Pause function in matlab for specified time

Hi all,

I am writing a program that creates a plot of a 4-bar mechanism with a driver crank rotating a full 360 degrees. My plot refreshes every 1 degree, showing the positions of all the links for every degree (361 different plots). I want the plotting to last 15 seconds, but I can't seem to determine how to do this. Below is the code I currently use, but it is not accurate enough. It somehow lasts close to 20 seconds.

format longg

total_time = 15; %seconds

nom_wait = total_time / 361; %seconds

start_time = tic;

for m=1:361

    time = clock;
    plot(x(:,m),y(:,m),'-r')
    title('Centerline Plots of Mechanism Links')
    axis equal
    axis([-100 20 -20 100])
    if (361-m)~=0
        elapsed_iteration = etime(clock,time)
        total_elapsed = toc(start_time);
        time_left = total_time - total_elapsed
        if (361-m)>0
            wait1 = nom_wait - elapsed_iteration
            wait2 = time_left / (361-m)
        end
    end
    pause(wait2)
    fprintf('Time Elapsed: %.4f \n',total_elapsed)
end

From my understanding, this should calculate the time it needs to pause between each plot iteration, but it doesn't complete after the 15 seconds. Is this a program issue where my calculations are incorrect, or is it too difficult for the computer to pause more precise than 0.01 seconds?

Thank you for the help!

Answer 1

[per isakson]

Try

    doc timer