Keep object size constant when rotating 3-D Matlab plot

Question

I am trying to generate a set of views of a 3-D object in Matlab such that the angle changes but the object size stays constant. Because Matlab tries to fit the entire axis into view, an object will shrink or grow depending on whether the plot is viewed head-on or at an angle. As an example:

[x,y,z] = sphere(50); % coordinates of a sphere
surf(x,y,z);          % plot the sphere
axis image off
view(0,0)             % at this angle the sphere fills the axes
view(-37.5,30)        % at this angle the sphere is much smaller

How can I make it so that the sphere appears the same size no matter what angle it's viewed at?

Answer 1

The axis function is your friend here. Try adding

axis vis3d

From the help, "axis VIS3D freezes aspect ratio properties to enable rotation of 3-D objects and overrides stretch-to-fill." If you're interested The same this can be accomplished via

ax = gca;
props = {'CameraViewAngle','DataAspectRatio','PlotBoxAspectRatio'};
set(ax,props,get(ax,props));