Why are panels/buttons missing in GUIDE but visible in the GUI?

I got a source code for a GUI that is used with matlab version 2013b. Now, I am supposed to do some changes to this GUI and to use it with version 2015a. I also have the same problems as have been reported (and solved) earlier: panels hiding text fields and buttons (see e. g. the "Gun" panel in the attached screenshot). I know how to solve this.

But there is another problem that I haven't found any reference to/solution for: When I run my GUI from within GUIDE I see panels and buttons (marked by red rectangles) that are not visible in GUIDE. I ran the "matlab graphics finder" app and it tells me that many text fields and buttons are hidden behind the "Gun" panel but if I don't even see the panels in GUIDE I cannot switch the layers, that is, send panel to back, etc. Also, when I use the object browser in GUIDE I don't see these panels and buttons but they are created when I run the figure, so, these objects should be there. But, in GUIDE, they are not.

Can anybody tell me what is going on here? Help is greatly appreciated.

[thomassimm]

I have a similar problem, whenever I open guide on a GUI containing multiple panels, many of the components within the panels disappear (left). If I send the panel to the back and then to the front, then move the panel they become visible again but often they have been moved and resized (right). As shown in middle they are ok when the GUI is run. An absolute pain, would love to know how to avoid this. Am using Matlab 2015a. Thomas

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

GUIDE only shows graphics objects that are created through GUIDE. Graphics objects that are created on-the-fly will not show up. Look through the code for places where uicontrol() is called: any call to uicontrol is probably creating a new graphics object.

(The only case where uicontrol does not create a new graphics object is if you pass uicontrol() the handle to an existing uicontrol, and nothing else: that particular syntax means that the given uicontrol is to be given the focus.)

[Stefan Weiher]

Thank you for your quick reply. You are right: the three missing panels and its buttons and text fields are created "on the fly" somewhere in the code. Now, I still have the problem of changing the layering, that is, having the panels in the background and buttons and text fields in the foreground. In GUIDE, it is easy to change for the first panel ("Gun") because I just need to click "Send to Back". Everything's fine for the first panel:

But for the panels created in the code it seems to be more difficult than I imagined. The problem is that I cannot locate the place where they are created. There are no explicit lines like

 hp = uipanel('Title','Main Panel',...);
 btn = uicontrol('Style','pushbutton',...);

Looking at the matlab documentation of uipanel, one can set the Parent property of a button on top of a panel e. g. like this:

 btn = uicontrol('Parent',hp,'Style','pushbutton',...);

So far, so clear. But if I look at the handles of my figure's panels and their buttons it doesn't look like I expect it. If I run the commands...

 handles.llrfLabel_pan.Parent.Name
 handles.phaseFB_btn.Parent.Name
 handles.llrfLabel3_pan.Parent.Name
 handles.phaseFB3_btn.Parent.Name

...in the code I get - for all four commands - the same answer:

 ans =

 LLRF Control

"LLRF Control" is the handle's name of the figure. "llrfLabel_pan" is the "Gun" panel and "llrfLabel3_pan" is the "Linac 1" panel. "phaseFB(3)_btn" is one of the two buttons that should be on all four panels - and not just on the Gun panel. If I, now, follow the logic of setting the Parent property for the graphics objects I would have expected them to be different for the panel and the buttons - especially when I compare panel 1 and panel 2-4. But the handles names (for Parent) are all the same! How can I make the buttons and the text fields appear on the other three panels if the Parent property doesn't seem to play a role?

[Walter Roberson]

The parent property does play a role. However up to R2014a, uicontrol always appeared on top even if other objects were created over top of them. Starting in R2014b, the real layering is paid attention to. GUIDE was not good about getting the layering right before.

[Stefan Weiher]

Problem solved! I was looking for the "code version" of GUIDE's "Send to Front/Back" without modifying the Parent property because this would have brought me the trouble of modifying the position of all buttons/text fields objects. The elements are stacked in the way they are created and, it seems, the panels are drawn last and, thus, hiding all buttons and input fields! Finally, I just had to add three lines of code to send the lower three panels to the back:

 uistack(handles.llrfLabel2_pan,'bottom');
 uistack(handles.llrfLabel3_pan,'bottom');
 uistack(handles.llrfLabel4_pan,'bottom');