Combining existing figures, each in its own tile

I have three figures, each in a .fig file. I want

to combine these, in a subplot-type layout

(i.e. each in a separate tile). Is there a way of doing

this retaining the properties of the figures (e.g. fonts,

axis scales, axis inversions, etc?

Answer 1

[dpb]

See copyobj

It's pretty easy if just copying an axes and its content to a new figure; when it's a new axes that's been created with either subplot or nexttile, then have to select the components under the axes and put them in the new one.

I tried with tiledlayout for the first one after

hF=openfig('yourfirstsaved.fig');
TLO=tiledlayout(3,1);
nexttile
copyobj(copyobj(hF.Children,get(hF.Children,'Type')),TLO)

worked as desired; however, after

nexttile

I couldn't figure out any way to point the target of a similar copyobj to the TLO handle that directed it to the next tile successfully; by default it kept putting new copies on top of the same first tiled axis.

Trying

copyobj(copyobj(hF1.Children,get(hF1.Children,'Type')),gca)

resulted in

Error using copyobj
Axes cannot be a child of Axes. 

since then the target is the axes handle so trying to shortcircuit to copy the whole axes, etc., can't work because there's already an axes.

So, then it becomes more work to pick the sub-pieces and some pieces may not get copied depending on the content in the figure.

[Chris Koen]

Thank you.

I take it the short answer to my question is "No, not without doing it manually."

[dpb]

I don't see any alternative, no. But, you should be able to use the expanded search capabilities of findobj to return everything from the figure from the axes down...now whether that will then reproduce the figure in all its glory or not depends on what all is in the figure -- legends may be an issue, for example.

[Ahmed Mahfouz]

I just had the same problem and I could work out a way to copy the axes into tiles other than the first one.

Adding to what @dpb suggested, you can try the following lines to avoid stacking the axes on top of each other in the first tile:

listOfFigNames = {'fig1.fig', 'fig2.fig', 'fig3.fig'};
nFigs          = length(listOfFigNames); 
tl             = tiledlayout(nFigs, 1);
for i =1:nFigs
    hF_temp = openfig(listOfFigNames{i});
    ax_temp = copyobj(copyobj(hF_temp.Children, get(hF_temp.Children,'Type')), tl);
    ax_temp(1).Layout.Tile = i;
end

Answer 2

[Karl_469]

It is possible:

see Eric Sargent comment else.

https://ch.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/101806-how-can-i-insert-my-matlab-figure-fig-files-into-multiple-subplots#answer_570729