How do I rotate the view of a cylinder created using surf plot?

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I have created a simple cylinder with radius (r), length (l) and then plotted this to create a surface using the function surf. However, the angle of the plot is such that the cylinder is pointing upwards i.e. z-axis points directly upwards:
I wish to automatically plot the surface but with the orientation change below:
I have attempted to use the view function but can't seem to master this correctly.
Thanks for the help,
Martin

Answers (2)

Adam Danz
Adam Danz on 24 Nov 2021
Edited: Adam Danz on 28 Nov 2021
Use makehgtform to translate and rotate the object.
[X,Y,Z]=cylinder([0 3],1000);
M=makehgtform('translate',___,'xrotate',___,'yrotate',___,'zrotate',___);
h=surf(X,Y,Z,'Parent',hgtransform('Matrix',M),___);
Also see this answer.
If you're trying to change the orientation of the entire axes, set cameraUpVector or use camup.
ax = gca();
ax.CameraUpVector = [0 1 0];

Kevin Holly
Kevin Holly on 24 Nov 2021
Here is another method, if you want to rotate the surf plot.
figure
[x,y,z] = cylinder(2,20);
obj = surf(x,y,80*z);
xlim([-10 10])
ylim([-10 10])
zlim([0 100])
xlabel('x')
ylabel('y')
zlabel('z')
figure
[x,y,z] = cylinder(2,20);
obj = surf(x,y,80*z);
rotate(obj,[1 0 0],90)
xlim([-10 10])
ylim([-100 100])
zlim([30 50])
xlabel('x')
ylabel('y')
zlabel('z')
figure
[x,y,z] = cylinder(2,20);
obj = surf(x,y,80*z);
rotate(obj,[1 0 0],90)
rotate(obj,[0 0 1],90)
xlabel('x')
ylabel('y')
zlabel('z')
xlim([-50 50])
ylim([-10 10])
zlim([30 50])
  5 Comments
Martin Doherty
Martin Doherty on 13 Dec 2021
The orientation looks correct but does this position the cylinder centreline at (0,0,0:80)? It doesn't look like it from the plot above.
Kevin Holly
Kevin Holly on 3 Feb 2022
I must have missed your previous comment.
figure
[x,y,z] = cylinder(2,20);
obj = surf(x,y,80*z);
rotate(obj,[1 0 0],90)
rotate(obj,[0 0 1],90)
xlabel('z')
ylabel('x')
zlabel('y')
xlim([0 100])
ylim([-10 10])
zlim([-10 20])
obj.XData=obj.XData+50;
obj.YData=obj.YData;
obj.ZData=obj.ZData-40;

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