How can I rotate the axis for a polar plot?
    33 views (last 30 days)
  
       Show older comments
    
Hi,
Would anyone know how to adjust (rotate) the polar plot function such that the vertical axis starts at 0 degrees - as opposed to 90?
theta=0:0.1:2*pi;
e=cos(theta);
polar(theta,e);
Kind regards,
0 Comments
Accepted Answer
  Geoff Hayes
      
      
 on 7 Apr 2015
        See the answer at http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/93690-how-do-i-rotate-or-flip-a-polar-plot which changes the viewpoint specification using view. For your case, you would want to call (after the polar plot has been created)
 view([90 -90])
2 Comments
  Toshia M
    
 on 9 Jul 2025
				Starting in R2016a, you can create a PolarAxes object that has properties you can customize. To rotate a PolarAxes object, set the ThetaZeroLocation property. By default, the zero angle is located to the right of the origin. 
The ThetaZeroLocation property accepts four string values ("top", "bottom", "left", or "right"). Starting in R2025a, you can specify this property as an arbitrary angle.
For example, create a polar plot and set the ThetaZeroLocation property to pi/4 radians. 
(The default theta axis units is degrees, so if you specify an angle in radians, you need to set the ThetaAxisUnits to "radians".)
pax = polaraxes;
theta = linspace(0,6*pi);
rho = theta/10;
polarplot(pax,theta,rho) 
% Specify radians for theta axis 
pax.ThetaAxisUnits = "radians";
% Rotate by pi/4 radians
pax.ThetaZeroLocation = pi/4;
More Answers (1)
  Steve Snarski
      
 on 25 Sep 2019
        Use axes properties.  To rotate theta = 0 from right side [default] to bottom use following:
set(gca,'ThetaZeroLocation','bottom')
See Also
Categories
				Find more on Polar Plots in Help Center and File Exchange
			
	Community Treasure Hunt
Find the treasures in MATLAB Central and discover how the community can help you!
Start Hunting!




