argument gets deleted without a reason (Invalid or deleted object. Error in images.roi​.Freehand/​get.Positi​on )

לק"י

Hi guys,

i wrote a code and i get sometimes appears an error that an object is invalid or been delted. i went through it several time and couldn't get where is problem. the object is fhroi.Position which is 2 columns vector, with changing x length due to automated sampling and only after the one before it was finished.

Invalid or deleted object.

Error in images.roi.Freehand/get.Position

Error in Voronoi_exclude_borders_02012023_reanalyze_vorpolratio (line 254)
                    if vorroi(j)==1 && ismember(1, c{j})~=1 && ismember(0, inpolygon(v(c{j},1),v(c{j},2), fhroi.Position(:,1), fhroi.Position(:,2)))~=1
 

I made flags between the objects first appernce and the error line

%the original code:
 if m==1 && reanalyzeolddata==0 %apply free hand tool only once for the first figure of each cells that passed 3 conditions of min max intensity filtering.
                    fhroi=drawfreehand;
                    fhroi.FaceAlpha=0;

                elseif m~=1 && reanalyzeolddata==0
                    pltfhx=[fhroi.Position(:,1); fhroi.Position(1,1)];
                    pltfhy=[fhroi.Position(:,2); fhroi.Position(1,2)];
                    plot (pltfhx,pltfhy, 'LineWidth', 3, 'Color', [0 0.4470 0.7410])

                elseif reanalyzeolddata==1
                    pltfhx=[analysisdata{9,ranlzcntr}.Position(:,1); analysisdata{9,ranlzcntr}.Position(1,1)];
                    pltfhy=[analysisdata{9,ranlzcntr}.Position(:,2); analysisdata{9,ranlzcntr}.Position(1,2)];
                    plot (pltfhx,pltfhy, 'LineWidth', 3, 'Color', [0 0.4470 0.7410])

 end
 
 %code with flags
 if m==1 && reanalyzeolddata==0 %apply free hand tool only once for the first figure of each cells that that passed 3 conditions of min max intensity filtering.
                    fhroi=drawfreehand;
                    fhroi.FaceAlpha=0;
                    fhroi.Position %flag
                    1 %flag
                elseif m~=1 && reanalyzeolddata==0
                    pltfhx=[fhroi.Position(:,1); fhroi.Position(1,1)];
                    pltfhy=[fhroi.Position(:,2); fhroi.Position(1,2)];
                    plot (pltfhx,pltfhy, 'LineWidth', 3, 'Color', [0 0.4470 0.7410])
                    fhroi.Position %flag
                    2 %flag
                elseif reanalyzeolddata==1
                    pltfhx=[analysisdata{9,ranlzcntr}.Position(:,1); analysisdata{9,ranlzcntr}.Position(1,1)];
                    pltfhy=[analysisdata{9,ranlzcntr}.Position(:,2); analysisdata{9,ranlzcntr}.Position(1,2)];
                    plot (pltfhx,pltfhy, 'LineWidth', 3, 'Color', [0 0.4470 0.7410])
                    fhroi.Position %flag
                    3 %flag
 end
 

What was frustrating, is that after this run I had to alter the code (at line ~350) long after the bug (at line 260) because of unmatched matrices dimensions to only save the fhroi and not altering it at all. infact the object is never altered after accuiring it. when fixed it from %original code and to %fixed code:

%original code:

  if needrecroi==1     
                    analysisdata(1:14,ADcntr)={files(i), datintfltrdxfind, datintfltrdyfind, m, minint(m), maxint(m), xbut, ybut, fhroi, currentallcells , v, c, area1};
                else
                    analysisdata(1:13,ADcntr)={files(i), datintfltrdxfind, datintfltrdyfind, m, minint(m), maxint(m), 'no rectangular roi defined', 'no rectangular roi defined', fhroi, currentallcells , v, c, area1};
                end
                
            else
                area1=[];
             if needrecroi==1
                analysisdata(1:13,ADcntr)={files(i), ADcntr, datintfltrdxfind, datintfltrdyfind, m, minint(m), maxint(m), xbut, ybut, fhroi, currentallcells , v, c, area1};
             else
                analysisdata(1:13,ADcntr)={files(i), ADcntr, datintfltrdxfind, datintfltrdyfind, m, minint(m), maxint(m), 'no rectangular roi defined', 'no rectangular roi defined', fhroi, currentallcells , v, c, area1};
                
%fixed code:

  if needrecroi==1     
                    analysisdata(1:14,ADcntr)={files(i), datintfltrdxfind, datintfltrdyfind, m, minint(m), maxint(m), xbut, ybut, fhroi, currentallcells , v, c, area1};
                else
                    analysisdata(1:14,ADcntr)={files(i), datintfltrdxfind, datintfltrdyfind, m, minint(m), maxint(m), 'no rectangular roi defined', 'no rectangular roi defined', fhroi, currentallcells , v, c, area1};
                end
                
            else
                area1=[];
             if needrecroi==1
                analysisdata(1:14,ADcntr)={files(i), ADcntr, datintfltrdxfind, datintfltrdyfind, m, minint(m), maxint(m), xbut, ybut, fhroi, currentallcells , v, c, area1};
             else
                analysisdata(1:14,ADcntr)={files(i), ADcntr, datintfltrdxfind, datintfltrdyfind, m, minint(m), maxint(m), 'no rectangular roi defined', 'no rectangular roi defined', fhroi, currentallcells , v, c, area1};
                

I got the fhroi deleted bug again. so i undone the changes exactly before the second code fix presented above (%original code) by just cntrl+z and there again the deleted object bug appeard.

and now I just think to myself wth is the problem :|.

I will add that in earlier versions of the code I got this bug, but have been told that it probabbly a corrupted image source that cause it. so I just deleted each image that gave me these fhroi deleted bugs.

the picture I used that gave me this bug was tested at leat ~100 times and suddenly appeard now.

any suggetions?

matlab file of whole ~400 line (many of them are comments) code included.

thanks and I'm sorry for the long post :).

Amit.

Answer 1

[Steven Lord]

This is not a bug.

By default, when you call plot MATLAB will reset all axes properties (except for Position and Units) and delete all axes children before creating the new plot. See the Tips section of the newplot function's documentation page for more details. [The default value for an axes NextPlot property is 'replace'.] The object created by drawfreehand is a child of the axes.

To change this behavior either change the axes NextPlot property or call the hold function (which will do that change for you.) I can't evaluate this code in MATLAB Answers (since drawfreehand is interactive) but I'll show you the output that I received when I ran each section of code in release R2022b.

ax = axes;
f = drawfreehand; % I then drew a shape
f.Parent == ax

This returned true.

plot(0:10, 0:10)
f

This showed:

f =

handle to deleted Freehand

If I turn hold on before calling plot, the axes retains both the Freehand object and the line plot and f is no longer a deleted Freehand object.

ax = axes;
f = drawfreehand; % I then drew a shape
f.Parent == ax

This still returns true.

hold on
plot(0:10, 0:10)
f

Now this shows:

f =

Freehand with properties:

I'm not going to list the properties, but they are displayed in my MATLAB session.

[Amit Ifrach]

לק"י

Hi Steven, sorry for the long time to answer..

First, thank you very much for the help!

I think I wasn't clear enough. a little background of the code:

Basicly I analyze human cells that were stained for specific molecules. it takes csv contains X/Y and intensity of stained molecules (points) and plots it over a png of the cell.

The png only helps me do the freehand draw by eye. then it caclculates something i ask from it. it does it for many csvs and their related pngs. it does that for all the files of the cells (samples) in a directory.

My code works most of the time. some time when one sample (cell) ends, the next new sample gives me this message. somewhy one sample completes the code perfectly, and another sample presents that error message. they go through the SAME code, so it doesn't make sense to me. I would agree with you if all of the samples gave the same error, but most don't! only some of them, and that is what I don't understand, eve after using hold before.

moreover, the drawfreehand I use is only for getting the position (xy of all the draw i drew). and I want only the fhroi.Position values. do I don't care about the draw itself perticularly.

Is it still make sense to you that only the reset of axes are the problem? because most of the time I succeed without no error while going over the code again and again.

Sorry for the long explanation and thank you, it is much appriciated!

Amit.

[Steven Lord]

they go through the SAME code

Are you certain of that? The first section of code you posted has if / else blocks with three separate branches (and which could permit none of the three branches to be executed), only two of which call plot.

To test my hypothesis that it's your plot calls that are deleting the freehand ROI object, modify your call to drawfreehand temporarily. Add code to set the UserData property to an onCleanup object that displays the stack when the object is deleted. You can put this after the rest of the inputs in your drawfreehand call.

fhroi = drawfreehand(UserData=onCleanup(@dbstack));

Then run your code (or use the plot call below as a proxy) and see if the stack lists the newplot function. I'm betting it will. If you run your code it should show you which plot call is deleting your freehand ROI object. It's possible one of them is running without hold being turned on first.

plot(1:10)

When I tried this in MATLAB Online (which is currently release R2022b Update 3) the stack looked like:

> In onCleanup/delete (line 23)

In clo (line 53)

In cla (line 50)

In newplot>ObserveAxesNextPlot (line 156)

In newplot (line 99)

In matlab.graphics.internal.newplotwrapper (line 11)

Note that the next to last line is a call to newplot.

[Amit Ifrach]

לק"י

Hi Steven,

Thanks for the answer, to be frank, I just used a 'dummy' variable that will hold the drawfreehand.Position values and it worked. I belive what I did is something like you said, but in another way. I appriciate it very much, thank you!

Amit.