rainflow function usage in app designer causes the figure window open

Hi All

I have to use rainflow function in my application. but it causes the figure window open despite I have turned off the visibility. is there any solution to that ?

f = figure('visible', 'off');

    TT = timetable(tt,B);
    rainflow(TT);
  
    title(strcat(filename,'Histogram y'));
    saveas(gcf,strcat(filename,'Histogram-y.png'));

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

When you do not specify output arguments for rainflow() then it calls a function to plot the results. Unfortunately there are a couple of careless lines in the plotting function that bring the resulting axes into focus, and that results in the plot becoming visible.

The work around is to request the output variables from rainflow() and do the plotting yourself.

I will file a bug report about the problem with accidental focus.

[farzad]

thank you Walter

where are these careless lines ? if inside MATLAB function library, like inside the rainflow function, could they be edited by the user ?

[Walter Roberson]

In R2020a, line 254

axes(p1)
axes tight

should be

axes(p1, 'tight')

and a few lines further down, remove

axes(p2)

without making any other change for p2.

[farzad]

thank you very much, and in R2017b ?

[farzad]

and, how can I find the rainflow function ? how and where to search ? in install directory ? command prompt ?

[Walter Roberson]

That will take me a few minutes to install.

[Walter Roberson]

Look near line 260 in the R2017b version.

[farzad]

Thank you so much, a little problem : It's read only and writing protected ! what should I do ?

[Walter Roberson]

Make a copy under a different name and modify the copy and call that.

[farzad]

I tried again, I had to close MATLAB. I applied that change. but Now the histograms do not work. I mean, with no error, I get no histogram saved , and the code stops as soon as it gets to histogram function

[farzad]

@Walter Roberson shall you please write the very original lines ? I wrote these , to set back to default, but it's not working and giving me error of invalid handles. I think I am mistaking the places to input the axes commands

% Resize the plots, make the time series plot smaller.
p1p = get(p1,'position');
p1p(2) = p1p(2)+p1p(4)/2;
p1p(4) = p1p(4)/2;
set(p1,'position',p1p)
p1p = get(p1,'position');
p2p = get(p2,'position');
p2p(4) = 0.75*(p1p(2)-p2p(2));
set(p2,'position',p2p)

% Make the time series plot tight in x and give a margin in y
axes(p1)
axes tight

yl = signal.internal.nvh.plotLimits(get(p1,'ylim'));
set(p1,'ylim',yl);

axes(p2)
xl = signal.internal.nvh.plotLimits(get(p2,'xlim'));
set(p2,'xlim',xl);
yl = signal.internal.nvh.plotLimits(get(p2,'ylim'));
set(p2,'ylim',yl);

[farzad]

Dear Walter, Shall you very please paste or attach the very original rainflow function here ? I did a mistake not to hold the original one

[Walter Roberson]

The function is copyright by Mathworks, so I cannot post it. However, above in https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/514771-rainflow-function-usage-in-app-designer-causes-the-figure-window-open#comment_819779 I showed the original lines as well as the revised lines.

[farzad]

True. Thank you walter. but I also found out that it had to be

axes(p1)
axes ('tight')

[Walter Roberson]

axes tight

and

axes('tight')

are the same thing as far as MATLAB is concerned. In MATLAB, when you use the syntax

NAME ARG1 ARG2 ARG3

and there is no '(' at the beginning of ARG1,

then that is treated the same as

NAME('ARG1', 'ARG2', 'ARG3');

[farzad]

Thank you dear Walter, but anyway, that solution for me did not work. I mean the merging of 2 lines and removal of axes p2 . now I am back to the original version but I appreciate if you give me a suggestion, or I just leave it as it is

[farzad]

ok , new problem here :

Since in my code, as you know , I use waitbar and that is a figure as well, when the processing is done,

I have 6 figures of histogram open plus this waitbar.

if I do close all , also the waitbar will open. since in the histogram function I do :

    rainflow(TT);
    
    title(strcat(filename,'Histogram1'));
    saveas(gcf,strcat(filename,'Histogram-1.png'));

I was thinking to close each histogram immediately after being opened , without using close all. I thought

    rf=rainflow(TT);
    
    title(strcat(filename,'Histogram1'));
    saveas(gcf,strcat(filename,'Histogram-1.png'));
    close(rf)
    

would work, but instead, no histogram was opening and no histogram image was being saved.

do you have any suggestion ?

[Walter Roberson]

Remember to drawnow() before the saveas().

You might need to pause(1) instead to give the drawing time to finish.

[farzad]

dear Walter, the first code saves the plots correctly. but I want to close the plot after saving, without using close all, to avoid closing waitbar

[farzad]

dear Walter, Just about this question, about modifying the axes(p1), I tried your suggestions again on the rainflow.m function file of matlab abd re-ran the code and got this error :

Error: Incorrect input args for constructing axes object

the reason is , one of them is axes, the other one is axis. and the new mixing does not work, cause probably axes does not get more than one argoment

axes(p1);
axis('tight');

It would be really great to have a solution to this

[Walter Roberson]

axes(p1);
axis('tight');

should become

axis(p1, 'tight');

[farzad]

I did this. Now I have one single figure open and its content changes , given that I have to make several rainflow figures during the run. but I will have this one figure opend.

even If I do

f = figure('visible','off');

It will create another figure, and the ONE figure will remain open