Exporting plot3 and fill3 in pdf format renderer issue

I have a renderer issue while exporting a figure in PDF format. My Figure is a plot3 with some fill3 and when I exported it, some areas were above others and it was not as it was supposed to be.

I use the command:

print('Fig_name’,'-dpdf');

I also tried to export it with the extension ‘-deps’ and ‘-dmeta’ (for word format). In any case, the same problem has occurred. I tried to solve the problems with the input argument "renderer". When I was using "painters", I had the problem that I was explaining (some areas were above others) with each type of vector formattype. I tried with '-opengl', but as it was supposed to be, the figure was a bitmap and that’s not what I want.

I tried the extension ‘-djpeg’. My figure was exported correctly. But still, I want a vector format, not a bitmap.

Here is an example of my figure exported badly in .pdf.

And here an example in .jpeg format (what I am supposed to have, but in vector).

I am using Matlab R2017a

Does anyone have an idea of what to do to correctly export the figure I want in .pdf format?

Thank you!

Mathieu

Answer 1

[Jan]

As you can see, PDF is not appropriate for 3D graphics. There are some workarounds, see:

• https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/238286-export-a-3d-figure-to-pdf-such-that-it-is-rotatable-etc-in-the-pdf
• https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/37640-export-figure-to-3d-interactive-pdf
• http://www.math.canterbury.ac.nz/~s.zhu/other_files/wen_beamer2.pdf

SVG might be easier as file format for 3D graphics.