keep figures from popping up when running.

I am doing a lot of batch processing in which I creating many figures. I would like to keep these figures in the background while running the Matlab code without the Figure window popping up each time a new figure is created. Is there an easy way to do this? When the figure pops up it disrupts anything else you are doing on the computer.

[Michael Marcus]

I have some more constraints on this problem. I am saving all of the generated figures to files. There are about 100 figures being generated and they are saved at a rate of about 5-10 figures per minute. The object is to stop the figure window from popping up each time a new figure is generated. Can the figures be generated in the background.

[Michael Marcus]

The code

h1 = figure();set(gcf,'Visible', 'off');

stops the current figure from popping up.

Is there a similar way to handle a I=getframe(gcf); call which will stop the image frame from popping up.

[Walter Roberson]

I suggest you try export_fig

http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/23629-exportfig

which can save a figure.

I have not experimented with it or looked at how it works, so I do not know if it would trigger a pop-up.

[Jan]

@Michael: AFAICS the problem concerns Linux only. Therefore I asked which OS you are using.

Does PRINT move the figure to the front also?

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

Please see this discussion

Someone indicated, though, that they could not get the figures to be saved when they used this technique. Possibly Oliver's export_fig would work. Or running MATLAB without a display and using one of the print() options that are documented as not needing a display.

[Walter Roberson]

Partial work-around: instead of using figure() for each new figure, re-use the existing figure. You can clf() it if you want to wipe its contents relatively clean.

[Walter Roberson]

I'm not certain if I understand what you are asking.

I am using Ubuntu 10.04 . In this version, at least with the default gnome window policies, new figure() _do_ show up in the foreground. If you have switched virtual desktops, new figures show up on the desktop you are currently on rather than on top of the desktop that MATLAB was running on (this is a nuisance sometimes.)

I have tested, and getframe() does cause a figure to become visible in this configuration.

[Walter Roberson]

getframe() also pops the relevant figure to the front in this version.

[Jan]

@Walter: Thanks, now I'm starting to understand the problem. Under Windows new figures are created on top of all other Matlab figures, but below the program which has the focus. And GETFRAME replies the contents of the screen at the figure (or axes) coordinates - if the figure is not topmost this is most likely not the wanted picture.

Answer 2

[Gurudatha Pai]

I won't promise you that this is the best solution, however, is one of them.

You could set the 'visible' property off the figure object to 'off'. It can be done something like this,

h1 = figure();
set(h1, 'Visible', 'off');
plot(x,y)

and when you want it to be shown,

set(h1, 'Visible', 'off');

or

 figure(h1)

should also work.

[Michael Marcus]

See my comment to the question. I tried this and the hi=figure() statement pops up a figure window.

[Walter Roberson]

If you do this at the command line, then the command interpreter will have an automatic drawnow() before it gives the command prompt. You need to combine the figure() command and the set() command on the same line if you want to test from the command line.

[Michael Marcus]

This does work on stopping the figure from popping up. Now I have another issue since I am using getframe(gcf) to save the image to a file and the getframe command still pops up an image window.

[Watson Ly]

figure_handle = figure(1)
figure_handle.WindowState = 'minimized'
.....
set(0, 'CurrentFigure', figure_handle)
plot([1:10],[1:10])

it worked for me

Answer 3

[Jan]

As long as I do not use Java or Windows-API methods to set the topmost flag of the window, I do not get this behaviour.

pause(10);
figure;
% Enable the Explorer, NotePad, any other program
% After the 10 secs have passed, ...
% the figure is created - in the background!

Which OS are you using? Do you create figures with WindowStyle='modal'?

[Michael Marcus]

Not a viable solution, See my additional comment in the question field.

[Jan]

@Michael: I did not even try to show a solution. I still do not see the problem at all, because the figures are *not* created in the forground at all - are they? I simply cannot confirm this: "When the figure pops up it disrupts anything else you are doing on the computer".

Of course GETFRAME does not work with figures not shown in the foreground, but you do not mention any problems with bad output here, but that the figure pops to the foreground. But PRINT handles background, out of visible screen area and Visible=off figures also.

Can somebody enlighten me, please?

[Michael Marcus]

getframe does work with figures that are not shown in the foreground and causes them to pop up into the foreground even if the figure visible is set to off as follows

h1 = figure();set(gcf,'Visible', 'off');

Answer 4

[Fangjun Jiang]

I think you can do this. It will pop up only once. The point is to re-use the figure. You can delete all its contents once they are printed. You can step through it to see the effect.

h=figure;
set(h,'visible','off');
plot(1:10);
print(h);%use your own command, this sends it to the printer
delete(get(h,'children'));
subplot(2,1,1); %do this just for illustration
plot(1:10);
subplot(2,1,2);
plot(1:10);
set(h,'visible','on');
delete(get(h,'children'));

[Fangjun Jiang]

Or even better, use clf(h) instead of delete(). Thanks to Walter's comment.

[Walter Roberson]

The delete() code shown here would not get hidden handles. Some figure children are created with hidden handles.

Answer 5

[Michael Marcus]

I am still having the problem with getframe still cuasing a pop up window. However I have found a viable solution using the function export_fig instead provided by Oliver Woodford.

See http://sites.google.com/site/oliverwoodford/software/export_fig

Thanks to everyone for helping. This is the first time I used this resource.

[Nik Rocky]

Hello Michael, can you upload here your solution? Your link is not working and I have the same Problem (Kubuntu 16.4). Thank you

[Walter Roberson]

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/23629-export_fig

Answer 6

[Oliver Woodford]

This question has been answered already elsewhere.

Answer 7

[Fred Sigworth]

I have this sort of problem too. I use Matlab on Mac OS. Suppose I have a program that draws in two figure windows which are overlapping. When I execute

figure(1); plot(some_data_vector); figure(2); plot(another_data_vector);

this puts figure 1 in front, draws on it, then puts figure 2 in front and draws on it. Is there any way I can update figure 2 without it becoming the front window?

I also run Matlab on a linux machine, and use XQuartz as the X-terminal. In that situation calling figure(1) puts that figure window in front of everything on the screen, which is more annoying still. Again, is there a way to draw in a figure (and have the graphics on the screen update) without the figure window being in front?

[Walter Roberson]

"Is there any way I can update figure 2 without it becoming the front window?"

Yes: do not figure() it.

fig1 = figure(1);
ax1 = axes('Parent', fig1);
fig2 = figure(2);
ax2 = axes('Parent', fig2);

Now enter your loop, and

plot(ax1, some_data_vector);
plot(ax2, another_data_vector);

"In that situation calling figure(1) puts that figure window in front of everything on the screen"

That would be a function of the window manager, and there are probably relevant X options. It has been quite a number of years since I last programmed in X so the names of the appropriate control structures are not coming to mind at the moment.

[Stephan Moeller]

how would we do it instead of plot : mesh ?

[Walter Roberson]

You would use the same way: you can pass an axes as the first parameter to mesh().

Many plotting functions accept an axes as a first parameter, but not all of them do. The ones that accept plotting into an axes but do not accept passing in an axes as the first parameter, you would pass the 'Parent' option to.

There are some plotting routines that do not accept passing an axes and do not accept 'Parent' either: if you encounter one of those routines, you usually cannot stop the routine from bringing the figure to the front... sometimes you cannot even stop the routine from creating a new figure entirely. bode() for example always creates a new figure.

[Stephan Moeller]

Unfortunatly Figure 1 still pops up every time its plotted :

count=10;
Matrix1 = magic(100);
for i=1:count
fig1 = figure(1); ax1 = axes('Parent', fig1);
mesh(ax1,Matrix1);
pause(1)
end

[Walter Roberson]

I specifically said above, "Yes: do not figure() it."

No calls to figure() inside your loop.

fig1 = figure(1);
ax1 = axes('Parent', fig1);

count=10;
Matrix1 = magic(100);
for i=1:count
    mesh(ax1, Matrix1);
    pause(1);
end

[Stephan Moeller]

ok. Sorry, missed that.

How would it work with a subplot ?

( fig1 = subplot(2,1,1);figure(1); )

Answer 8

[Stephan Moeller]

Got it :

count=5;
Matrix1 = magic(100);

Vector1=rand(10,1);

figure(4);
ax1= subplot(2,1,1);
ax2= subplot(2,1,2);

AX=[ax1,ax2];

for i=1:count
    
    mesh(AX(1), Matrix1);
    plot(AX(2), Vector1);
    pause(0.5);
    
end

Answer 9

[Victor v. Spaandonk]

I feel like this didn't use to be the default behavior for me but now it is (figures popping up over other windows applications).

could it be a setting?

I'm at R2018b