findobj not working with Matlab 2014b

Hello,

I have a GUI that I developed using Matlab 2014a using the interactive Matlab tool. The GUI consists of multiple windows, which communicate and pass data to each other using getappdata and setappdata. I use findobj(...,'Tag',handle) to find the handles of different axes, sliders, text boxes, and edit boxes within the different windows. This worked perfectly fine before upgrading to Matlab 2014b. Now my tool has stopped working due to object handle errors. In debug, I found that whenever I attempt to retrieve an object handle using findobj , I get something with the following value:

0x0 GraphicsPlaceholder

What does this mean and how can I overcome this problem? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks, Ksawery

[Geoff Hayes]

Ksawery - what is the entire line that you are using to find the object? The one in your question seems incomplete.

[Adam]

I have also had similar problems from the R2014b upgrade. I almost never use findobj, but some other functions that rely on finding graphics handles at certain points fail to find any handle where they used to in R2014a.

Are you trying to find the object during the creation of a figure?

[Kellen]

I don't know about Ksawery, but I am having an identical issue when trying to get patch data from a contourf() plot:

contourf(rand(10,10),[0:.25:1]);
patches = findobj(gca,'type','patch');

No error is returned, but neither is any data:

patches = 
   0x0 empty GraphicsPlaceholder array.

Any ideas? This function is crucial the plotting we do, but the recent update to Yosemite (and hence MATLAB 2014b) changed the operation of findobj().

[Kelly Kearney]

In 2014b, contour objects are no longer composed of child patch objects; their new component properties are mostly hidden from view. So unfortunately it's much more difficult now to make custom modifications to contour plots. It can still be done, though, by accessing a bunch of undocumented properties. I might be able to help if you explain what your code used to do.

[abc]

I am facing a similar issue. Following is my code for progressbar on one of my GUI interfaces. How do I make it work in MATLAB 2014b.

function h=mywaitbar(x,whichbar,varargin)
% Funciton: create and display a wait bar

if ischar(whichbar) || iscellstr(whichbar)
    if nargin==4
        h_figure=varargin{1};
        pos=varargin{2};
        hbar=waitbar(x,whichbar,'visible','off');
        h1=get(hbar,'children');
        h1_patch=findall(h1,'type','patch');
        h1_line=findall(h1,'type','line');
        set(h1,'color',[0.91 0.91 0.91]);
        set(h1_patch,'facecolor',[0.04 0.52 0.78],'edgecolor',[0.04 0.52 0.78]);
        set(h1_line,'color',[0.94 0.94 0.94]);
        h_axs=copyobj(h1,h_figure);
        set(h_axs,'position',pos)
        delete(hbar);
    end
elseif isnumeric(whichbar)
    h_axs=whichbar;
    p=findall(h_axs,'Type','patch');
    set(p,'XData',[0 100*x 100*x 0])
    if nargin==3
        hTitle=get(h_axs,'title');
        set(hTitle,'string',varargin{1});
    end
end
h=h_axs;

[Geoff Hayes]

Sebastian Bahamonde's answer moved here

I am facing the same problem. Cannot find an answer :(.

Long story short, I use a third party function to change the area pattern (hatchfill):

http://nl.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/30733-hatchfill

Very easy to use, I do this:

%%%%%

h = area(X , Y');

[row col] = size(Y);

for i = 1 : row

      hPatch(i).h = findobj(h(i), 'Type', 'patch');
      hh1         = hatchfill(hPatch(i).h, Plot_op.patt{i}, Plot_op.angle(i), Plot_op.space(i));
  end

%%%%

As you may imagine, X and Y contain various areas identifiers, and Plot_op contains the info required by hPatch to customize the areas.

I'd appreciate any idea.

Thanks for your time.

Sebastian