Mapping Toolbox™

Function Reference

Geospatial Data Import and Access

Standard File Formats	Reading and writing vector and raster geodata in widely used exchange formats
Gridded Terrain and Bathymetry Products	For reading raster data products distributed in special file formats
Vector Map Products	For reading vector data products distributed in special file formats
Miscellaneous Data Sets	For reading other data products distributed in special file formats
GUIs for Data Import	GUIs for browsing data products and selecting areas and objects of interest
File Reading Utilities	Low-level access functions for text and other data files
Ellipsoids, Radii, Areas, and Volumes	Geometric parameters of Earth, planets, Sun, and Moon

Standard File Formats

arcgridread	Read gridded data set in Arc ASCII Grid Format
geotiffinfo	Information about GeoTIFF file
geotiffread	Read georeferenced image from GeoTIFF file
getworldfilename	Derive worldfile name from image filename
kmlwrite	Write geographic data to KML file
makeattribspec	Attribute specification from geographic data structure
sdtsdemread	Read data from SDTS raster/DEM data set
sdtsinfo	Information about SDTS data set
shapeinfo	Information about shapefile
shaperead	Read vector features and attributes from shapefile
shapewrite	Write geographic data structure to shapefile
worldfileread	Read worldfile and return referencing matrix
worldfilewrite	Construct worldfile from referencing matrix

Gridded Terrain and Bathymetry Products

dted	Read U.S. Department of Defense Digital Terrain Elevation Data (DTED)
dteds	DTED filenames for latitude-longitude quadrangle
etopo	Read global 5-min or 2-min digital terrain data
globedem	Read Global Land One-km Base Elevation (GLOBE) data
globedems	GLOBE data filenames for latitude-longitude quadrangle
gtopo30	Read 30-arc-second global digital elevation data (GTOPO30)
gtopo30s	GTOPO30 data filenames for latitude-longitude quadrangle
satbath	Read 2-minute terrain/bathymetry from Smith and Sandwell
tbase	Read 5-minute global terrain elevations from TerrainBase
usgs24kdem	Read USGS 7.5-minute (30-m or 10-m) Digital Elevation Models
usgsdem	Read USGS 1-degree (3-arc-second) Digital Elevation Model
usgsdems	USGS 1-degree (3-arc-sec) DEM filenames for latitude-longitude quadrangle

Vector Map Products

dcwdata	Read selected DCW worldwide basemap data
dcwgaz	Search DCW worldwide basemap gazette file
dcwread	Read DCW worldwide basemap file
dcwrhead	Read DCW worldwide basemap file headers
fipsname	Read Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) name file used with TIGER thinned boundary files
gshhs	Read Global Self-Consistent Hierarchical High-Resolution Shoreline
tgrline	Read TIGER/Line data
vmap0data	Read selected data from Vector Map Level 0
vmap0read	Read Vector Map Level 0 file
vmap0rhead	Read Vector Map Level 0 file headers

Miscellaneous Data Sets

avhrrgoode	Read AVHRR data product stored in Goode Projection
avhrrlambert	Read AVHRR data product stored in eqaazim projection
egm96geoid	Read 15-minute gridded geoid heights from EGM96
readfk5	Read Fifth Fundamental Catalog of Stars

GUIs for Data Import

demdataui	UI for selecting digital elevation data
vmap0ui	UI for selecting data from Vector Map Level 0

File Reading Utilities

grepfields	Identify matching fields in fixed record length files
readfields	Read fields or records from fixed-format files
readmtx	Read matrix stored in file
spcread	Read columns of data from ASCII text file

Ellipsoids, Radii, Areas, and Volumes

almanac

Parameters for Earth, planets, Sun, and Moon

Vector Map Data and Geographic Data Structures

Geographic Data Structures	For updating and obtaining fields from data structures
Data Manipulation	For altering, combining, and analyzing polygon and line data
Utilities for NaN-Separated Polygons and Lines	For structuring vectors defining multiple line or polygon objects

Geographic Data Structures

extractfield	Field values from structure array
extractm	Coordinate data from line or patch display structure
updategeostruct	Convert line or patch display structure to geostruct

Data Manipulation

bufferm	Buffer zones for latitude-longitude polygons
flatearthpoly	Insert points along date line to pole
interpm	Densify latitude-longitude sampling in lines or polygons
intrplat	Interpolate latitude at given longitude
intrplon	Interpolate longitude at given latitude
ispolycw	True if polygon vertices are in clockwise order
nanclip	Clip vector data with NaNs at specified pen-down locations
poly2ccw	Convert polygon contour to counterclockwise vertex ordering
poly2cw	Convert polygon contour to clockwise vertex ordering
poly2fv	Convert polygonal region to patch faces and vertices
polycut	Polygon branch cuts for holes
polymerge	Merge line segments with matching endpoints
reducem	Reduce density of points in vector data

Utilities for NaN-Separated Polygons and Lines

closePolygonParts	Close all rings in multipart polygon
isShapeMultipart	True, if polygon or line has multiple parts
polyjoin	Convert line or polygon parts from cell arrays to vector form
polysplit	Convert line or polygon parts from vector form to cell arrays
removeExtraNanSeparators	Clean up `NaN` separators in polygons and lines

Georeferenced Images and Data Grids

Spatial Referencing	Computing bounds and converting between geographic and raster coordinates for spatially referenced images and grids
Terrain Analysis	Computing slope, aspect, lines of sight, and terrain visibility
Other Analysis/Access	Computing areas and profiles, and selecting subsets of values from data grids
Construction and Modification	Constructing, encoding, seeding, reorienting, and converting data grids
Initialization	Generating data grids containing uniform values

Spatial Referencing

latlon2pix	Convert latitude-longitude coordinates to pixel coordinates
limitm	Determine latitude and longitude limits of regular data grid
makerefmat	Construct affine spatial-referencing matrix
map2pix	Convert map coordinates to pixel coordinates
mapbbox	Compute bounding box of georeferenced image or data grid
mapoutline	Compute outline of georeferenced image or data grid
meshgrat	Construct map graticule for surface object display
pix2map	Convert pixel coordinates to map coordinates
pixcenters	Compute pixel centers for georeferenced image or data grid
refmat2vec	Convert referencing matrix to referencing vector
refvec2mat	Convert referencing vector to referencing matrix
setltln	Convert data grid rows and columns to latitude-longitude
setpostn	Convert latitude-longitude to data grid rows and columns

Terrain Analysis

gradientm	Calculate gradient, slope and aspect of data grid
los2	Line-of-sight visibility between two points in terrain
viewshed	Areas visible from point on terrain elevation grid

Other Analysis/Access

areamat	Surface area covered by nonzero values in binary data grid
filterm	Filter latitudes and longitudes based on underlying data grid
findm	Latitudes and longitudes of nonzero data grid elements
ltln2val	Extract data grid values for specified locations
mapprofile	Interpolate heights between waypoints on regular data grid

Construction and Modification

changem	Substitute values in data array
encodem	Fill in regular data grid from seed values and locations
geoloc2grid	Convert geolocated data array to regular data grid
imbedm	Encode data points into regular data grid
neworig	Orient regular data grid to oblique aspect
resizem	Resize regular data grid
sizem	Row and column dimensions needed for regular data grid
vec2mtx	Convert latitude-longitude vectors to regular data grid

Initialization

nanm	Construct regular data grid of NaNs
onem	Construct regular data grid of 1s
spzerom	Construct sparse regular data grid of 0s
zerom	Construct regular data grid of 0s

Map Projections and Coordinates

Available Map Projections	Lists of map projections and characteristics
Map Projection Transformations	Forward and inverse map projection functions
Map Trimming	For trimming lines, polygons, and data grids to latitude-longitude quadrangles
Angles, Scales, and Distortions	Computing directions, angles, and distortions on projected maps
Visualizing Map Distortions	Generating displays of distortion statistics and Tissot ellipses
UTM System	Selecting zones and ellipsoids for the Universal Transverse Mercator system
Coordinate Rotation on the Sphere	Reorienting map data by solid-body rotations on the sphere
Trimming and Clipping	Removing and replacing data that extends outside a map frame

For specific map projections, see Map Projections Reference.

Available Map Projections

maplist	Available Mapping Toolbox map projections
maps	List available map projections and verify names
projlist	Map projections supported by `projfwd` and `projinv`

Map Projection Transformations

mfwdtran	Project geographic features to map coordinates
minvtran	Unproject features from map to geographic coordinates
projfwd	Forward map projection using `PROJ.4` map projection library
projinv	Inverse map projection using `PROJ.4` map projection library

Map Trimming

maptriml	Trim lines to latitude-longitude quadrangle
maptrimp	Trim polygons to latitude-longitude quadrangle
maptrims	Trim regular data grid to latitude-longitude quadrangle

Angles, Scales, and Distortions

distortcalc	Distortion parameters for map projections
vfwdtran	Direction angle in map plane from azimuth on ellipsoid
vinvtran	Azimuth on ellipsoid from direction angle in map plane

Visualizing Map Distortions

mdistort	Display contours of constant map distortion
tissot	Project Tissot indicatrices on map axes

UTM System

utmgeoid	Select ellipsoids for given UTM zone
utmzone	Select UTM zone given latitude and longitude

Coordinate Rotation on the Sphere

newpole	Origin vector to place specific point at pole
org2pol	Location of north pole in rotated map
putpole	Origin vector to place north pole at specified point

Trimming and Clipping

clipdata	Clip data at `+/-pi` in longitude, `+/-pi` in latitude
trimcart	Trim graphic objects to map frame
trimdata	Trim map data exceeding projection limits
undoclip	Remove object clips introduced by `clipdata`
undotrim	Remove object trims introduced by `trimdata`

Map Display and Interaction

Map Creation and High-Level Display	Top-level functions that create map axes, project map data onto them, and control symbolization
Vector Symbolization	Functions that draw symbols for points, lines, and polygons (coordinate lists and geostructs)
Lines and Contours	Lower level line plotting and higher level contour plotting functions
Patch Data	Lower-level functions for plotting polygons as patches on map axes
Data Grids	For mapping regular and geolocated data grids in 2-D and 3-D
Light Objects and Lighted Surfaces	For mapping regular and geolocated data grids using lighting and shading
Thematic Maps	For making scatter, quiver, comet, and stem maps
Map Annotation	For adding north arrows, graphic scales, text and other annotations to maps
Colormaps for Map Displays	For constructing colormaps appropriate for map displays
Interactive Map Positions	For graphic interaction with data in map axes
Interactive Track and Circle Definition	For constructing great and small circles, rhumb lines and other geographic tracks
GUIs	GUIs for specific functions and general GUIs for interactive mapping
Map Object and Projection Properties	For querying, setting, and modifying map axes objects and properties
Map Appearance	For controlling the view and map scale
Display Clearing	For showing, hiding, and removing objects from map axes

Map Creation and High-Level Display

axesm	Define map axes and set map properties
displaym	Display geographic data from display structure
geoshow	Display map latitude and longitude data
grid2image	Display regular data grid as image
mapview	Interactive map viewer
usamap	Construct map axes for United States of America
worldmap	Construct map axes for given region of world

Vector Symbolization

makesymbolspec

Construct vector layer symbolization specification

Lines and Contours

contour3m	Project 3-D contour plot of map data
contourfm	Project filled 2-D contour plot of map data
contourm	Project 2-D contour plot of map data
linem	Project line object on map axes
plot3m	Project 3-D lines and points on map axess
plotm	Project 2-D lines and points on map axes

Patch Data

fill3m	Project filled 3-D patch objects on map axes
fillm	Project filled 2-D patch objects on map axes
patchesm	Project patches on map axes as individual objects
patchm	Project patch objects on map axes

Data Grids

meshm	Project regular data grid on map axes
pcolorm	Project regular data grid on map axes in z = 0 plane
surfacem	Project and add geolocated data grid to current map axes
surfm	Project geolocated data grid on map axes

Light Objects and Lighted Surfaces

lightm	Project light objects on map axes
meshlsrm	3-D lighted shaded relief of regular data grid
shaderel	Construct `cdata` and colormap for shaded relief
surflm	3-D shaded surface with lighting on map axes
surflsrm	3-D lighted shaded relief of geolocated data grid

Thematic Maps

comet3m	Project 3-D comet plot on map axes
cometm	Project 2-D comet plot on map axes
quiverm	Project 2-D quiver plot on map axes
scatterm	Project point markers with variable color and area
stem3m	Project stem plot map on map axes
symbolm	Project point markers with variable size

Map Annotation

clabelm	Add contour labels to map contour display
framem	Toggle and control display of map frame
gridm	Toggle and control display of graticule lines
lcolorbar	Colorbar with text labels
mlabel	Toggle and control display of meridian labels
mlabelzero22pi	Convert meridian labels to 0-360 degree range
northarrow	Add graphic element pointing to geographic north pole
plabel	Toggle and control display of parallel labels
rotatetext	Rotate text to projected graticule
scaleruler	Add or modify graphic scale on map axes
textm	Project text annotation on map axes

Colormaps for Map Displays

contourcmap	Contour colormap and colorbar current axes
demcmap	Colormaps appropriate to terrain elevation data
polcmap	Colormaps appropriate to political regions

Interactive Map Positions

gcpmap	Current mouse point from map axes
gtextm	Place text on map using mouse
inputm	Latitudes and longitudes of mouse-click locations

Interactive Track and Circle Definition

scircleg	Small circle defined via mouse input
sectorg	Sector of small circle defined via mouse input
trackg	Great circle or rhumb line defined via mouse input

GUIs

clrmenu	Add colormap menu to figure window
colorm	Create index map colormaps
colorui	Interactively define RGB color
getseeds	Interactively assign seeds for data grid encoding
lightmui	Control position of lights on globe or 3-D map
maptool	Add menu activated tools to map figure
maptrim	Interactively trim and convert map data from vector to raster format
mlayers	GUI to control plotting of display structure elements
mobjects	Manipulate object sets displayed on map axes
originui	Interactively modify map origin
panzoom	Pan and zoom on map axes
parallelui	Interactively modify map parallels
qrydata	GUI to interactively perform data queries
rootlayr	Construct cell array of workspace variables for `mlayers` tool
seedm	GUI to fill data grids with seeded values
surfdist	Interactive distance, azimuth, and reckoning calculations
uimaptbx	Handle buttondown callbacks for mapped objects
utmzoneui	Choose or identify UTM zone by clicking map

Map Object and Projection Properties

cart2grn	Transform projected coordinates to Greenwich system
defaultm	Initialize or reset map projection structure
gcm	Current map projection structure
geotiff2mstruct	Convert GeoTIFF information to map projection structure
getm	Map object properties
handlem	Handles of displayed map objects
ismap	True for axes with map projection
ismapped	True, if object is projected on map axes
makemapped	Convert ordinary graphics object to mapped object
namem	Determine names of valid graphics objects
project	Project displayed map graphics object
restack	Restack objects within map axes
rotatem	Transform vector map data to new origin and orientation
setm	Set properties of map axes and graphics objects
tagm	Set `Tag` property of map graphics object
zdatam	Adjust z-plane of displayed map objects

Map Appearance

axesscale	Resize axes for equivalent scale
camposm	Set camera position using geographic coordinates
camtargm	Set camera target using geographic coordinates
camupm	Set camera up vector using geographic coordinates
daspectm	Control vertical exaggeration in map display
paperscale	Set figure properties for printing at specified map scale
previewmap	View map at printed size
tightmap	Remove white space around map

Display Clearing

clma	Clear current map axes
clmo	Clear specified graphics objects from map axes
hidem	Hide specified graphic objects on map axes
showaxes	Toggle display of map coordinate axes
showm	Specify graphic objects to display on map axes

Geographic Calculations

Geometry of Sphere and Ellipsoid	Distances, deviations, areas, and curves on the sphere or ellipsoid
3-D Coordinates	For converting between different 3-D coordinate systems
Ellipsoids and Latitudes	For converting ellipsoid parameters and auxiliary latitudes
Geometric Object Overlay	For determining if, how, and where points, lines, circles, and areas intersect
Geographic Statistics	For computing geographic means, standard deviations, and histograms
Navigation	For determining positions, headings, drift, and navigational fixes and way points

Geometry of Sphere and Ellipsoid

antipode	Point on opposite side of globe
areaint	Surface area of polygon on sphere or ellipsoid
areaquad	Surface area of latitude-longitude quadrangle
azimuth	Azimuth between points on sphere or ellipsoid
departure	Departure of longitudes at specified latitudes
distance	Distance between points on sphere or ellipsoid
ellipse1	Geographic ellipse from center, semimajor axes, eccentricity, and azimuth
gc2sc	Center and radius of great circle
meridianarc	Ellipsoidal distance along meridian
meridianfwd	Reckon position along meridian
reckon	Point at specified azimuth, range on sphere or ellipsoid
scircle1	Small circles from center, range, and azimuth
scircle2	Small circles from center and perimeter
track1	Geographic tracks from starting point, azimuth, and range
track2	Geographic tracks from starting and ending points

3-D Coordinates

ecef2geodetic	Convert geocentric (ECEF) to geodetic coordinates
ecef2lv	Convert geocentric (ECEF) to local vertical coordinates
elevation	Local vertical elevation angle, range, and azimuth
geodetic2ecef	Convert geodetic to geocentric (ECEF) coordinates
lv2ecef	Convert local vertical to geocentric (ECEF) coordinates

Ellipsoids and Latitudes

axes2ecc	Eccentricity of ellipse with given axis lengths
convertlat	Convert between geodetic and auxiliary latitudes
ecc2flat	Flattening of ellipse with given eccentricity
ecc2n	n-value of ellipse with given eccentricity
flat2ecc	Eccentricity of ellipse with given flattening
geocentric2geodeticLat	Convert geocentric to geodetic latitude
geodetic2geocentricLat	Convert geodetic to geocentric latitude
majaxis	Semimajor axis of ellipse given semiminor axis and eccentricity
minaxis	Semiminor axis of ellipse given semimajor axis and eccentricity
n2ecc	Eccentricity of ellipse with given n-value
rcurve	Radii of curvature of ellipsoid
rsphere	Radii of auxiliary spheres

Geometric Object Overlay

circcirc	Intersections of circles in Cartesian plane
gcxgc	Intersection points for pairs of great circles
gcxsc	Intersection points for great and small circle pairs
ingeoquad	True for points inside or on lat-lon quadrangle
intersectgeoquad	Intersection of two latitude-longitude quadrangles
linecirc	Intersections of circles and lines in Cartesian plane
outlinegeoquad	Polygon outlining geographic quadrangle
polybool	Set operations on polygonal regions
polyxpoly	Intersection points for lines or polygon edges
rhxrh	Intersection points for pairs of rhumb lines
scxsc	Intersection points for pairs of small circles

Geographic Statistics

combntns	All possible combinations of set of values
eqa2grn	Convert from equal area to Greenwich coordinates
grn2eqa	Convert from Greenwich to equal area coordinates
hista	Histogram for geographic points with equal-area bins
meanm	Mean location of geographic coordinates
stdist	Standard distance for geographic points
stdm	Standard deviation for geographic points

Navigation

crossfix	Cross-fix positions from bearings and ranges
dreckon	Dead reckoning positions for track
driftcorr	Heading to correct for wind or current drift
driftvel	Wind or current from heading, course, and speeds
gcwaypts	Equally spaced waypoints along great circle
legs	Courses and distances between navigational waypoints
navfix	Mercator-based navigational fix
timezone	Time zone based on longitude
track	Track segments to connect navigational waypoints

Utilities

Angle Conversions	For converting angles between different units and encodings
Conversion Factors for Angles and Distances	Function to compute factor for converting between units of distance and angles
Data Precision	For managing data precision
Distance Conversions	For converting distances between different units and encodings
Image Conversion	Function for changing indexed images to uint8 true-color images
String Formatters	For formatting angles and distances as text suitable for annotations
Longitude or Azimuth Wrapping	For forcing angles to lie within specified intervals

Angle Conversions

deg2rad	Convert angles from degrees to radians
degrees2dm	Convert degrees to degrees-minutes
degrees2dms	Convert degrees to degrees-minutes-seconds
dm2degrees	Convert degrees-minutes to degrees
dms2degrees	Convert degrees-minutes-seconds to degrees
fromDegrees	Convert angles from degrees
fromRadians	Convert angles from radians
rad2deg	Convert angle units from radians to degrees
str2angle	Convert strings to angles in degrees
toDegrees	Convert angles to degrees
toRadians	Convert angles to radians

Conversion Factors for Angles and Distances

unitsratio

Unit conversion factors

Data Precision

epsm	Accuracy in angle units for certain map computations
roundn	Round numbers to specified power of 10

Distance Conversions

deg2km, deg2nm, deg2sm	Convert distance from degrees to kilometers, nautical miles, or statute miles
km2deg, nm2deg, sm2deg	Convert from distance units to degrees
km2nm, km2sm, nm2km, nm2sm, sm2km, sm2nm	Convert distance between kilometers and miles
km2rad, nm2rad, sm2rad	Convert from distance units to radians
rad2km, rad2nm, rad2sm	Convert distance from radians to kilometers, nautical miles, or statute miles

Image Conversion

ind2rgb8

Convert indexed image to uint8 RGB image

String Formatters

angl2str	Format angle strings
dist2str	Format distance strings

Longitude or Azimuth Wrapping

unwrapMultipart	Unwrap vector of angles with NaN-delimited parts
wrapTo180	Wrap angle in degrees to [-180 180]
wrapTo2Pi	Wrap angle in radians to [0 2*pi]
wrapTo360	Wrap angle in degrees to [0 360]
wrapToPi	Wrap angle in radians to [-pi pi]

GUIs

Map Definition Tools	Selecting vector and raster data, defining map axes, and projection parameters
Mapping Tools	Displaying maps, manipulating layers, and querying map objects
Display Manipulation Tools	Controlling zoom levels, colormaps, and lighting
Object Property Tools	Showing, hiding, tagging, and clearing objects, and customizing colormaps
Track Tools	Plotting small and great circles, rhumb lines, and other navigational tracks
Map Data Construction Tools	Setting limits, trimming maps, and seeding grid values

Map Definition Tools

axesm, axesmui	Define map axes and modify map projection and display properties
demdataui	UI for selecting digital elevation data
originui	Interactively modify map origin
parallelui	Interactively modify map parallels
utmzoneui	Choose or identify UTM zone by clicking map
vmap0ui	UI for selecting data from Vector Map Level 0

Mapping Tools

maptool	Add menu activated tools to map figure
maptrim	Interactively trim and convert map data from vector to raster format
mapview	Interactive map viewer
mlayers	GUI to control plotting of display structure elements
mobjects	Manipulate object sets displayed on map axes
qrydata	GUI to interactively perform data queries

Display Manipulation Tools

clrmenu	Add colormap menu to figure window
hidem-ui	Hide specified mapped objects
lightmui	Control position of lights on globe or 3-D map
panzoom	Pan and zoom on map axes

Object Property Tools

clmo	Clear specified graphics objects from map axes
colorui	Interactively define RGB color
handlem	Handles of displayed map objects
handlem-ui	GUI for handles of specified mapped objects
hidem	Hide specified graphic objects on map axes
property editors	GUIs to edit properties of mapped objects
showm	Specify graphic objects to display on map axes
tagm	Set `Tag` property of map graphics object
zdatam	Adjust z-plane of displayed map objects

Track Tools

scircleg	Small circle defined via mouse input
scirclui	GUI to display small circles on map axes
sectorg	Sector of small circle defined via mouse input
surfdist	Interactive distance, azimuth, and reckoning calculations
trackg	Great circle or rhumb line defined via mouse input
trackui	GUI to display great circles and rhumb lines on map axes

Map Data Construction Tools

colorm	Create index map colormaps
seedm	GUI to fill data grids with seeded values

Navigation

Functions — Alphabetical List