Question
I have a base plot in which I would like to add a smaller version of a second plot/figure ontop of the base plot at a certain location. The second plot (or figure) is already saved as a .fig file. How do I import the .fig file and its data and plot it as is but smaller (so it fits inside the base plot without hiding base plot data) onto the base plot?
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Expert Answer
Kshitij Singh
PhD Expert
Answered Aug 12, 2026
Hi Lizan,
This could be a two-parter. First, load the figure, get its children, then get the x and y data of its children. Second, create a second set of axes and plot. Here is an example of getting children of current axes and plotting the data on a smaller inset axis:
plot(1:5,11:15,'rx','markersize',12);
hold on
plot(1.5:4.5,12:15,'bo','markersize',12);
ch = get(gca,'children');
x1 = get(ch(1),'xdata');
y1 = get(ch(1),'ydata');
x2 = get(ch(2),'xdata');
y2 = get(ch(2),'ydata');
axes('pos',[.6 .2 .25 .25])
plot(x1,y1,'rp-')
hold on
plot(x2,y2,'bs-')
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