Primitives

In this section, we give a brief survey of the graphical primitives, grouping constructs, transformation routines etc. provided by the plot library.

The following table lists the ‘low-level’ primitives:

The simple primitives of the plot library

plot::Arc2d	circular arc in 2D
plot::Arrow2d	arrow in 2D
plot::Arrow3d	arrow in 3D
plot::Box	rectangular box in 3D
plot::Circle2d	circle in 2D
plot::Circle3d	circle in 3D
plot::Cone	cone/conical frustum in 3D
plot::Cylinder	cylinder in 3D
plot::Ellipse2d	ellipse in 2D
plot::Ellipsoid	ellipsoid in 3D
plot::Line2d	graphical line segment in 2D
plot::Line3d	graphical line segment in 3D
plot::Parallelogram2d	parallelogram in 2D
plot::Parallelogram3d	parallelogram in 3D
plot::Point2d	graphical point in 2D
plot::Point3d	graphical point in 3D
plot::PointList2d	collection of graphical points in 2D
plot::PointList3d	collection of graphical points in 3D
plot::Polygon2d	line segments forming a polygon in 2D
plot::Polygon3d	line segments forming a polygon in 3D
plot::Rectangle	rectangle in 2D
plot::Sphere	sphere in 3D
plot::SurfaceSet	surfaces in 3D (as a collection of 3D triangles)
plot::SurfaceSTL	import of 3D stl surfaces
plot::Text2d	text object in 2D
plot::Text3d	text object in 3D

In addition, there are primitives for Plato's regular polyhedra:

Regular polyhedra

The following table lists the ‘high-level’ primitives and ‘special purpose’ primitives:

High-level primitives of the plot library

plot::Bars2d	(statistical) data plot in 2D
plot::Bars3d	(statistical) data plot in 3D
plot::Boxplot	(statistical) box plot
plot::Conformal	conformal plot of complex functions
plot::Curve2d	parametrized curve in 2D
plot::Curve3d	parametrized curve in 3D
plot::Density	density plot in 2D
plot::Function2d	function graph in 2D
plot::Function3d	function graph in 3D
plot::Hatch	hatched region in 2D
plot::Histogram2d	(statistical) histogram plot in 2D
plot::Implicit2d	plot of implicitly defined curves in 2D
plot::Implicit3d	plot of implicitly defined surfaces in 3D
plot::Inequality	visualization of inequalities in 2D
plot::Integral	visualization of integration
plot::Iteration	visualization of iterations in 2D
plot::Listplot	lists of points in 2D
plot::Lsys	Lindenmayer system in 2D
plot::Matrixplot	visualization of matrix data as a surface in 3D
plot::MuPADCube	the MuPAD® logo
plot::Ode2d	graphical solution of an ODE in 2D
plot::Ode3d	graphical solution of an ODE in 3D
plot::Piechart2d	(statistical) pie chart in 2D
plot::Piechart3d	(statistical) pie chart in 3D
plot::Plane	infinite plane in 3D
plot::Raster	raster and bitmap plots in 2D
plot::Scatterplot	(statistical) scatter plot in 2D
plot::Sequence	visualization of a sequence of numbers
plot::SparseMatrixplot	sparsity pattern of a matrix
plot::Sum	visualization of a sum of numbers
plot::Surface	parametrized surface in 3D
plot::Sweep	sweep surface in 3D
plot::Turtle	turtle plot in 2D
plot::VectorField2d	vector field plot in 2D
plot::VectorField3d	vector field plot in 3D
plot::XRotate	surface of revolution in 3D
plot::ZRotate	surface of revolution in 3D

The following table lists the various light sources available to illuminate 3D plots:

Light objects in the plot library

plot::AmbientLight	ambient (undirected) light
plot::DistantLight	directed light
plot::PointLight	(undirected) point light
plot::SpotLight	(directed) spot light

The following table lists various grouping constructs:

Grouping constructs in the plot library

plot::Canvas	drawing area, container for 2D or 3D scenes
plot::Scene2d	container for 2D coordinate systems
plot::Scene3d	container for 3D coordinate systems
plot::CoordinateSystem2d	container for 2D primitives and plot::Group2d
plot::CoordinateSystem3d	container for 3D primitives and plot::Group3d
plot::Group2d	group of primitives in 2D
plot::Group3d	group of primitives in 3D

Primitives or groups of primitives can be transformed by the following routines:

Transformation objects in the plot library

plot::Scale2d	scaling transformation in 2D
plot::Scale3d	scaling transformation in 3D
plot::Reflect2d	reflection in 2D
plot::Reflect3d	reflection in 3D
plot::Rotate2d	rotation in 2D
plot::Rotate3d	rotation in 3D
plot::Translate2d	translation in 2D
plot::Translate3d	translation in 3D
plot::Transform2d	general linear transformation in 2D
plot::Transform3d	general linear transformation in 3D

The following special plot routines are provided:

Some special plot routines

plot::Cylindrical	cylindrical plot in 3D
plot::Polar	polar plot in 2D
plot::Spherical	polar plot in 3D
plot::Tube	tube plot in 3D

Additionally, there are:

Some special plot routines

plot::Camera	camera in 3D
plot::ClippingBox	clipping box in 3D

Recommended Products

Get MATLAB trial software

Includes the most popular MATLAB recorded presentations with Q&A sessions led by MATLAB experts.

Get the Interactive Kit

Search MATLAB Documentation
R2012a Documentation → Symbolic Math Toolbox
View documentation for other releases	Learn more about Symbolic Math Toolbox