Summary of Polygon Display Functions

The following table lists the available Mapping Toolbox™ patch and polygon display functions.

Function	Used For
geoshow	Display map latitude and longitude data in 2-D on map axes
mapshow	Display map data without projection in 2-D on axes
patchm	Patch objects projected on map axes
patchesm	Patches projected as individual objects on map axes
fillm	Filled 2-D map patches on map axes
fill3m	Filled 3-D map patches in 3-D space on map axes
geoplot	Display point, line, and polygon data on geographic axes

geoshow and mapshow

The geoshow and mapshow functions provide a superset of functionality for displaying geographic (latitude-longitude) and projected (xy) geospatial data, respectively, in two dimensions. These functions accept geospatial tables, geographic data structures (geostructs and mapstructs), and coordinate vector arrays, but can also directly read shapefiles and spatially referenced raster files. To control how MATLAB^® renders the data, create symbol specifications by using the makesymbolspec function.

patchm, patchesm, fillm, and fill3m

Mapping Toolbox provides two low-level patch drawing functions, patchm and patchesm. The patchm function creates one displayed object that can contain multiple unconnected faces. Unlike MATLAB patch display functions, which do not support unconnected patch faces, patchm separates unconnected faces using NaN values. Alternatively, the patchesm function treats each face as a separate object and returns an array of patch objects. In general, patchm requires more memory but is faster than patchesm. The patchesm function is useful if you need to manipulate the appearance of individual patches (as thematic maps often require).

The fillm and fill3m functions make use of the patchm function.

geoplot

The geoplot function displays point, line, and polygon data on geographic axes. This function accepts geospatial tables and shape objects in any supported projected or geographic coordinate reference system (CRS), and coordinate vectors in geographic coordinates. Unlike the other functions listed on this page, the geoplot function creates a Polygon object when you display polygon data.