plotm

Project 2-D lines and points on axesm-based map

Syntax

plotm(lat,lon)

plotm([lat lon])

plotm(lat,lon,LineSpec)

plotm(lat,lon,Name,Value)

h = plotm(___)

Description

plotm(lat,lon) displays projected line objects on the current axesm-based map. Specify the latitude and longitude coordinates of the line using lat and lon.

To display 2-D line plots on geographic axes or map axes, use the geoplot function instead.

plotm([lat lon]) allows the latitude and longitude coordinates to be packed into a single two-column matrix.

plotm(lat,lon,LineSpec) specifies the line style, marker, and color.

plotm(lat,lon,Name,Value) uses name-value pair arguments to specify any number of Line Properties except for XData, YData, and ZData. Name is the property name and Value is the corresponding value. Name must appear inside single quotes (' '). You can specify several name and value pair arguments in any order as Name1,Value1,...,NameN,ValueN. Property names can be abbreviated, and case does not matter.

h = plotm(___) returns a handle to the displayed line.

Examples

Plot Coastlines on Map

First, load coastline data into the workspace and create a map. Then, plot the data. The plotm function uses the NaN values in coastlat and coastlon to break the data into separate lines.

load coastlines
ax = axesm('sinusoid','Frame','on');
plotm(coastlat,coastlon,'g')

Input Arguments

lat, lon — Latitude or longitude vector

numeric vector

Latitude or longitude vector, specified as a numeric vector. Specify values in units that match the AngleUnits property of the axesm-based map. lat and lon must be the same size.

Create breaks in lines or polygons using NaN values. For example, this code plots the first three elements, skips the fourth element, and draws another line using the last three elements.

lat = [0 1 2 NaN 4 5 6];
lon = [0 1 2 NaN 3 4 5];
axesm('UTM','Zone','31N','Frame','on')
plotm(lat,lon)

LineSpec — Line style, marker, and color

string scalar | character vector

Line style, marker, and color, specified as a string scalar or character vector containing symbols. The symbols can appear in any order. You do not need to specify all three characteristics (line style, marker, and color). For example, if you omit the line style and specify the marker, then the plot shows only the marker and no line.

Example: "--or" is a red dashed line with circle markers.

Line Style	Description	Resulting Line
"-"	Solid line
"--"	Dashed line
":"	Dotted line
"-."	Dash-dotted line

Marker	Description	Resulting Marker
"o"	Circle
"+"	Plus sign
"*"	Asterisk
"."	Point
"x"	Cross
"_"	Horizontal line
"|"	Vertical line
"square"	Square
"diamond"	Diamond
"^"	Upward-pointing triangle
"v"	Downward-pointing triangle
">"	Right-pointing triangle
"<"	Left-pointing triangle
"pentagram"	Pentagram
"hexagram"	Hexagram

Color Name	Short Name	RGB Triplet	Appearance
"red"	"r"	[1 0 0]
"green"	"g"	[0 1 0]
"blue"	"b"	[0 0 1]
"cyan"	"c"	[0 1 1]
"magenta"	"m"	[1 0 1]
"yellow"	"y"	[1 1 0]
"black"	"k"	[0 0 0]
"white"	"w"	[1 1 1]

Output Arguments

h — Handle to displayed line

handle object

Handle to the displayed line, returned as a handle to a MATLAB^® graphics object.

Tips

When you pass two points to the plotm function, the function projects the locations of each point on the map and displays a straight line that connects them, regardless of the map projection or the distance between the points. To display a projected geodesic or rhumbline curve between two points, first insert intermediate points using the track2 function.

Version History

Introduced before R2006a