How an I manipulate top and bottom x axes individually?

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I want to control the x axis top and bottom individually / separately.
Specifically I want to point the bottom x axis ticks out and the top x axis ticks in ( and point left y axis out and right y axis in).
  2 Comments
dpb
dpb on 30 Aug 2020
The 'TickDirection' property is global for the X- and Y- axis objects; there's insufficient granularity of properties to modify one but not the other.
You could make two axes, and set one 'in' and one 'out', but then both would show anyway...
Don't see any way to do this other than to physically draw ticks where wanted if it's that important to go to the trouble.

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Accepted Answer

J. Alex Lee
J. Alex Lee on 30 Aug 2020
Actually, dpb's suggestion of 2 axes should work as long as you don't turn "box on", and you may need to sync their positions if you do things like add axis labels, etc.
fig = figure;
ax(1) = axes(fig,'Color','none');
ax(2) = axes(fig,'Color','none');
ax(2).YAxisLocation = 'right';
ax(2).XAxisLocation = 'top';
ax(2).XAxis.TickDirection = 'out'
ax(1).YAxis.TickDirection = 'out'
  1 Comment
dpb
dpb on 30 Aug 2020
" 2 axes should work as long as you don't turn "box on"
Ah-so! Indeed. Didn't think about box leaving off the opposite side ticks...good catch.

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More Answers (1)

Rod Letchford
Rod Letchford on 31 Aug 2020
Alex,
This works really well, thanks. My slight adjustment:
fig = figure;
ax(1) = axes(fig,'Color','none');
ax(2) = axes(fig,'Color','none');
ax(1).XAxisLocation = 'bottom';
ax(2).XAxisLocation = 'top';
ax(1).YAxisLocation = 'left';
ax(2).YAxisLocation = 'right';
ax(1).XAxis.TickDirection = 'out'; % Bottom
ax(2).XAxis.TickDirection = 'in'; % Top
ax(1).YAxis.TickDirection = 'out'; % Left
ax(2).YAxis.TickDirection = 'in'; % Right
The last and third last lines are redundant since by default the ticks are 'in', but I put them there so its easy to change.

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