Controlling current axes within programmatic UI (GUI layout toolbox)

I am currently building a programmatic UI using the GUI layout toolbox (GLT), and I am having difficulty convincing Matlab to use the axes that I want for plotting purposes. I am including a MWE below (note, it requires the GLT, although I do not believe that is the source of the issue).

The issue is that as written below the scatter3 plots in a new figure window that it opens itself, not the UI axes.

function gui = guiTest
 gui = struct();

   % Initialize Window
  scrsz = get(groot,'ScreenSize');
  gui.Window = figure( ...
      'Name', 'A Test Window', ...
      'NumberTitle', 'off', ...
      'MenuBar', 'none', ...
      'Toolbar', 'none', ...
      'HandleVisibility', 'off',...
      'OuterPosition', [3*scrsz(4)/4 scrsz(4)/2 scrsz(3)/2 scrsz(4)/2]);

   % Create Main Layout
  mainLayout = uiextras.HBoxFlex(...
      'Parent',gui.Window,...
      'Spacing',3);

   % Left Side Control Panel
  controlPanel = uiextras.BoxPanel(...
      'Parent',mainLayout,...
      'Title','Controls go here');

   % Right Side Plotting

   gui.ViewPanel = uiextras.BoxPanel(...
      'Parent', mainLayout,...
      'Title','Axes Panel Name');

    % Relative sizes of main layout sections
  set(mainLayout, 'Sizes', [-1 -2]);

   %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
   %Right Side Plotting %
  %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
  gui.ViewAxes = axes(...
      'Parent',gui.ViewPanel);

   X = rand(100,1); Y = rand(100,1); Z = rand(100,1);
  axes(gui.ViewAxes);
  scatter3(X,Y,Z); axis equal; 
  end

Note that I have solved the issue my changing the last line of the above to:

 scatter3(X,Y,Z,'Parent',gui.ViewAxes); axis(gui.ViewAxes, 'equal');

Which may just be how I have to work from now on. However, my question is why the command to switch axes using axes(gui.ViewAxes) does not actually seem to make the active figure/axes pair remain as the current axes. This is why gca is a dangerous command to use, but I would like to understand if there is some UI handle shenanigans that I am simply not understanding.

Please, no suggestions that I go back to GUIDE.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

[Robert]

gca calls gcf and checks the 'CurrentAxis' property of the result. Because you turned you figure's 'HandleVisibility' to 'off', gcf cannot find it and creates a new figure instead.

[D. Plotnick]

facepalm. Yes...yes I did. Thanks!

I also just posted using a similar MWE regarding the rotate3d tool not refreshing the plot when used. Switching the 'HandleVisibility' to 'on' does not seem to solve that problem.

[John BG]

Thanks Robert, had similar problem: +1

John BG <mailto:[e-mail] [e-mail]>