view

Camera line of sight

Syntax

view(az,el)

view(v)

view(dim)

view(ax,___)

[caz,cel] = view(___)

Description

view(az,el) sets the azimuth and elevation angles of the camera's line of sight for the current axes.

view(v) sets the line of sight according to v, which is a two- or three-element array:

• Two-element array — The values are the azimuth and elevation angles respectively.

• Three-element array — The values are the x-, y-, and z-coordinates of a vector that starts at the center of the plot box and points toward the camera. MATLAB^® calculates the azimuth and elevation angles using a unit vector pointing in the same direction.

view(dim) uses the default line of sight for 2-D or 3-D plots. Specify dim as 2 for the default 2-D view or 3 for the default 3-D view.

view(ax,___) specifies the target axes when changing the line of sight.

[caz,cel] = view(___) returns the azimuth and elevation angles as caz and cel, respectively. Specify input arguments from any of the previous syntaxes to get the angles for the new line of sight. Or, specify no input arguments to get the angles for the current line of sight.

Examples

Change View of Surface Plot

Use the peaks function to get the x-, y-, and z-coordinates of a surface. Then plot the surface and label each axis.

[X,Y,Z] = peaks;
surf(X,Y,Z)
xlabel('X')
ylabel('Y')
zlabel('Z')

View the plot using an azimuth of 90 degrees and an elevation of 0 degrees. The new line of sight is along the x-axis.

view(90,0)

Display Surface in a 2-D View

Use the peaks function to get the x-, y-, and z-coordinates of a surface. Then plot the surface and label each axis.

[X,Y,Z] = peaks;
surf(X,Y,Z)
xlabel('X')
ylabel('Y')
zlabel('Z')

Display the plot in a 2-D view.

view(2)

Change the View Using a Vector

Create a set of x-, y-, and z-coordinates and use them to plot a surface. Then label each axis.

[X,Y] = meshgrid(-5:.5:5);
Z = Y.*sin(X) - X.*cos(Y);
surf(X,Y,Z)
xlabel('X')
ylabel('Y')
zlabel('Z')

Get the azimuth and elevation angles for this plot.

[caz,cel] = view

caz = 
-37.5000

cel = 
30

Change the view by specifying v as the x- y- and z-coordinates of a vector, and return the new azimuth and elevation angles. The new angles are based on a unit vector pointing in the same direction as v.

v = [-5 -2 5];
[caz,cel] = view(v)

caz = 
-68.1986

cel = 
42.8760

Change View of Specific Axes

Starting in R2019b, you can display a tiling of plots using the tiledlayout and nexttile functions. Call the tiledlayout function to create a 1-by-2 tiled chart layout. Call the nexttile function to create the axes objects ax1 and ax2. Use them to create separate but identical line plots.

t = 0:pi/20:10*pi;
xt1 = sin(t);
yt1 = cos(t);
tiledlayout(1,2)

% Left plot
ax1 = nexttile;
plot3(ax1,xt1,yt1,t)
xlabel('X')
ylabel('Y')
zlabel('Z')

% Right plot
ax2 = nexttile;
plot3(ax2,xt1,yt1,t)
xlabel('X')
ylabel('Y')
zlabel('Z')

Change the view of the right plot to a side view along the x-axis.

view(ax2,[90 0]);

Input Arguments

az — Azimuth

number

Azimuth, specified as an angle in degrees from the negative y-axis. Increasing this angle corresponds to counterclockwise rotation about the z-axis when viewing the x-y plane from above.

The default value depends on whether your chart is in a 2-D or 3-D view. For 2-D charts, the default value is 0. For 3-D charts, the default value is -37.5.

Example: view(45,25) sets the azimuth to 45 degrees and the elevation to 25 degrees.

el — Elevation

number

Elevation, specified the minimum angle in degrees between the line of sight and the x-y plane. Increasing the elevation from -90 to 90 degrees corresponds to a rotation from the negative z-axis to the positive z-axis.

The default value depends on whether your chart is in a 2-D or 3-D view. For 2-D charts, the default value is 90. For 3-D charts, the default value is 30.

Example: view(45,25) sets the azimuth to 45 degrees and the elevation to 25 degrees.

v — Line-of-sight vector

[az el] | [x y z]

Line-of-sight vector, specified as one of the following:

• A two-element array containing the azimuth and elevation angles respectively.

• A three-element array containing the x-, y-, and z-coordinates of a vector that originates from the center of the plot box and points toward the camera. MATLAB calculates the azimuth and elevation from a unit vector pointing in the same direction. Thus, the magnitude of the v has no effect on the line of sight.

  

Example: view([45 25]) sets the azimuth to 45 degrees and the elevation to 25 degrees.

Example: view([20 25 5]) sets the line of sight to a vector that points in the same direction as the vector [20 25 5].

dim — Dimensions

2 | 3

Dimensions, specified as 2 or 3. This argument sets the azimuth and elevation to the default values that MATLAB uses for a 2-D or 3-D plot.

Value of dim	Azimuth	Elevation
2	0	90
3	-37.5	30

ax — Target axes

Axes object | array of Axes objects

Target axes, specified as:

• An Axes object.

• An array of Axes objects. (Since R2022a)

If you do not specify this argument, then view modifies the current axes.

More About

Line of Sight

The line of sight starts at the center of the plot box and points toward the camera. MATLAB defines this line using two angles, the azimuth and the elevation. These angles are measured within a 3-D coordinate system that has its origin at the center of the plot box.

• Azimuth — The angle of rotation around the z-axis, as measured from the negative y-axis. Increasing this angle corresponds to counterclockwise rotation about the z-axis when viewing the x-y plane from above.

• Elevation — The minimum angle between the line of sight and the x-y plane. Increasing the elevation from -90 to 90 degrees corresponds to a rotation from the negative z-axis to the positive z-axis.

Tips

• The view function controls the direction of the line of sight, but it does not control the location that the line starts from, nor the camera position. For more control, use the camera functions such as campos, camtarget, camup, camva, camroll, and camproj.

• Setting the azimuth and elevation angles might reset other camera-related properties. For best results, set the azimuth and elevation angles before setting other camera-related properties.

Version History

Introduced before R2006a

R2022a: Added support for specifying array of axes

Change the view of multiple axes objects at the same time by specifying the ax argument as an array of axes objects.