connect two uicontrol object with a line

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Hi,
I'm trying to get a nice and tidy GUI with a veriable number of uicontrol objects. To get a clean and clear layout I want to connect several objects with a simple line or path. Has anybody an idea how to implement this?
Thanks for your response, CN

Accepted Answer

Sean de Wolski
Sean de Wolski on 5 Jun 2012
You could use an invisible axes in the background and draw line objects. For example:
fig = figure('units','pix');
pos = get(fig,'position');
ax = axes('units','pix','outerposition',[0 0 pos([3 4])],...
'position',[0 0 pos([3 4])],'parent',fig,'visible','off','xlim',...
[0 pos(3)],'ylim',[0 pos(4)]);
h(3) = uicontrol('units','pix','position',[300 10 100 100],'style','push');
h(2) = uicontrol('units','pix','position',[10 10 100 100],'style','push');
h(1) = uicontrol('units','pix','position',[300 300 100 100],'style','push');
pos = get(h,'position');
for ii = 1:length(h)-1
line('xdata',[pos{ii}(1)+pos{ii}(3)/2, pos{ii+1}(1)+pos{ii}(3)/2],...
'ydata',[pos{ii}(2)+pos{ii}(4)/2, pos{ii+1}(2)+pos{ii}(4)/2],'parent',ax)
end
  7 Comments
Christoph
Christoph on 15 Jun 2012
Hi Sean,
just wan't to let you know that I found a solution. I figured out that for my purposes the uicontrol-objects aren't needed. I created a various number of text-objects in the axes-class which use the ButtonDownFcn-Property as Callback to show substructures or the cells of the structure. Connecting each object with a line was pretty easy in the axes class.
The idea of scrolling I implemented with the help of a slider, which sets the index of vector which contains all visible objects.
Last but not least I but uicontrol checkboxes on every node in figure coordinates to set or reset the concerned structure or cell.
Now I got one last question: Whats the drawback of an object with a ButtonDownFcn-Callback in axes-class compared with an uicontrol-object with a Callback. To me it seems they both do the same things, but maybe on a different way.
Nevertheless thanks for your great support and ideas,
CN
Sean de Wolski
Sean de Wolski on 15 Jun 2012
There are a few things that are different I believe.
-The uicontrol callbacks will fire if you are zooming or panning, this is not true for a buttondownfcn which is disabled while in one of these interactive modes.
-The buttondownfcn fires when the button goes down, the callbacks fire when it comes up.
There are probably a few other things though I can't think of them right now.

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More Answers (3)

Image Analyst
Image Analyst on 5 Jun 2012
Did you try the line() function? I usually use it on axes, but it might work on your main figure also.
  2 Comments
Walter Roberson
Walter Roberson on 5 Jun 2012
line() can only be used in axes. The routines that can create graphical items that are not in axes seem to all be named starting with "ui": uicontrol(), uitab(), uitable(), uipanel()
Christoph
Christoph on 6 Jun 2012
Thats totally right. Even patch doesn't work in different class then axes.

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Walter Roberson
Walter Roberson on 5 Jun 2012
You need to create an axes in order to draw the line.
My recollection is that uicontrol() objects take graphical precedence over axes (that is, if you have a uicontrol() that is positioned in an area where the axes happens to be, the control will show up on top.)

Adam Kaas
Adam Kaas on 5 Jun 2012
I'm guessing there is a more efficient way, but you could always get a picture of the path you want either online or make it using MSpaint or some other software and insert it as an axes. Are you using GUIDE?
  1 Comment
Christoph
Christoph on 6 Jun 2012
No, I'm not using guide. I don't want a static GUI. All I want to do is just a simple navigation tree to read and set several values of a struct with a large number of substructs just as know from windows explorer.

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