access impoint in one axis while in rotate3d mode for another axis in the same figure

Here's a simplified version of my problem:

Suppose I have one figure with two axes:

f = figure;
s1 = subplot(2,1,1,'Parent',f);
s2 = subplot(2,1,2,'Parent',f);

I want to plot a three-dimensional surface in the first axis, and I want to place an impoint object in the second axis:

[X,Y,Z] = peaks(25);
sf = surf(s1,X,Y,Z);
p = impoint(s2,0.5,0.5);

Now I want the axis s1 to be in rotate3d mode so I can view the surface from any angle:

rotate3d(s1);

But I'd like to be able to drag the impoint in s2 without needing to turn off the rotate3d mode. Unfortunately, rotate3d mode appears to disable the impoint.

For user-defined figure-wide callbacks, it looks like going into rotate3d mode makes those callbacks inaccessible, but there is a work-around for that.

Is there a similar work-around to allow me to drag the impoint in s2 without turning off the rotate3d mode?

Thanks!

Steven

Answer 1

[Steven Lulich]

I figured it out! My solution makes use of the ButtonDownFilter property of the figure's mode object which is returned when entering the rotate3d mode. Here is the code:

f = figure;
s1 = subplot(2,1,1,'Parent',f);
s2 = subplot(2,1,2,'Parent',f);
[X,Y,Z] = peaks(25);
sf = surf(s1,X,Y,Z);
p = impoint(s2,0.5,0.5);
h = rotate3d(s1);
h.ButtonDownFilter = @turnOffRotate3d;
h.Enable = 'on';
s1.ButtonDownFcn = 'rotate3d(gca);'

The function turnOffRotate3d.m is defined as follows:

function [flag] = turnOffRotate3d(obj,event_obj)
% If the tag of the object is 'impoint', then return true
objTag = obj.Tag;
if strcmpi(objTag,'impoint')
   flag = true;
else
   flag = false;
end;

With this solution, clicking on the s1 axis turns on rotate3d mode, while clicking on the impoint turns rotate3d mode off.

This solution is basically a version of the documentation Example 4 from help rotate3d;