how do I keep a figure current? have tried "hold" and everything I could glean from Doc's and on line

I do f=figure(myfile) so myfile should then be current. I do "hold on" and up pops a new figure, same with "set" and "plot". Has somebody plotted x,y on an existing figure created by uicontrol? I've tried every trick I can come up with. Frustration is ... this shoud be possible. Not a newby to matlab but this is new...thx in advance

[Stephen23]

Please show use an exact working example of code that exhibits this behavior, with an accompanying explanation. Without your showing us your code we either have to guess what you are doing or use our rather limited mind-reading abilities.

Please edit your question and give us a working example to try!

[Walter Roberson]

uicontrol does not create figures. Did you mean it was created in a callback function?

[Tommy Franklin]

thanks Stephen, Walter -

function dummy
my_figure = figure(brute); % brute created with Guide        
figure_handle = findall(my_figure,'type','axes'); %OK to here.
hold on    % unwanted Figure1 pops up --- my_figure not current!
plot([0 5], [6 6]);    % goes to Figure1 rather than my_figure 
plot([5 14], [8 8]);   % goes to Figure1

supposedly the first line of code here makes my_file the current. Want this to be one way - no callback

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

function dummy
my_figure = figure(brute); % brute created with Guide        
axes_handle = findall(my_figure,'type','axes');
axes(axes_handle);
hold on
plot([0 5], [6 6]);
plot([5 14], [8 8]);

However, much better is to specify the destination for every graphics operation!

function dummy
axes_handle = findall(brute,'type','axes');
hold(axes_handle, 'on');
plot(axes_handle, [0 5], [6 6]);
plot(axes_handle, [5 14], [8 8]);
hold(axes_handle, 'off');

This does not rely upon any particular figure or handle being the active handle. When you get into more complicated GUI you will find this very useful for debugging: otherwise if you are debugging and you accidentally touch something else then you would end up activating that other thing when you did not want to.

[Tommy Franklin]

Bingo....I owe U one. Much appreciation....

Answer 2

[Steven Lord]

Check the HandleVisibility property of your figure window.

[Tommy Franklin]

Thanks Steven - HandleVisibility property for the my_figure is "callback". my_figure has some buttons that execute callback and those are OK. The plots intended for the my_figure axes1 is one way only - from code to my_figure/ axes1. Funny thing - I got the thing working properly when first attampted but when I went back a little later