How to get a RGB matrix from a figure generated by MATLAB

I make a figure with the help of PATCH command. (let's say 40k quad or tri individual patches) Then I'd like to get a RGB matrix from this figure.

Option 1 : cdata = print(fig,'-RGBImage') but it seems very inefficient in term of time consumption.

Option 2 : GETFRAME but appears to be very sensitive to the number of patch.

I'd like to use a more efficient way to do that since this is the bottle neck of the whole process.

Any idea of alternative or optimisation?

Answer 1

[Katarzyna Wieciorek]

is imread inefficient too? imread

[Image Analyst]

You can't use imread() to pull a picture from an axes control.

Answer 2

[Image Analyst]

I'd try getting cdata from the axes itself and not using print. I think that's like a low level trick. Otherwise, getframe() is the main way that you're supposed to do it.