set(0, 'DefaultAxesBox', 'off') is not honored by plot()!?

Hello,

I am trying to set up Matlab such that plots look presentable by default.

For this, I want to switch off the mirrored axes that Matlab draws at the top and right edges of plots. The command for this is:

set(gca, 'box', 'off')

Unfortunately, plot() ignores the default setting of this property:

>> set(0, 'DefaultAxesBox', 'off');
>> plot(rand(100,1))
>> get(gca, 'Box')

    ans =
    on

How can I make plot() honor the default setting, i.e. without having to set this manually every time I use plot()?

Thanks for your help!

PS: The same is true for some other settings, such as line color. I am interested in a general solution, of course.

Answer 1

[Wayne King]

plot() modifies some of the axes properties, 'Box' is one of those. The simplest thing to do is just define a new function that calls plot. In that function, you can control what plot() does and then you're still just using one line to call the function

function myplot(data)
   plot(data)
   set(gca,'Box','off')
end

 >> data = randn(1000,1);
 >> myplot(data)

[Duijnhouwer]

 function varargout = plot(varargin)

    % Override builtin plot and honors the following settings of the
    % graphics root that builtin plot for some reason ignores:
    %   'DefaultAxesBox'
    %   'DefaultAxesTickDir'

    h=builtin('plot',varargin{:});
    set(get(h,'Parent'),'Box',get(groot,'DefaultAxesBox'));
    set(get(h,'Parent'),'TickDir',get(groot,'DefaultAxesTickDir'));
    varargout{1}=h;  
end

[Harry Dymond]

Thanks for the code @Duijnhouwer! Here's a couple of enhancements*, to handle situations where the inputs are matrices, and/or the axes box settings have been explicitly changed from the default and the axes have "hold" on:

function varargout = plot(varargin)
    plotH = builtin('plot',varargin{:});
    axH   = ancestor(plotH(1),'Axes'); % plotH can be an array if inputs to 'plot' are matrices
    if ~ishold(axH), axH.Box = get(groot,'DefaultAxesBox'); end
    if nargout, varargout{1} = plotH; end
end

If you overload the builtin "plot", MATLAB will issue warnings. You can turn those off using:

warning('off','MATLAB:dispatcher:nameConflict')

*you can make the builtin plot honour the TickDir default using:

set(groot,'DefaultAxesTickDirMode','manual');

Answer 2

[Jan]

The root properties 'factoryAxesBox' and 'defaultAxesBox' are both set to 'off' in the default setup already. Therefore this does not draw the box:

line(1:10, rand(1, 10));

But plot is a high-level command, which modifies several properties of the axes autonomously, e.g. it clear the 'tag':

AxesH = axes('Tag', 'hello');
plot(AxesH, 1:10);
get(AxesH, 'Tag');    % >> '' !!!

And obviously the 'Box' property is also dominated by the plot command, and not by the root settings.

[Will Adler]

So how would we go about changing this default behavior, if we never want box to appear?

Answer 3

[Achille Joliot]

Hi, i avoid the problem by using hold on before plotting.

set(0, 'DefaultAxesBox', 'off');
hold on 
plot(linspace(1,10,50))

It also works if you run the set function in another file and you just execute

hold on 
plot(linspace(1,10,50))

Without even declaring any axis or figure.