Make the data tip ignore superimposed plot data

I have a code routine that displays an image in a figure window and also superimposes a scatter plot onto that image. When the data tip tool is clicked on a pixel too close to one of the plot points (even not directly on it) the data tip will try to process a nearby plot point instead of the image pixel directly under it. Zooming does not help.

Is there a way that I can make the data tip ignore the presence of the plot data?

Answer 1

[Tom Lane]

If h is a handle to the plot line, I'd expect set(h,'HitTest','off') to do what you want. Not 100% sure, but give it a try.

[Matt J]

That's great. But for some reason it seems to work for scatter plot data but not for other kinds of superimposed objects like imellipses. Any idea why?

[Sean de Wolski]

Matt: I would imagine you would have to get the children of the imellipse() (or imroi() for other ones) and set their 'HitTest' to off.

h = imellipse;
hC = get(h,'children')
get(hC(1)) %etc.

[Matt J]

Thanks Sean. Actually, it appears you have to turn off the 'HitTest' both of the imellipse handle and the children hC. Otherwise, the interior of the ellipse will be opaque to the data tip and no pixels inside the ellipse can be probed.

[Matt J]

Unfortunately, the remedy doesn't appear to work for the new family of ROI handles like images.roi.ellipse. It has neither a HitTest, nor PickableParts property and neither do its children.

Answer 2

[Johannes James]

In looking for an answer to this issue, I hit this old thread. Sorry to revive it, but the accepted answer didn't work for my case (R2022a) in which I had semitransparent polygon and area objects but needed datatips on the plots underneath. The accepted answer earlier got me looking in the right place, so thanks!

What did it for me was setting the 'PickableParts' property to 'none' for the occluding objects.

e.g. if lp is the polygon, making it not 'pickable' enabled me to drop datatips through it onto plots beneath.

lp = patch(x1,y1,'red','FaceAlpha', 0.3,'EdgeColor','none');
set(lp,'PickableParts','none');