MATLAB Function Reference

Surfaceplot Properties - Define surfaceplot properties

Modifying Properties

You can set and query graphics object properties in two ways:

The Property Editor is an interactive tool that enables you to see and change object property values.
The set and get commands enable you to set and query the values of properties.

Note that you cannot define default properties for surfaceplot objects.

See Plot Objects for information on surfaceplot objects.

Surfaceplot Property Descriptions

This section lists property names along with the types of values each accepts. Curly braces { } enclose default values.

AlphaData

m-by-n matrix of double or uint8

The transparency data. A matrix of non-NaN values specifying the transparency of each face or vertex of the object. The AlphaData can be of class double or uint8.

MATLAB determines the transparency in one of three ways:

Using the elements of AlphaData as transparency values (AlphaDataMapping set to none)
Using the elements of AlphaData as indices into the current alphamap (AlphaDataMapping set to direct)
Scaling the elements of AlphaData to range between the minimum and maximum values of the axes ALim property (AlphaDataMapping set to scaled, the default)

AlphaDataMapping

{none} | direct| scaled

Transparency mapping method. This property determines how MATLAB interprets indexed alpha data. It can be any of the following:

none — The transparency values of AlphaData are between 0 and 1 or are clamped to this range (the default).
scaled — Transform the AlphaData to span the portion of the alphamap indicated by the axes ALim property, linearly mapping data values to alpha values.
direct — Use the AlphaData as indices directly into the alphamap. When not scaled, the data are usually integer values ranging from 1 to length(alphamap). MATLAB maps values less than 1 to the first alpha value in the alphamap, and values greater than length(alphamap) to the last alpha value in the alphamap. Values with a decimal portion are fixed to the nearest, lower integer. If AlphaData is an array of uint8 integers, then the indexing begins at 0 (i.e., MATLAB maps a value of 0 to the first alpha value in the alphamap).

AmbientStrength

scalar >= 0 and <= 1

Strength of ambient light. This property sets the strength of the ambient light, which is a nondirectional light source that illuminates the entire scene. You must have at least one visible light object in the axes for the ambient light to be visible. The axes AmbientLightColor property sets the color of the ambient light, which is therefore the same on all objects in the axes.

You can also set the strength of the diffuse and specular contribution of light objects. See the surfaceplot DiffuseStrength and SpecularStrength properties.

Annotation

hg.Annotation object Read Only

Control the display of Surfaceplot Properties objects in legends. The Annotation property enables you to specify whether this Surfaceplot Properties object is represented in a figure legend.

Querying the Annotation property returns the handle of an hg.Annotation object. The hg.Annotation object has a property called LegendInformation, which contains an hg.LegendEntry object.

Once you have obtained the hg.LegendEntry object, you can set its IconDisplayStyle property to control whether the Surfaceplot Properties object is displayed in a figure legend:

IconDisplayStyle Value	Purpose
`on`	Represent this Surfaceplot Properties object in a legend (default)
`off`	Do not include this Surfaceplot Properties object in a legend
`children`	Same as `on` because Surfaceplot Properties objects do not have children

Setting the IconDisplayStyle property

These commands set the IconDisplayStyle of a graphics object with handle hobj to off:

hAnnotation = get(hobj,'Annotation');
hLegendEntry = get(hAnnotation','LegendInformation');
set(hLegendEntry,'IconDisplayStyle','off')

Using the IconDisplayStyle property

See Controlling Legends for more information and examples.

BackFaceLighting

unlit | lit | reverselit

Face lighting control. This property determines how faces are lit when their vertex normals point away from the camera.

unlit — Face is not lit.
lit — Face is lit in normal way.
reverselit — Face is lit as if the vertex pointed towards the camera.

This property is useful for discriminating between the internal and external surfaces of an object. See Back Face Lighting for an example.

BeingDeleted

on | {off} Read Only

This object is being deleted. The BeingDeleted property provides a mechanism that you can use to determine if objects are in the process of being deleted. MATLAB sets the BeingDeleted property to on when the object's delete function callback is called (see the DeleteFcn property). It remains set to on while the delete function executes, after which the object no longer exists.

For example, an object's delete function might call other functions that act on a number of different objects. These functions might not need to perform actions on objects if the objects are going to be deleted, and therefore, can check the object's BeingDeleted property before acting.

BusyAction

cancel | {queue}

Callback routine interruption. The BusyAction property enables you to control how MATLAB handles events that potentially interrupt executing callbacks. If there is a callback function executing, callbacks invoked subsequently always attempt to interrupt it.

If the Interruptible property of the object whose callback is executing is set to on (the default), then interruption occurs at the next point where the event queue is processed. If the Interruptible property is off, the BusyAction property (of the object owning the executing callback) determines how MATLAB handles the event. The choices are

cancel — Discard the event that attempted to execute a second callback routine.
queue — Queue the event that attempted to execute a second callback routine until the current callback finishes.

ButtonDownFcn

cancel | {queue}

cancel — Discard the event that attempted to execute a second callback routine.
queue — Queue the event that attempted to execute a second callback routine until the current callback finishes.

CData

matrix

Vertex colors. A matrix containing values that specify the color at every point in ZData. If you set the FaceColor property to texturemap, CData does not need to be the same size as ZData. In this case, MATLAB maps CData to conform to the surfaceplot defined by ZData.

You can specify color as indexed values or true color. Indexed color data specifies a single value for each vertex. These values are either scaled to map linearly into the current colormap (see caxis) or interpreted directly as indices into the colormap, depending on the setting of the CDataMapping property. Note that any non-texture data passed as an input argument must be of type double.

True color defines an RGB value for each vertex. If the coordinate data (XData, for example) are contained in m-by-n matrices, then CData must be an m-by-n-by-3 array. The first page contains the red components, the second the green components, and the third the blue components of the colors.

CDataMapping

{scaled} | direct

Direct or scaled color mapping. This property determines how MATLAB interprets indexed color data used to color the surfaceplot. (If you use true color specification for CData, this property has no effect.)

scaled — Transform the color data to span the portion of the colormap indicated by the axes CLim property, linearly mapping data values to colors. See the caxis reference page for more information on this mapping.
direct — Use the color data as indices directly into the colormap. The color data should then be integer values ranging from 1 to length(colormap). MATLAB maps values less than 1 to the first color in the colormap, and values greater than length(colormap) to the last color in the colormap. Values with a decimal portion are fixed to the nearest lower integer.

CDataMode

{auto} | manual

Use automatic or user-specified color data values. If you specify CData, MATLAB sets this property to manual and uses the CData values to color the surfaceplot.

If you set CDataMode to auto after having specified CData, MATLAB resets the color data of the surfaceplot to that defined by ZData, overwriting any previous values for CData.

CDataSource

string (MATLAB variable)

Link CData to MATLAB variable. Set this property to a MATLAB variable that is evaluated in the base workspace to generate the CData.

MATLAB reevaluates this property only when you set it. Therefore, a change to workspace variables appearing in an expression does not change CData.

You can use the refreshdata function to force an update of the object's data. refreshdata also enables you to specify that the data source variable be evaluated in the workspace of a function from which you call refreshdata.

See the refreshdata reference page for more information.

Note If you change one data source property to return data of a different dimension, you might cause the function to generate a warning and not render the graph until you have changed all data source properties to appropriate values.

Children

matrix of handles

Always the empty matrix; surfaceplot objects have no children.

Clipping

{on} | off

Clipping to axes rectangle. When Clipping is on, MATLAB does not display any portion of the surfaceplot that is outside the axes rectangle.

CreateFcn

string or function handle

Callback routine executed during object creation. This property defines a callback that executes when MATLAB creates an object. You must specify the callback during the creation of the object. For example,

area(y,'CreateFcn',@CallbackFcn)

where @CallbackFcn is a function handle that references the callback function.

MATLAB executes this routine after setting all other object properties. Setting this property on an existing object has no effect.

The handle of the object whose CreateFcn is being executed is accessible only through the root CallbackObject property, which you can query using gcbo.

See Function Handle Callbacks for information on how to use function handles to define the callback function.

DeleteFcn

string or function handle

Callback executed during object deletion. A callback that executes when this object is deleted (e.g., this might happen when you issue a delete command on the object, its parent axes, or the figure containing it). MATLAB executes the callback before destroying the object's properties so the callback routine can query these values.

The handle of the object whose DeleteFcn is being executed is accessible only through the root CallbackObject property, which can be queried using gcbo.

See Function Handle Callbacks for information on how to use function handles to define the callback function.

See the BeingDeleted property for related information.

DiffuseStrength

scalar >= 0 and <= 1

Intensity of diffuse light. This property sets the intensity of the diffuse component of the light falling on the surface. Diffuse light comes from light objects in the axes.

You can also set the intensity of the ambient and specular components of the light on the object. See the AmbientStrength and SpecularStrength properties.

DisplayName

string (default is empty string)

String used by legend for this Surfaceplot Properties object. The legend function uses the string defined by the DisplayName property to label this Surfaceplot Properties object in the legend.

If you specify string arguments with the legend function, DisplayName is set to this Surfaceplot Properties object's corresponding string and that string is used for the legend.
If DisplayName is empty, legend creates a string of the form, ['data' n], where n is the number assigned to the object based on its location in the list of legend entries. However, legend does not set DisplayName to this string.
If you edit the string directly in an existing legend, DisplayName is set to the edited string.
If you specify a string for the DisplayName property and create the legend using the figure toolbar, then MATLAB uses the string defined by DisplayName.
To add programmatically a legend that uses the DisplayName string, call legend with the toggle or show option.

See Controlling Legends for more examples.

EdgeAlpha

{scalar = 1} | flat | interp

Transparency of the patch and surface edges. This property can be any of the following:

scalar — A single non-Nan scalar value between 0 and 1 that controls the transparency of all the edges of the object. 1 (the default) means fully opaque and 0 means completely transparent.
flat — The alpha data (AlphaData) value for the first vertex of the face determines the transparency of the edges.
interp — Linear interpolation of the alpha data (AlphaData) values at each vertex determines the transparency of the edge.

Note that you must specify AlphaData as a matrix equal in size to ZData to use flat or interp EdgeAlpha.

EdgeColor

{ColorSpec} | none | flat | interp

Color of the surfaceplot edge. This property determines how MATLAB colors the edges of the individual faces that make up the surface:

ColorSpec — A three-element RGB vector or one of the MATLAB predefined names, specifying a single color for edges. The default EdgeColor is black. See ColorSpec for more information on specifying color.
none — Edges are not drawn.
flat — The CData value of the first vertex for a face determines the color of each edge.
interp — Linear interpolation of the CData values at the face vertices determines the edge color.

EdgeLighting

{none} | flat | gouraud | phong

Algorithm used for lighting calculations. This property selects the algorithm used to calculate the effect of light objects on surfaceplot edges. Choices are

none — Lights do not affect the edges of this object.
flat — The effect of light objects is uniform across each edge of the surface.
gouraud — The effect of light objects is calculated at the vertices and then linearly interpolated across the edge lines.
phong — The effect of light objects is determined by interpolating the vertex normals across each edge line and calculating the reflectance at each pixel. Phong lighting generally produces better results than Gouraud lighting, but takes longer to render.

EraseMode

{normal} | none | xor | background

Erase mode. This property controls the technique MATLAB uses to draw and erase objects and their children. Alternative erase modes are useful for creating animated sequences, where control of the way individual objects are redrawn is necessary to improve performance and obtain the desired effect.

normal — Redraw the affected region of the display, performing the three-dimensional analysis necessary to ensure that all objects are rendered correctly. This mode produces the most accurate picture, but is the slowest. The other modes are faster, but do not perform a complete redraw and are therefore less accurate.
none — Do not erase objects when they are moved or destroyed. While the objects are still visible on the screen after erasing with EraseMode none, you cannot print these objects because MATLAB stores no information about their former locations.
xor — Draw and erase the object by performing an exclusive OR (XOR) with each pixel index of the screen behind it. Erasing the object does not damage the color of the objects behind it. However, the color of the erased object depends on the color of the screen behind it and it is correctly colored only when it is over the axes background color (or the figure background color if the axes Color property is set to none). That is, it isn't erased correctly if there are objects behind it.
background — Erase the graphics objects by redrawing them in the axes background color, (or the figure background color if the axes Color property is set to none). This damages other graphics objects that are behind the erased object, but the erased object is always properly colored.

Printing with Nonnormal Erase Modes

MATLAB always prints figures as if the EraseMode of all objects is normal. This means graphics objects created with EraseMode set to none, xor, or background can look different on screen than on paper. On screen, MATLAB can mathematically combine layers of colors (e.g., performing an XOR on a pixel color with that of the pixel behind it) and ignore three-dimensional sorting to obtain greater rendering speed. However, these techniques are not applied to the printed output.

Set the axes background color with the axes Color property. Set the figure background color with the figure Color property.

You can use the MATLAB getframe command or other screen capture applications to create an image of a figure containing nonnormal mode objects.

FaceAlpha

{scalar = 1} | flat | interp | texturemap

Transparency of the surfaceplot faces. This property can be any of the following:

scalar — A single non-NaN scalar value between 0 and 1 that controls the transparency of all the faces of the object. 1 (the default) means fully opaque and 0 means completely transparent (invisible).
flat — The values of the alpha data (AlphaData) determine the transparency for each face. The alpha data at the first vertex determine the transparency of the entire face.
interp — Bilinear interpolation of the alpha data (AlphaData) at each vertex determines the transparency of each face.
texturemap — Use transparency for the texture map.

Note that you must specify AlphaData as a matrix equal in size to ZData to use flat or interp FaceAlpha.

FaceColor

ColorSpec | none | {flat} | interp

Color of the surfaceplot face. This property can be any of the following:

ColorSpec — A three-element RGB vector or one of the MATLAB predefined names, specifying a single color for faces. See ColorSpec for more information on specifying color.
none — Do not draw faces. Note that edges are drawn independently of faces.
flat — The values of CData determine the color for each face of the surface. The color data at the first vertex determine the color of the entire face.
interp — Bilinear interpolation of the values at each vertex (the CData) determines the coloring of each face.
texturemap — Texture map the Cdata to the surface. MATLAB transforms the color data so that it conforms to the surface. (See the texture mapping example for surface.)

FaceLighting

{none} | flat | gouraud | phong

Algorithm used for lighting calculations. This property selects the algorithm used to calculate the effect of light objects on the surface. Choices are

none — Lights do not affect the faces of this object.
flat — The effect of light objects is uniform across the faces of the surface. Select this choice to view faceted objects.
gouraud — The effect of light objects is calculated at the vertices and then linearly interpolated across the faces. Select this choice to view curved surfaces.
phong — The effect of light objects is determined by interpolating the vertex normals across each face and calculating the reflectance at each pixel. Select this choice to view curved surfaces. Phong lighting generally produces better results than Gouraud lighting, but takes longer to render.

HandleVisibility

{on} | callback | off

Control access to object's handle by command-line users and GUIs. This property determines when an object's handle is visible in its parent's list of children. HandleVisibility is useful for preventing command-line users from accidentally accessing objects that you need to protect for some reason.

on — Handles are always visible when HandleVisibility is on.
callback — Setting HandleVisibility to callback causes handles to be visible from within callback routines or functions invoked by callback routines, but not from within functions invoked from the command line. This provides a means to protect GUIs from command-line users, while allowing callback routines to have access to object handles.
off — Setting HandleVisibility to off makes handles invisible at all times. This might be necessary when a callback invokes a function that might potentially damage the GUI (such as evaluating a user-typed string) and so temporarily hides its own handles during the execution of that function.

Functions Affected by Handle Visibility

When a handle is not visible in its parent's list of children, it cannot be returned by functions that obtain handles by searching the object hierarchy or querying handle properties. This includes get, findobj, gca, gcf, gco, newplot, cla, clf, and close.

Properties Affected by Handle Visibility

When a handle's visibility is restricted using callback or off, the object's handle does not appear in its parent's Children property, figures do not appear in the root's CurrentFigure property, objects do not appear in the root's CallbackObject property or in the figure's CurrentObject property, and axes do not appear in their parent's CurrentAxes property.

Overriding Handle Visibility

You can set the root ShowHiddenHandles property to on to make all handles visible regardless of their HandleVisibility settings (this does not affect the values of the HandleVisibility properties). See also findall.

Handle Validity

Handles that are hidden are still valid. If you know an object's handle, you can set and get its properties and pass it to any function that operates on handles.

Note If you change one data source property to a variable that contains data of a different dimension, you might cause the function to generate a warning and not render the graph until you have changed all data source properties to appropriate values.

HitTest

{on} | off

Selectable by mouse click. HitTest determines whether this object can become the current object (as returned by the gco command and the figure CurrentObject property) as a result of a mouse click on the objects that compose the area graph. If HitTest is off, clicking this object selects the object below it (which is usually the axes containing it).

Interruptible

{on} | off

Callback routine interruption mode. The Interruptible property controls whether an object's callback can be interrupted by callbacks invoked subsequently.

Only callbacks defined for the ButtonDownFcn property are affected by the Interruptible property. MATLAB checks for events that can interrupt a callback only when it encounters a drawnow, figure, getframe, or pause command in the routine. See the BusyAction property for related information.

Setting Interruptible to on allows any graphics object's callback to interrupt callback routines originating from a bar property. Note that MATLAB does not save the state of variables or the display (e.g., the handle returned by the gca or gcf command) when an interruption occurs.

LineStyle

{-} | --| : |-. | none

Line style. This property specifies the line style of the object. Available line styles are shown in the following table.

Specifier String	Line Style
`-`	Solid line (default)
`--`	Dashed line
`:`	Dotted line
`-.`	Dash-dot line
`none`	No line

You can use LineStyle none when you want to place a marker at each point but do not want the points connected with a line (see the Marker property).

LineWidth

scalar

The width of linear objects and edges of filled areas. Specify this value in points (1 point = ¹/₇₂ inch). The default LineWidth is 0.5 points.

Marker

character (see table)

Marker symbol. The Marker property specifies the type of markers that are displayed at plot vertices. You can set values for the Marker property independently from the LineStyle property. Supported markers include those shown in the following table.

Marker Specifier	Description
`+`	Plus sign
`o`	Circle
`*`	Asterisk
`.`	Point
`x`	Cross
`s`	Square
`d`	Diamond
`^`	Upward-pointing triangle
`v`	Downward-pointing triangle
`>`	Right-pointing triangle
<	Left-pointing triangle
`p`	Five-pointed star (pentagram)
`h`	Six-pointed star (hexagram)
`none`	No marker (default)

MarkerEdgeColor

none | {auto} | flat | ColorSpec

Marker edge color. The color of the marker or the edge color for filled markers (circle, square, diamond, pentagram, hexagram, and the four triangles).

none specifies no color, which makes nonfilled markers invisible.
auto uses the same color as the EdgeColor property.
flat uses the CData value of the vertex to determine the color of the maker edge.
ColorSpec defines a single color to use for the edge (see ColorSpec for more information).

MarkerFaceColor

{none} | auto | flat | ColorSpec

Marker face color. The fill color for markers that are closed shapes (circle, square, diamond, pentagram, hexagram, and the four triangles).

none makes the interior of the marker transparent, allowing the background to show through.
auto uses the axes Color for the marker face color.
flat uses the CData value of the vertex to determine the color of the face.
ColorSpec defines a single color to use for all markers on the surfaceplot (see ColorSpec for more information).

MarkerSize

size in points

Marker size. A scalar specifying the size of the marker in points. The default value for MarkerSize is 6 points (1 point = 1/72 inch). Note that MATLAB draws the point marker (specified by the '.' symbol) at one-third the specified size.

MeshStyle

{both} | row | column

Row and column lines. This property specifies whether to draw all edge lines or just row or column edge lines.

both draws edges for both rows and columns.
row draws row edges only.
column draws column edges only.

NormalMode

{auto} | manual

MATLAB generated or user-specified normal vectors. When this property is auto, MATLAB calculates vertex normals based on the coordinate data. If you specify your own vertex normals, MATLAB sets this property to manual and does not generate its own data. See also the VertexNormals property.

Parent

handle of parent axes, hggroup, or hgtransform

Parent of this object. This property contains the handle of the object's parent. The parent is normally the axes, hggroup, or hgtransform object that contains the object.

See Objects That Can Contain Other Objects for more information on parenting graphics objects.

Selected

on | {off}

Is object selected? When you set this property to on, MATLAB displays selection "handles" at the corners and midpoints if the SelectionHighlight property is also on (the default). You can, for example, define the ButtonDownFcn callback to set this property to on, thereby indicating that this particular object is selected. This property is also set to on when an object is manually selected in plot edit mode.

SelectionHighlight

{on} | off

Objects are highlighted when selected. When the Selected property is on, MATLAB indicates the selected state by drawing four edge handles and four corner handles. When SelectionHighlight is off, MATLAB does not draw the handles except when in plot edit mode and objects are selected manually.

SpecularColorReflectance

scalar in the range 0 to 1

Color of specularly reflected light. When this property is 0, the color of the specularly reflected light depends on both the color of the object from which it reflects and the color of the light source. When set to 1, the color of the specularly reflected light depends only on the color or the light source (i.e., the light object Color property). The proportions vary linearly for values in between.

SpecularExponent

scalar >= 1

Harshness of specular reflection. This property controls the size of the specular spot. Most materials have exponents in the range of 5 to 20.

SpecularStrength

scalar >= 0 and <= 1

Intensity of specular light. This property sets the intensity of the specular component of the light falling on the surface. Specular light comes from light objects in the axes.

You can also set the intensity of the ambient and diffuse components of the light on the surfaceplot object. See the AmbientStrength and DiffuseStrength properties. Also see the material function.

Tag

string

User-specified object label. The Tag property provides a means to identify graphics objects with a user-specified label. This is particularly useful when you are constructing interactive graphics programs that would otherwise need to define object handles as global variables or pass them as arguments between callbacks. You can define Tag as any string.

For example, you might create an areaseries object and set the Tag property.

t = area(Y,'Tag','area1')

When you want to access objects of a given type, you can use findobj to find the object's handle. The following statement changes the FaceColor property of the object whose Tag is area1.

set(findobj('Tag','area1'),'FaceColor','red')

Type

string (read only)

Class of the graphics object. The class of the graphics object. For surfaceplot objects, Type is always the string 'surface'.

UIContextMenu

handle of a uicontextmenu object

Associate a context menu with this object. Assign this property the handle of a uicontextmenu object created in the object's parent figure. Use the uicontextmenu function to create the context menu. MATLAB displays the context menu whenever you right-click over the object.

UserData

array

User-specified data. This property can be any data you want to associate with this object (including cell arrays and structures). The object does not set values for this property, but you can access it using the set and get functions.

VertexNormals

vector or matrix

Surfaceplot normal vectors. This property contains the vertex normals for the surfaceplot. MATLAB generates this data to perform lighting calculations. You can supply your own vertex normal data, even if it does not match the coordinate data. This can be useful to produce interesting lighting effects.

Visible

{on} | off

Visibility of this object and its children. By default, a new object's visibility is on. This means all children of the object are visible unless the child object's Visible property is set to off. Setting an object's Visible property to off prevents the object from being displayed. However, the object still exists and you can set and query its properties.

XData

vector or matrix

X-coordinates. The x-position of the surfaceplot data points. If you specify a row vector, MATLAB replicates the row internally until it has the same number of columns as ZData.

XDataMode

{auto} | manual

Use automatic or user-specified x-axis values. If you specify XData (by setting the XData property or specifying the x input argument), MATLAB sets this property to manual and uses the specified values to label the x-axis.

If you set XDataMode to auto after having specified XData, MATLAB resets the x-axis ticks to 1:size(YData,1) or to the column indices of the ZData, overwriting any previous values for XData.

XDataSource

string (MATLAB variable)

Link XData to MATLAB variable. Set this property to a MATLAB variable that is evaluated in the base workspace to generate the XData.

MATLAB reevaluates this property only when you set it. Therefore, a change to workspace variables appearing in an expression does not change XData.

See the refreshdata reference page for more information.

YData

vector or matrix

Y-coordinates. The y-position of the surfaceplot data points. If you specify a row vector, MATLAB replicates the row internally until it has the same number of rows as ZData.

YDataMode

{auto} | manual

Use automatic or user-specified x-axis values. If you specify XData, MATLAB sets this property to manual.

If you set YDataMode to auto after having specified YData, MATLAB resets the y-axis ticks and y-tick labels to the row indices of the ZData, overwriting any previous values for YData.

YDataSource

string (MATLAB variable)

Link YData to MATLAB variable. Set this property to a MATLAB variable that is evaluated in the base workspace to generate the YData.

MATLAB reevaluates this property only when you set it. Therefore, a change to workspace variables appearing in an expression does not change YData.

See the refreshdata reference page for more information.

ZData

matrix

Z-coordinates. The z-position of the surfaceplot data points. See the Description section for more information.

ZDataSource

string (MATLAB variable)

Link ZData to MATLAB variable. Set this property to a MATLAB variable that is evaluated in the base workspace to generate the ZData.

MATLAB reevaluates this property only when you set it. Therefore, a change to workspace variables appearing in an expression does not change ZData.

See the refreshdata reference page for more information.

Surface Properties

surfl