App designer panel order

Hi,

I am designing an app in app designer.

I kept two panels in the app with panel1 on top of panel2 with only the name of panel1 visible (Im1).

Now, when I click on panel1, I expect it to bring the contents of panel1 to the front as in Im2. But panel1 doesn't come to the front when clicked and remains as in Im1.

Please suggest how I can bring panel1 to the front when clicked, without having to reorder the panel everytime I want to edit the contents of panel1. I am using MATLAB 2020 b and windows 10.

[Mario Malic]

I would suggest you to solve your problem with Tab Group.What you're doing here is not good at all, because panels were not ment to overlap each other, that causes the issues like you have.

[Sudhee]

@mario: It did work for earlier version of MATLAB and was easy to use. It didn't work after I upgraded to 2020b. My requirement is to have the different panels overlapping so that it won't occupy much space in the final product. And if I want to edit a particular panel, I should be able to bring it to the front.

[Mario Malic]

To reduce the occupied space with multiple panels almost overlapping each other makes no sense at all, regardless if it worked before or not.

Answer 1

[Shuang Xiao]

I understand that you are using overlapping panels to reduce space. But still want edit each panel without reordering the edited panel.

Before 20b, there is no reordering feature in App Designer. when selecting component, component is brought to front for edit. But this could cause confusion what component is front when selecting and editing the overlapping component.

After 20b, reordering feature is added. Components will stay the same z-order as in component browser for both selected or not selected components. This provides consistent z-order to show all component in design view. It avoids the confusion about the difference between the component's design-time z-order and runtime z-order.

Using tab group can be a workaround for multiple fully overlapping panels.

For multiple partially overlapping panels, you can reorder panel or move it out & move it back to edit. Also You can use property inspector to edit specific component attributes.

See Reorder Components section for more information https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/creating_guis/lay-out-apps-in-app-designer.html