When this value is "off", the faces are rendered according to the color and transparency of the object.

Output Arguments

s — Displayed surface

Surface object

Displayed surface, returned as a Surface object.

Version History

Introduced in R2026b