mesh
Mesh surface plot
Description
mesh( creates a mesh plot and uses
the column and row indices of the elements in Z)Z as the
x- and y-coordinates.
mesh( plots into
the axes specified by ax,___)ax instead of the current axes. Specify
the axes as the first input argument.
mesh(___,
specifies surface properties using one or more name-value pair arguments. For
example, Name,Value)'FaceAlpha',0.5 creates a semitransparent mesh
plot.
s = mesh(___) returns the chart surface
object. Use s to modify the mesh plot after it is created.
For a list of properties, see Surface Properties.
Examples
Create three matrices of the same size. Then plot them as a mesh plot. The plot uses Z for both height and color.
[X,Y] = meshgrid(-8:.5:8); R = sqrt(X.^2 + Y.^2) + eps; Z = sin(R)./R; mesh(X,Y,Z)
Specify the colors for a mesh plot by including a fourth matrix input, C. The mesh plot uses Z for height and C for color. Specify the colors using a colormap, which uses single numbers to stand for colors on a spectrum. When you use a colormap, C is the same size as Z. Add a color bar to the graph to show how the data values in C correspond to the colors in the colormap.
[X,Y] = meshgrid(-8:.5:8); R = sqrt(X.^2 + Y.^2) + eps; Z = sin(R)./R; C = X.*Y; mesh(X,Y,Z,C) colorbar
Specify the colors for a mesh plot by including a fourth matrix input, CO. The mesh plot uses Z for height and CO for color. Specify the colors using truecolor, which uses triplets of numbers to stand for all possible colors. When you use truecolor, if Z is m-by-n, then CO is m-by-n-by-3. The first page of the array indicates the red component for each color, the second page indicates the green component, and the third page indicates the blue component.
[X,Y,Z] = peaks(25); CO(:,:,1) = zeros(25); % red CO(:,:,2) = ones(25).*linspace(0.5,0.6,25); % green CO(:,:,3) = ones(25).*linspace(0,1,25); % blue mesh(X,Y,Z,CO)
Create a semitransparent mesh surface by specifying the FaceAlpha name-value pair with 0.5 as the value. To allow further modifications, assign the surface object to the variable s.
[X,Y] = meshgrid(-5:.5:5); Z = Y.*sin(X) - X.*cos(Y); s = mesh(X,Y,Z,'FaceAlpha','0.5')
s =
Surface with properties:
EdgeColor: 'flat'
LineStyle: '-'
FaceColor: [1 1 1]
FaceLighting: 'none'
FaceAlpha: 0.5000
XData: [21×21 double]
YData: [21×21 double]
ZData: [21×21 double]
CData: [21×21 double]
Show all properties
Use s to access and modify properties of the mesh plot after it is created. For example, add color to the face of the mesh plot by setting the FaceColor property.
s.FaceColor = 'flat';
Input Arguments
Name-Value Arguments
Specify optional pairs of arguments as
Name1=Value1,...,NameN=ValueN, where Name is
the argument name and Value is the corresponding value.
Name-value arguments must appear after other arguments, but the order of the
pairs does not matter.
Before R2021a, use commas to separate each name and value, and enclose
Name in quotes.
Example: mesh(X,Y,Z,'FaceAlpha',0.5) creates a semitransparent
mesh plot.
Note
The properties listed here are only a subset. For a full list, see Surface Properties.
Edge line color, specified as one of the values listed in this table.
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
'none' | Do not draw the edges. |
'flat' | Use a different color for each edge based on the values
in the
|
'interp' |
Use interpolated coloring for each edge based on the values in the
|
| RGB triplet, hexadecimal color code, or color name |
Use the specified color for all the edges. This option does not use the color
values in the
|
RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes are useful for specifying custom colors.
An RGB triplet is a three-element row vector whose elements specify the intensities of the red, green, and blue components of the color. The intensities must be in the range
[0,1]; for example,[0.4 0.6 0.7].A hexadecimal color code is a character vector or a string scalar that starts with a hash symbol (
#) followed by three or six hexadecimal digits, which can range from0toF. The values are not case sensitive. Thus, the color codes"#FF8800","#ff8800","#F80", and"#f80"are equivalent.
Alternatively, you can specify some common colors by name. This table lists the named color options, the equivalent RGB triplets, and hexadecimal color codes.
| Color Name | Short Name | RGB Triplet | Hexadecimal Color Code | Appearance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
"red" | "r" | [1 0 0] | "#FF0000" |
|
"green" | "g" | [0 1 0] | "#00FF00" |
|
"blue" | "b" | [0 0 1] | "#0000FF" |
|
"cyan"
| "c" | [0 1 1] | "#00FFFF" |
|
"magenta" | "m" | [1 0 1] | "#FF00FF" |
|
"yellow" | "y" | [1 1 0] | "#FFFF00" |
|
"black" | "k" | [0 0 0] | "#000000" |
|
"white" | "w" | [1 1 1] | "#FFFFFF" |
|
This table lists the default color palettes for plots in the light and dark themes.
| Palette | Palette Colors |
|---|---|
Before R2025a: Most plots use these colors by default. |
|
|
|
You can get the RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes for these palettes using the orderedcolors and rgb2hex functions. For example, get the RGB triplets for the "gem" palette and convert them to hexadecimal color codes.
RGB = orderedcolors("gem");
H = rgb2hex(RGB);Before R2023b: Get the RGB triplets using RGB =
get(groot,"FactoryAxesColorOrder").
Before R2024a: Get the hexadecimal color codes using H =
compose("#%02X%02X%02X",round(RGB*255)).
Line style, specified as one of the options listed in this table.
| Line Style | Description | Resulting Line |
|---|---|---|
"-" | Solid line |
|
"--" | Dashed line |
|
":" | Dotted line |
|
"-." | Dash-dotted line |
|
"none" | No line | No line |
Face color, specified as one of the values in this table.
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
'flat' | Use a different color for each face based on the values
in the
|
'interp' |
Use interpolated coloring for each face based on the values in the
|
| RGB triplet, hexadecimal color code, or color name |
Use the specified color for all the faces. This option does not use the color
values in the
|
'texturemap' | Transform the color data in CData so that
it conforms to the surface. |
'none' | Do not draw the faces. |
RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes are useful for specifying custom colors.
An RGB triplet is a three-element row vector whose elements specify the intensities of the red, green, and blue components of the color. The intensities must be in the range
[0,1]; for example,[0.4 0.6 0.7].A hexadecimal color code is a character vector or a string scalar that starts with a hash symbol (
#) followed by three or six hexadecimal digits, which can range from0toF. The values are not case sensitive. Thus, the color codes"#FF8800","#ff8800","#F80", and"#f80"are equivalent.
Alternatively, you can specify some common colors by name. This table lists the named color options, the equivalent RGB triplets, and hexadecimal color codes.
| Color Name | Short Name | RGB Triplet | Hexadecimal Color Code | Appearance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
"red" | "r" | [1 0 0] | "#FF0000" |
|
"green" | "g" | [0 1 0] | "#00FF00" |
|
"blue" | "b" | [0 0 1] | "#0000FF" |
|
"cyan"
| "c" | [0 1 1] | "#00FFFF" |
|
"magenta" | "m" | [1 0 1] | "#FF00FF" |
|
"yellow" | "y" | [1 1 0] | "#FFFF00" |
|
"black" | "k" | [0 0 0] | "#000000" |
|
"white" | "w" | [1 1 1] | "#FFFFFF" |
|
This table lists the default color palettes for plots in the light and dark themes.
| Palette | Palette Colors |
|---|---|
Before R2025a: Most plots use these colors by default. |
|
|
|
You can get the RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes for these palettes using the orderedcolors and rgb2hex functions. For example, get the RGB triplets for the "gem" palette and convert them to hexadecimal color codes.
RGB = orderedcolors("gem");
H = rgb2hex(RGB);Before R2023b: Get the RGB triplets using RGB =
get(groot,"FactoryAxesColorOrder").
Before R2024a: Get the hexadecimal color codes using H =
compose("#%02X%02X%02X",round(RGB*255)).
