Running example "Create Site Viewer" does not work in Matlab R2023b

Simply running the Matlab command:

openExample('spc_channel/DefaultSiteViewerMapDisplayExample')

should open a default site viewer map display, showing a globe. When I run it, it does open the window, however, it only shows a blank "star field" background:

I also get a warning: "Warning: Unable to read map tiles from URL 'http://ecn.t3.tiles.virtualearth.net/tiles/a{q}.jpeg?g=1/{z}/{x}/{y}.png' of basemap 'BingAerial'. This basemap will be excluded from the globe viewer."

I can select other imagery sources in the Site Viewer window, even the "Dark Water" that should be built in, but the display doesn't change.

The example web page can be found here: https://www.mathworks.com/help/antenna/ref/siteviewer.html?searchHighlight=siteviewer&s_tid=srchtitle_support_results_1_siteviewer

The command is simply:

viewer = siteviewer;

Any suggestions?

[Kevin Nichols]

Just tried it again tonight, and things are now working (but I didn't change anything.) So, not sure if someone at Mathworks fixed something? Anyway, it seems to be working now.

Answer 1

[Star Strider]

Apparently, in the interest of reducing the increasing storage demands of the more recent MATLAB releases, MathWorks has stopped automaticaly downloading the documentation. If you want to download it, click on ‘RESOURCES’ in the top toolstrip, then ‘Help’ → ‘Documentation’ or ‘Examples’. (I suspect that ‘Documentation’ will include ‘Examples’.) Then, follow the instructions. (I did this with R2023a, and it takes a while.)

If you want to use MATLAB Online, the example should work since all the examples should available be available already.

[Kevin Nichols]

Hello Star Strider, thank you for your reply.

I don't think it's the documentation that I'm missing. I believe the functionality of the "viewer = siteviewer;" command is broken, at least on my system.

As far as I can tell, what is shown in the documentation is exactly what I did. In fact, I even selected the "Open Live Script" button in the documentation for the siteviewer command, which opens the Live Script example. I press the "Run" button, which runs the "viewer = siteviewer;" command. And I get exactly what I described above, a Site Viewer window with no globe in it, just a star field.

I will note again that I also get the error I noted above, about "unable to read map tiles..." Here is what I see (note the error):

I should get the window they show above, with a globe in it (which is a pasted graphic in the LiveView script, not a result of the function running), but I just get a "blank" starfield window as I noted previously.

Also, I don't think it's a low level graphics driver issue, as I do get a working window, and it has a star field that I can move around and see a galaxy, it's just that whatever data is needed to open and show the globe is missing or non-functional.

[Star Strider]

I don’t have the Antenna Toolbox (I don’t need it since I don’t design my own antennas any more) so I can’t run that to test it.

I can’t run it here, either:

openExample('spc_channel/DefaultSiteViewerMapDisplayExample')

Error using edit
Failed to open MATLAB Editor.

Error in openExample (line 99)
edit(fullfile(workDir, mainFile))

Caused by:
Error using assert
Timeout occurred while waiting for AppContainer to return an AppState of RUNNING.

.

There are only two options I can think of to do at this point, the first is to see if running these:

restoredefaultpath

rehash toolboxcache

from a script or your Command Window solves it, and if that doesn’t work, Contact Support. Include the URL of this thread in your message to MathWorks so you don’t have to repeat everything here.

.

[Steven Lord]

I'm not 100% certain but I suspect the same server issue that Cris LaPierre noted in this Answers post may be causing this behavior.

Answer 2

[Octavio Ordaz]

Hi, I'm facing the same issue trying to simply run:

viewer = siteviewer(Terrain="gmted2010",Basemap='colorterrain')

I'm getting no warnings but the same black background. I've tried downloading via Add-Ons the colorterrain but didn't solve the issue. Also, I've tried using MATLAB online but I have the same issue.