Matlab - "seal" a figure so that plotting won't overwrite it, but will create a new figure automatically

Question

I'm writing a script that draws a figure. I'd like that figure to stay intact until it is closed by the user manually (e.g. clicking the cross).

If the user issues a plotting command in Matlab prompt, this should not affect the existing figure, but should open a new figure automatically.

How to block this default behaviour where Matlab reuses figure objects?

This may also be important when using a figure as an interactive user interface, that should not be replaced with some other content when the user wishes to plot something.

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What I've tried: help gcf says that it retrieves the global 'CurrentFigure' property. So, after plotting, I tried set('CurrentFigure', 12345), hoping that it would reset the current figure to a nonexisting value (also tried zero, empty array). But that complains that it needs a handle. So I tried to instantiate a handle: set('CurrentFigure', handle()), but that complains that it's an abstract class. I guess I'm looking for a lightweight handle subclass that can be instantiated.

Answer 1

Setting the property NextPlot of the current figure to new will create a new plot on the next call to plot(). Here's a small example:

plot(1:10, 1:10); % create a figure
set(gcf, 'NextPlot', 'new'); % next plot goes in new figure
plot(1:10, 1:10);

The CurrentFigure property you tried to change just stores the handle to the figure that has been used/focused most recently. Its value must be a valid figure handle. You could of course just create a new empty figure with figure() which automatically sets CurrentFigure to the handle of the newly created figure. But then you have two figure windows open. Therefore I think the above method is a little more elegant.