GlobalProperty

Description

The GlobalProperty is an optional argument that can be used inside a plot or a surf() command. It allows a global customization of all the new plotted lines (respectively surfaces). It has to be given as a {PropertyName, PropertyValue} pair. Several (Name,Value) pairs can be specified in a single call to plot() or surf().

PropertyName must be a case-insensitive string defining the property to set. The PropertyValue can be a real, integer or string (scalar or matrix) depending on the type of property used. For example, to specify a red (color) longdash-dot (line style) with diamond marker (marker), the sequence should be: 'Color', 'red', 'LineSt', '-.', 'Marker', 'diam'.

As you can see, a full complete spelling of each property name and value is not required but those arguments, specified in any order, must remain unambiguous. GlobalProperty is predominant on all LineSpec previously stated.

Here is a complete list of the PropertyName you can specify (using plot or surf) and their available associated PropertyValue. If not specified, those properties are available for both Polyline and Fac3d objects (created respectively by plot or surf) and, as previously said, they are applied to the new created objects (lines or surfaces).

Sometimes, you may have two PropertyName corresponding to one property: the first one is the equivalent default Matlab name, the second is the default name used by Scilab (i.e.: Color or Foreground for a line, see below).

"CData" or "ColorData":

a real matrix specifying the color at every points defined by Z matrix. This property is linked to the object's data.color property (see surface properties).

This property is available for surfaces only.

"CDataMapping" or "ColorDataMapping":

a string with value 'scaled' or 'direct'. If a data.color is set, each index color data specifies a single value for each vertex. cdata_mapping determines whether those indices are scaled to map linearly into the current colormap ('scaled' mode) or point directly into this colormap ('direct' mode). This property is useful when color_flag equals 2, 3 or 4.

This property exists only with Fac3d entities. Note also that plot3d has 'direct' mode by default and surf has 'scaled' mode by default.

"Clipping":

a string "on" or "off" defining the clipping mode ("on" by default). It is equivalent to the clip_state property. This field contains the visible property (see polyline properties).

This property is not yet available for surface entities.

"Color" or "Foreground" (polylines only):

A color specified by its name (text) among the predefined named colors list), or by its "#RRGGBB" hexadecimal code (text), or by its index in the color map (integer), or by the vector [r,g,b] of its Red-Green-Blue intensities in the [0,1] interval.

This property is linked to the object's foreground property (see polyline properties).

"EdgeColor" or "Foreground" (surfaces only):

A color specified by its name (text) among the predefined named colors list), or by its "#RRGGBB" hexadecimal code (text), or by its index in the color map (integer), or by the vector [r,g,b] of its Red-Green-Blue intensities in the [0,1] interval.

This property is linked to the surface foreground property (see surface properties).

"FaceColor":

a string with value 'none', 'flat' or 'interp' specifying the way the facet's color are rendered.

• 'none': a mesh of the surface is drawn.
• 'flat' (default mode): the Fac3d color.data values determine one color per facet using the color of the first vertex of the facet.
• 'interp': an interpolated shading is done on the surface using color.data to determine a color at each vertex of each facet.

"LineStyle":

this property value should be a string defining a line style. This property is linked to the object's line_style property (see polyline properties or surface properties).

Specifier	Line Style
-	Solid line (default)
--	Dashed line
:	Dotted line
-.	Dash-dotted line
none	No line

"Marker" or "MarkStyle":

a string defining the marker type. Note that if you specify a marker without a line style, both line (with default solid mode enabled) and marker are drawn.This property is linked to the object's mark_style and mark_mode properties (see polyline properties or surface properties).

Specifier	Marker Type
+	Plus sign
o	Circle
*	Asterisk
.	Point
x	Cross
'square' or 's'	Square
'diamond' or 'd'	Diamond
^	Upward-pointing triangle
v	Downward-pointing triangle
>	Right-pointing triangle
<	Left-pointing triangle
'pentagram' or 'p'	Five-pointed star (pentagram)
'none'	No marker (default)

"MarkerEdgeColor" or "MarkForeground":

A color specified by its name (text) among the predefined named colors list), or by its "#RRGGBB" hexadecimal code (text), or by its index in the color map (integer), or by the vector [r,g,b] of its Red-Green-Blue intensities in the [0,1] interval.

This property is linked to the object's mark_foreground property (see polyline properties or surface properties).

"MarkerFaceColor" or "MarkBackground":

A color specified by its name (text) among the predefined named colors list), or by its "#RRGGBB" hexadecimal code (text), or by its index in the color map (integer), or by the vector [r,g,b] of its Red-Green-Blue intensities in the [0,1] interval.

This property is linked to the object's mark_background property (see polyline properties or surface properties).

"MarkerSize" or "MarkSize":

a scalar defining the marker size in point unit. This property is linked to the object's mark_size property with mark_size_unit enabled to "point" (see polyline properties or surface properties).

"Visible":

a string "on" or "off" defining the visibility mode ("on" by default). This property is linked to the object's visible property (see polyline properties or surface properties).

"X data":

a real vector or matrix (re-)defining the given data for all the plotted lines or surfaces. Concerning dimensions, note that this new data must match all the previous specified X data: that is to say all those data matrices must be of the same dimensions. This property is linked to the object's data.x property (see polyline properties or surface properties).

"Y data":

a real vector or matrix (re-)defining the given data for all the plotted lines or surfaces. Concerning dimensions, note that this new data must match all the previous specified Y data: that is to say all those data matrices must be of the same dimensions. This property is linked to the object's data.y property (see polyline properties or surface properties).

"Z data":

when used with plot, a real vector or matrix adding a Z data for all the plotted lines; with surf, a real matrix (re-)defining the given data for all the surfaces. Concerning dimensions, note that this new data must match all the previous specified X and Y data. This property is linked to the object's data.z property (see polyline properties or surface properties).

Examples

// --------------------
// With the plot command :
// --------------------
x=1:10; // Init.
clf
plot(x,sin(x),'colo','red','linest','-.','marker','>','markeredg','cyan','markerFace','yellow','markersize',5)

// combinations' order in {PropertyName,PropertyValue} does not matter
clf
plot(x,sin(x),'marker','p','markerfac','cyan','markersiz',10)

// combination of LineSpec and GlobalProperty shows the GlobalProperty predominance
clf
plot(x, x.*x, '*cya--', 'color','gr', 'linestyle','-', ..
    'marker','sq', 'markersize',6, 'markforegroun','red','markbackgro',[0.2 0.5 0.6])

//multiple plots with different LineSpecs and finally some global GlobalProperty
clf
t=0:%pi/20:2*%pi;
plot(t,sin(t),'ro-.',t,cos(t),'cya+',t,abs(sin(t)),'--mo','markstyl','diam')

// --------------------
// With the plot2d command :
// --------------------
function draw_marks(title)
  a=gca();
  a.title.text=title;
  a.mark_size=8;
  a.data_bounds=[-1.5 1.5 -1.5 1.5];

  theta=(1/15)*(2*%pi)*[0:15];
  plot2d(cos(theta),sin(theta));

  for i=0:14 do
    theta=(i/15)*(2*%pi);
    plot2d(cos(theta),sin(theta),style=-i);
  end
endfunction

clf();
subplot(2,2,1)
draw_marks("black foreground / white background")

subplot(2,2,2)
a=gca();
a.mark_foreground=-1;
a.mark_background=4;
draw_marks("black foreground / cyan background")

subplot(2,2,3)
a=gca();
a.mark_background=0;
draw_marks("black foreground / invisible background")

subplot(2,2,4)
a=gca();
a.mark_foreground=0;
a.mark_background=4;
draw_marks("invisible foreground / cyan background")

// --------------------
// With the surf command :
// --------------------

Z= [   0.0001    0.0013    0.0053   -0.0299   -0.1809   -0.2465   -0.1100   -0.0168   -0.0008   -0.0000
    0.0005    0.0089    0.0259   -0.3673   -1.8670   -2.4736   -1.0866   -0.1602   -0.0067    0.0000
    0.0004    0.0214    0.1739   -0.3147   -4.0919   -6.4101   -2.7589   -0.2779    0.0131    0.0020
   -0.0088   -0.0871    0.0364    1.8559    1.4995   -2.2171   -0.2729    0.8368    0.2016    0.0130
   -0.0308   -0.4313   -1.7334   -0.1148    3.0731    0.4444    2.6145    2.4410    0.4877    0.0301
   -0.0336   -0.4990   -2.3552   -2.1722    0.8856   -0.0531    2.6416    2.4064    0.4771    0.0294
   -0.0137   -0.1967   -0.8083    0.2289    3.3983    3.1955    2.4338    1.2129    0.2108    0.0125
   -0.0014   -0.0017    0.3189    2.7414    7.1622    7.1361    3.1242    0.6633    0.0674    0.0030
    0.0002    0.0104    0.1733    1.0852    2.6741    2.6725    1.1119    0.1973    0.0152    0.0005
    0.0000    0.0012    0.0183    0.1099    0.2684    0.2683    0.1107    0.0190    0.0014    0.0000];

clf();
f=gcf();
f.figure_size = [610,724];
subplot(211)
surf(Z,'facecol','interp','ydat',101:110,'edgecol','mage')
subplot(212)
surf(Z,'edgeco','b','marker','d','markersiz',9,'markerfac','k','xdata',-50:-41)

See also

• LineSpec — to quickly customize the lines appearance in a plot
• plot — 2D plot
• surf — 3D surface plot
• clf — Clears and resets a figure or a frame uicontrol
• polyline properties — description of the Polyline entity properties
• surface properties — description of the 3D entities properties

History