How to speed up manipulations of plot with a lot of data

I have time series with 20000000 samples that I am plotting in R2016b for data exploration. I would prefer not to downsample or subset the data because I have to look at closeups scattered through the whole time series, and I need to be able to zoom in/out, select lines to extract values, etc. Possibly due to the data volume, the Figure Interactive tools (selection arrow, pan icon, data brush ) are periodically grayed out on the figure toolbar. Sometimes the cursor disappears inside the figure window if I want to zoom in. These down times can be several minutes.

Are there any tricks for manual manipulation of high-volume plots, such as avoiding use of markers?

[dpb]

" I can't downsample or subset the data, ..."

Of course you can; at most there are a few thousand pixels on the screen so more than that isn't seen, anyway. Decimate (including bounding if desired to keep min/max in range) to show initial plot, then pull in more data as needed in ranges or as zoom.

[K E]

You are right. I edited the text to indicate it is a preference not to downsample or subset.

Answer 1

[Sean de Wolski]

Have you tried plot (big)?

[K E]

plot (big) makes plot operations manageable. Thanks for a very helpful suggestion; others with this problem should definitely try it.