Combine surf and scatter3 in one axes

I want to combine a surf and a scatter3 in a single axes so that the scatter points are displayed above or below the surface (dependent of there Z value) in the same coordinate system.

When creating surf or scatter3 the axes handle is provided as a first parameter

surf( handles.myAxes, ...
scatter( handels.myAxes, ...

I also tried

surf( handles.myAxes, ...
hold on;
scatter( handels.myAxes, ...

The result remains always the same. Only the scatter3 points are shown in axes. The surf is invisible.

My questions

1) Is it possible to combine a surf and a scatter3 in a single axes at the same time? (Didn't find any hints on this limitation in the docs) 2) If yes how can this be achieved?

Answer 1

[Mischa Kim]

Thomas, what happens if you execute the following code? With and without the get command?

 k       = 5;
 n       = 2^k-1;
 [x,y,z] = sphere(n);
 surf(x,y,z);
 get(gcf, 'Renderer')
 hold on

 [X,Y,Z] = sphere(16);
 xx = 2*[0.5*X(:); 0.75*X(:); X(:)];
 yy = 2*[0.5*Y(:); 0.75*Y(:); Y(:)];
 zz = 2*[0.5*Z(:); 0.75*Z(:); Z(:)];
 scatter3(xx,yy,zz)
 get(gcf, 'Renderer')

Is this the behavior you are looking for?

[Thomas]

This is exactly what I wanted to achieve. I don't see any difference in executing the script with or without get command. Should there be any difference visible?

[Walter Roberson]

I suspect Mischa wanted you to check to see if the same renderer was being used in both cases. Which I would expect would happen, but renderers cause surprising issues.

If you now comment out the get() calls does the code function?