Specify annotation position with respect to x- and y-axes values?

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Dear all,
Is there a way the define the starting and end point of an annotation object such as an arrow in terms of the data being plotted and not as either "normalized" coordinates (x- and y-positions between 0 and 1) or a physical length measurement such as cm?
E.g. I am plotting a time from 0 to 180 s on the x-axis and a concentration between 0 and 0.1 concentration units on the y-axis. Now I would like to draw an arrow starting at 90 s, 0.04 concentration units and going to 120 s, 0.09 concentration units.
I have already considered to simply "normalize" those positions myself (e.g. 90 s/180 s = 0.5 --> x-position in normalized coordinates). This does, however, not work, since 0 and 1 refer to points in the whole figure (the window in which the plot appears) and not to the area of the plot itself.
Thanks for any input! Clemens
  1 comentario
Clemens
Clemens el 5 de Nov. de 2016
Here's a quick illustration of what I mean. I simply drew the arrow by hand. If I get Matlab to show me the code for it, it gives
annotation(figure1,'arrow',[0.354235423542354 0.224422442244224],...
[0.526863777089783 0.390092879256966]);
but the end point's x-coordinate (0.2244...) does not correspond to the 20 s (20 s / 180 s = 0.1111...) where 180 s is the "length" of my x-axis in the units that I want to plot. 

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Star Strider
Star Strider el 5 de Nov. de 2016
You need to access the 'Position' property of the figure object you’re using. It gives the left lower corner coordinates and the width and height values. With a few lines of code, you can normalise your arrow object positions with respect to them. See the documentation on Axes Properties for details.
Then, experiment! This will keep you intensely occupied for a few minutes!
  4 comentarios
DrBones
DrBones el 20 de Sept. de 2017
Editada: DrBones el 27 de Feb. de 2018
Edit: I am terribly sorry, both for writing things I could not make sense of a couple months later and for not replying sooner Star Strider. Apparently, I did not get notified.
This comment is replaced with a way too long new comment which hopefully makes up for it since it also scales to negative x and hopefully isn't totally out of place here. My apologies in advance if it is.
% define domain and function
x = linspace(-10, 10, 100);
sigma = 3;
gaussian = exp(-x.^2/(2*sigma^2));
% plot the function and some labels
figure
plot(x, gaussian)
hold on
xlabel('x')
ylabel('y')
HM = 0.5 % Half of maximum
HWHM = 3.53 % Half width at half maximum
pos = get(gca, 'Position');
% Positins for the end of the Arrow in data units.
xPosition = 2;
yPosition = 0.3;
% Create a textarrow annotation at the coordinates in data units
% the textarrow coordinates are given [end_x, head_x], [end_y, head_y]
ta1 = annotation('textarrow',...
[(xPosition + abs(min(xlim)))/diff(xlim) * pos(3) + pos(1),...
(HWHM + abs(min(xlim)))/diff(xlim) * pos(3) + pos(1) ],...
[(yPosition - min(ylim))/diff(ylim) * pos(4) + pos(2),...
(HM - min(ylim))/diff(ylim) * pos(4) + pos(2)]);
% The data units are rescaled to normalized units for x via
% x_norm = ( x_data + abs(min(xlim)))/diff(xlim) * pos(3) + pos(1)
% and for y via ( does NOT work for negative values (see x for this)
% y_norm = (y_data - min(ylim))/diff(ylim) * pos(4) + pos(2)
% Set some text
ta1.String = ['HWHM: ', num2str(HWHM, 3), ];
% Also for negative number now :). "line" accepts the same style
% coordinates
Start = [-8, 0.5]; % x, y
End = [4, 0.1]; % x , y
ta2 = annotation('line',...
[(End(1) + abs(min(xlim)))/diff(xlim) * pos(3) + pos(1),...
(Start(1) + abs(min(xlim)))/diff(xlim) * pos(3) + pos(1) ],...
[(End(2) - min(ylim))/diff(ylim) * pos(4) + pos(2),...
(Start(2) - min(ylim))/diff(ylim) * pos(4) + pos(2)]);
This results in
Thanks again for all the help!
Also unrelated
My orthopedic knowledge is, apart from my namesake, unfortunately rather lacking. I am more involved in the imaging side :)
Star Strider
Star Strider el 20 de Sept. de 2017
More information would be helpful, as would more illustrative example code, since we don’t know what you’re doing, and providing a context is always appropriate. I assume ‘x_data’ is your independent variable vector. Also, is this robust to ‘x_data’ having negative values?
Unrelated
‘DrBones’ — Ortho? B/C IM here!

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Más respuestas (2)

Jorg Woehl
Jorg Woehl el 1 de Mzo. de 2021
Editada: Jorg Woehl el 1 de Mzo. de 2021
This is an older post, but the following is perhaps useful to others:
If horizontal arrows are ok, data units can be used by associating the annotation with the current axes:
hf = figure;
x = 0:180; f = @(x) 0.09*exp(-x/18);
plot(x, f(x));
ha = annotation('arrow');
ha.Parent = hf.CurrentAxes; % associate annotation with current axes
% now you can use data units
ha.X = [50 20];
ha.Y = [f(20) f(20)];
This also works for other annotation types and even if they don't have a horizontal orientation. (Arrows and doublearrows are an exception because the arrowheads will not align properly.)
Otherwise, there is also the excellent coord2norm function on File Exchange that converts data units to normalized units.
  9 comentarios
Trevor
Trevor el 10 de Ag. de 2022
Excellent addition, thanks so much!

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DGM
DGM el 15 de Ag. de 2021
As a spin off @Jorg Woehl's suggestion, I'll offer my own.
I think it's worth pointing out that these solutions tend to be version-dependent -- at least dependent on whether we're post-R2014b or not. Obviously, we can't manipulate properties of annotation objects using dot notation in legacy versions, but even using get/set to move the annotation tends to result in it being drawn in unexpected ways.
But precalculating the position and specifying it when creating the annotation works fine from R2009b to R2019b:
clf
x = 0:180; f = @(x) 0.09*exp(-x/18);
plot(x, f(x));
[xx yy] = datc2figc([50 20],[f(20) f(20)]);
annotation('arrow',xx,yy);
I used the attached file for coordinate conversion, but I doubt it's much different than coord2norm().
  3 comentarios
Marc Compere
Marc Compere el 15 de Ag. de 2021
it's bizarre that data coordinates are not built into Matlab directly. Its the single most straightforward use for an arrow annotation.
DGM
DGM el 15 de Ag. de 2021
datc2figc() was really just an ad-hoc thing I threw together in frustration. I'm sure there's better stuff out there.

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