Mapping Toolbox™ Release Notes

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Mapping Toolbox™ Release Notes
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 Contents

R2023a

Map Axes: Create maps in any supported projection using new axes type
.......................................................... 1-2

Coordinate Reference Systems: Change projection parameters for

projected CRS objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-3

Vector Basemaps: Add custom basemaps from vector basemaps hosted by

Esri and from MBTiles files containing vector data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-3

WMS Database: Search updated database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4

Functionality being removed or changed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-5

Some functions that accept referencing matrices as inputs will be removed
in a future release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-5
mfwdtran and minvtran will be removed in a future release . . . . . . . . . . . 1-5
Some file import, map display, data analysis, and geometric geodesy
functions have been removed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-5

R2022b

Vector Data: Determine which shape objects are multipoint shapes . . . . 2-2

georasterinfo function: Read RPC coefficient tags from GeoTIFF files . . 2-2

projfwd and projinv functions: Improved performance on Windows with

repeated use of projection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2

Web Map Service: New server with terrain elevation data hosted by
MathWorks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-3

WMS Database: Search updated database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-3

Documentation refers to maps created using axesm, worldmap, or

usamap as axesm-based maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-3

Functionality being removed or changed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-3

Adding new plot to geographic globe does not reset basemap or terrain
...................................................... 2-3
combntns has been removed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-4

iii
 Some functions that accept referencing vectors or referencing matrices as
inputs will be removed in a future release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-4
Some functions will not accept referencing vectors or referencing matrices
as input in a future release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-5
Some file import, map display, and geometric geodesy UI functions will be
removed in a future release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-6
shapewrite truncates text when length exceeds 254 characters or value of
FieldLength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-6

R2022a

Vector Data: Create maps from point, line, and polygon shapes or
geospatial tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2

Vector Data: Clip point, line, and polygon shapes and determine if points
are within polygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2
Clip point, line, and polygon shapes to bounding box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2
Determine if points are within polygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-3

Basemaps: Add custom basemap from MBTiles file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-3

Basemaps: Read georeferenced image from basemap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-3

Raster Data: Read coordinate reference system for GeoTIFF files using
geotiffinfo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-4

LAS and LAZ Data: Read coordinate reference system for LAS and LAZ
files using Lidar Toolbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-5

WMS Database: Search updated database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-5

Functionality being removed or changed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-5

Some functions that return referencing vectors or referencing matrices will
be removed in a future release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-5
Some functions that accept referencing vectors or referencing matrices as
inputs will be removed in a future release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-6
Some function syntaxes that return referencing vectors or referencing
matrices will be removed in a future release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-6
Some file import, map display, data analysis, and geometric geodesy
functions will be removed in a future release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-6
Some file import, map display, and angle wrapping functions have been
removed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-7
USGS Shaded Relief base layer has been removed from web map . . . . . . . 3-8
geopointshape and mappointshape objects with missing coordinate data
have some changed property values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-8

iv Contents
 R2021b

Vector Data: Read, display, and write vector data using geospatial tables
.......................................................... 4-2
Read vector data from files into geospatial tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-2
Create maps using geospatial tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-2
Write geospatial tables to shapefile and KML formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-2
Convert between structures, tables, and geospatial tables . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-2

Basemaps: Interactively change basemap of geographic plots . . . . . . . . . 4-3

Raster Import: Read SRTM Height data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3

WMS Database: Search updated database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3

Functionality being removed or changed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-4

Some functions that accept referencing matrices as inputs will be removed
in a future release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-4
Some raster reading functions that do not return reference objects will be
removed in a future release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-4
Previous removal of coast.mat file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-4

R2021a

Raster Import: Read data in Vertical Mapper Grid formats . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-2

Raster Analysis: Get geographic or world coordinates of raster elements

.......................................................... 5-2

3-D Geographic Plotting: Use geographic globes in MATLAB Online . . . . 5-2

Code Generation: Generate C and C++ code using MATLAB Coder . . . . . 5-2

Web Map Service: Read WMS capabilities documents from additional

servers, get additional keywords, get additional layer information . . . 5-2

WMS Database: Search updated database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-2

Functionality being removed or changed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-3

Web maps appear in multiple windows and have a default size . . . . . . . . . 5-3
Some functions that accept referencing vectors or matrices as inputs will be
removed in a future release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-3
geoloc2grid and vec2mtx functions return raster reference objects . . . . . . 5-3

v
 R2020b

3-D Geographic Plotting: Programmatically navigate geographic globe

using camera functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-2

Coordinate Reference Systems: Create projected and geographic CRS

objects from imported data, named spatial reference codes, or well-
known text strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-2

Coordinate Reference Systems: Project or unproject coordinates using

projcrs objects and additional map projection structures . . . . . . . . . . . 6-2

Coordinate Reference Systems: Use reference ellipsoid information in

geocrs objects with analysis functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-2

WMS Database: Search updated database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-2

Functionality being removed or changed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-3

mfwdtran will be removed in a future release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-3
minvtran will be removed in a future release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-3
Some functions that return referencing matrices will be removed in a future
release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-3
Some functions that accept referencing vectors or matrices as inputs will be
removed in a future release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-3
Some function syntaxes that return referencing vectors or referencing
matrices will be removed in a future release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-3
Name property for some referenceEllipsoid objects has changed . . . . . . . 6-4
Path for example data files has changed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-4
EPSG CSV files have been removed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-4

R2020a

3-D Geographic Plotting: Plot 3-D data on globe display using geoglobe
and geoplot3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-2

3-D Geographic Plotting: Add and remove custom terrain . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-2

egm96geoid Function: Return geoid heights referenced to geographic

reference object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-2

MATLAB Online: Mapping Toolbox is supported on MATLAB Online . . . . 7-2

Raster Cropping: Crop raster data using mapcrop and geocrop . . . . . . . . 7-2

Raster Import: Read geospatial raster data from a file using

readgeoraster and georasterinfo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-3

WMS Database: Search updated database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-3

vi Contents
Functionality being removed or changed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-3
arcgridread and geotiffread are not recommended . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-3
Raster reading functions that do not return reference objects will be
removed in a future release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-4
Compiling web maps using Linux requires files in directory of application
...................................................... 7-4

R2019b

egm96geoid Function: Return geoid heights at specified latitudes and

longitudes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-2

egm96geoid Function: Return geoid heights with improved performance

.......................................................... 8-2

WMS Database: Modified or removed servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-2

Functionality being removed or changed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-3

Different polygon vertex order for poly2v and bufferm function output . . . 8-3

R2019a

mapresize function: Resize projected raster geospatial data . . . . . . . . . . 9-2

georesize function: Resize unprojected raster geospatial data . . . . . . . . . 9-2

WMS Database Modified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-2

R2018b

Custom basemaps: Access high zoom-level custom basemaps by URL for

use in web map and geographic plots in MATLAB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-2

WMS Database Modified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-2

vii
 R2018a

geotiffwrite function: Export data containing more than 4 GB in BigTIFF

format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-2

WMS Database Modified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-2

Functions Being Removed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-3

R2017b

WMS Database Modified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-2

R2017a

Raster Interpolation: Interpolate images and raster grids referenced to

geographic and projected map coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-2

wmsfind: Search Online Version of WMS Database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-2

WMS Database Modified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-2

R2016b

lookAtSpheroid: Trace line of sight from points in space to oblate

spheroid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-2

worldfileread: Achieve high-precision raster referencing . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-2

wmsfind: Specify which Web server database to use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-2

wmsfind and WMSLayer.refine: Accept string inputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-2

Map Quest Layers and USGS Hydrography Layer No Longer Available

......................................................... 14-2

los2: Improved performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-2

WMS Database Modified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-2

viii Contents
Functions Being Removed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-3

R2016a

kmlwrite and kmlwritepolygon: Export polygons to KML file format . . . 15-2

wmpolygon: Display polygons on Web Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-2

arcgridread: Import data in GridFloat format, including USGS elevation

grids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-2

geocontourxy: Contour data gridded in local Cartesian system and

transform to latitude-longitude geoshapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-2

webmap: Display data over high-resolution world imagery . . . . . . . . . . . 15-2

New KML options: Control transparency of icons, points, and lines, and
polygon faces and edges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-2

arcgridread: Return raster reference objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-2

WMS Database Modified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-3

R2015b

New functions to make raster referencing objects with specific cell

extents or sample spacings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-2

Raster reference objects returned by wmsread and included in

WMSMapRequest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-2

TIFF RPCCoefficientTag tags enabled in GeoTIFF file import and export

......................................................... 16-2

Improved viewshed and line of sight performance due to the new

MATLAB execution engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-2

deg2rad and rad2deg functions moved to MATLAB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-2

ispolycw function more robust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-3

WMS Database Modified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-3

Functions Being Removed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-4

ix
 R2015a

Settable raster reference cell extent and sample spacing properties . . . 17-2

Support for reading non-standard USGS 24K DEM files . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-2

Improved viewshed function performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-2

WMS Database Modified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-2

R2014b

WMS Database Modified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-2

New look of map graphics with improved clarity and aesthetics . . . . . . 18-2

copyobj does not work with certain Map graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-3

Functions Being Removed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-3

R2014a

Zoom via Standard MATLAB Tools and Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-2

Streamlined maptool Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-2

X Label, Y Label, and Title removed from Map Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-2

Less Obtrusive Contextual Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-3

Standard Property Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-3

namem and handlem no longer create an axes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-3

WMS Database Modified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-3

Functions Being Removed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-4

x Contents
 R2013b

Web map display with dynamic base maps from OpenStreetMap and other
sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-2

Functions to add or remove geographic point marker and line overlays on

a web map display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-2

Interactive navigation and commands to control web map limits, center,

and zoom level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-2

Additional object properties for referencing images or data grids to

geographic or planar coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-2

georasterref, maprasterref, and worldfileread functions return new types

......................................................... 20-3

Raster reference conversion functions accept new parameter and return

new types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-3

Properties and method name changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-4

Maps in the Stereographic Projection can extend more than 90 degrees

from the origin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-5

Spheroid objects display additional properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-5

WMS Database Modified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-5

Functions Being Removed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-6

R2013a

KML export for line features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-2

Additional KML attributes for both points and lines: AltitudeMode,

Camera, Color, and LookAt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-2

Multiple track log and route import in gpxread function . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-2

Dynamic vector input in shapewrite, geoshow, and mapshow . . . . . . . . . 21-2

Auxiliary latitude converter objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-2

Additional KML enhancements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-3

Geocentric and parametric latitude functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-3

xi
 Predicate for checking and validating angle unit inputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-3

Support for PolarStereographic (Variant B) Projection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-3

Enhancements to geoshape and mapshape classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-3

Improved performance for gpxread function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-3

WMS Database Modified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-3

Functions Being Removed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-4

R2012b

Dynamic representation of geographic line and polygon features with

geoshape class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-2

Dynamic representation of point, line, and polygon map features with

mappoint and mapshape classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-2

Coordinate transformations to/from local east-north-up, north-east-down,

and spherical systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-2

Geographic quadrangles bounding points and lines with geoquadpt and

geoquadline functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-2

Expanding latitude-longitude quadrangle with bufgeoquad function . . 22-2

Spheroid class methods for 3-D coordinate transformations . . . . . . . . . 22-2

Option to use in degrees in unwrapMultipart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-3

Changes in geopoint class . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-3

Links to Internet geodata resources moved to Mapping Toolbox

documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-3

Smoother colormap interpolation in function demcmap . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-3

Change in gshhs output structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-4

New method option in intrplat and intrplon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-4

Certain sample data files can be included in a deployed application . . . 22-4

WMS Database Modified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-4

xii Contents
 R2012a

Data File Removal or Location Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-2

geotiffinfo Now Handles Non-compliant GeoTIFF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-2

geopoint Class to Hold Geographic Point Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-2

gpxread Function to Read GPX Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-3

geotiffinfo Now Sets Filename to URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-3

Length Unit Validation and Conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-3

Improved Reference Spheroid Representations and Support . . . . . . . . . 23-3

wgs84Ellipsoid Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-3

The etopo function now supports reading additional ETOPO1 data sets
......................................................... 23-4

Improvement to Functions usamap and worldmap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-4

WMS Database Modified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-4

R2011b

New contourcbar Function Creates Color Bar for Filled Contour Display
......................................................... 24-2

Support for Web Map Service Version 1.3.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-2

WMS Database Modified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-2

Changes to Error and Warning Identifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-3

New Location for Sample Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-3

almanac Function Now Returns More Precise Eccentricity Value . . . . . . 24-4

R2011a

Spatial Referencing Improvements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25-2

Raster Referencing Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25-2

xiii
 New geotiffwrite Function to Write GeoTIFF Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25-2

WMS Database Modified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25-3

Enhancements to geotiffinfo, geotiffread, and worldfileread . . . . . . . . . 25-4

Improved Performance for gtopo30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25-4

Improved Performance for gshhs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25-4

Second Input Argument of roundn No Longer Optional . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25-4

Comet Menu Item Removed from maptool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25-5

R2010b

MATLAB Plot Selector Now Includes mapshow and geoshow . . . . . . . . . 26-2

Support for Retrieving Web Map Service Data in Image/BIL Format . . . 26-2

Expanded Data Type Support for mapshow and geoshow . . . . . . . . . . . . 26-2

WMS Database Modified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26-2

KML Schema Updated to Version 2.2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26-2

Population Density Data Added to usastatelo.shp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26-3

Elements in korea.mat File Rounded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26-3

Changes in Behavior for Contouring Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26-3

clabelm No Longer Breaks Contour Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26-5

Changes in geoshow Behavior with 'DisplayType', 'contour' . . . . . . . . . . 26-6

Changes in geoshow Behavior with 'DisplayType', 'surface' . . . . . . . . . . 26-6

Changes in Behavior for the handlem Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26-6

Changes in Finding Filled Contour Handles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26-6
Changes in Finding 3-D Contour Handles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26-7
Changes in Finding Contour Label Handles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26-7

Syntax Changes for contourcmap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26-7

Change in Behavior for bufferm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26-8

maptrims No Longer Trims Edge Rows and Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26-8

Change in Longitude Limits for WMSMapRequest and WMSLayer . . . . 26-8

xiv Contents
polyxpoly Now Issues Warning when 'unique' Option Combined with
Segment Indices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26-8

R2010a

WMS Database Modified . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27-2

The etopo Function Now Supports the ETOPO1 and ETOPO2v2 Data Sets
......................................................... 27-2

Now Possible to Retrieve Legend for WMS Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27-2

Clipping Property Default Now Set to 'off' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27-3

The shaperead and shapewrite Functions Now Support Non-ASCII

Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27-3

Display Range Increased for eqdazim and eqaazim Projections . . . . . . . 27-3

The GUIs mlayers and mobjects No Longer Support EraseMode . . . . . . 27-4

scatterm Now Returns a Handle to an hggroup Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27-4

mdistort Now Returns a Handle to a contourgroup Object . . . . . . . . . . . 27-4

polybool No Longer Errors when Given Empty Input Vertex Arrays . . . . 27-4

Functions Being Removed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27-5

R2009b

New Features for Creating Web Map Service Maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28-2

New makerefmat Syntax for Constructing Referencing Matrices . . . . . . 28-2

Some Functions Now Accept Referencing Matrices as Input . . . . . . . . . 28-2

Expanded Support for GSHHS Global Coastline Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28-2

New Behavior for polymerge when Three or More Line Segments Have
Common End Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28-2

Automatic Conversion of Latitude Limits to Ascending Order . . . . . . . . 28-3

Second Input Argument of roundn No Longer Supports Complex

Numbers, Non-integers, or Default Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28-3

xv
 Functions Removed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28-4

R2009a

geoshow and mapshow Now Construct Ordinary Patch Objects . . . . . . . 29-2

R2008b

Using the Map Axes Map Limit Properties with axesm, setm, and
defaultm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30-2

Changing Projection Type of an Existing Map Axes with setm . . . . . . . . 30-2

Other Bug Fixes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30-3

coast.MAT Data File Revised . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30-3

Map Limit Syntaxes Removed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30-3

R2008a

Functions for Working with Geographic Quadrangles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31-2

Fixes and Improvements to Function avhrrgoode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31-2

Improved Accuracy for the limitm and setpostn Functions . . . . . . . . . . . 31-3

New Point Location Demo Data for Tsunami Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31-4

Better Trimming Benefits fillm Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31-4

Restored units Options for Function angl2str . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31-4

New Longitude-Wrapping Option in the closePolygonParts Utility . . . . . 31-5

Changes to Terminology for Geographic Data Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . 31-5

Identifiers Provided for all Warnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31-6

Documentation for Functions tigermif and tigerp Removed . . . . . . . . . . 31-6

xvi Contents
Removed Syntaxes that Returned Error Messages in Optional Argument
......................................................... 31-6

R2007b

Exporting Vector Geodata to Earth Browsers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32-2

Improved Conversion Between Angle Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32-2

Four New Angle-Unit Conversion Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32-3

Improvements in Handling Length Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32-3

Alternatives to the distdim Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32-3
The unitstr function Is Obsolete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32-4
Interpretation of “Miles” Units has Changed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32-4

New Angle Wrapping Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32-4

New Function to Unwrap Sequences of Angles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32-4

Improvements to Data Trimming in patchm and patchesm . . . . . . . . . . . 32-5

Higher Quality boston.tif GeoTIFF Satellite Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32-5

Map Axes Now Display Transparent Objects More Easily . . . . . . . . . . . . 32-6

The arcgridread Function Now Imports Noninteger Data Grids . . . . . . . 32-7

Change to avhrrlambert Function Behavior When No Data Is Available

......................................................... 32-7

Enhancements to Mapping Toolbox User's Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32-7

Functions deg2rad and rad2deg No Longer Convert Complex to Real

......................................................... 32-7

Degrees-Minutes-Seconds Conversion Functions Are Obsolete and Error if

Used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32-8

Time Conversion Functions Are Obsolete and Error if Used . . . . . . . . . . 32-9

cmapui GUI is now Obsolete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32-10

Functions tigermif and tigerp Are Obsolete and Error if Used . . . . . . . 32-10

xvii
 R2007a

Performance Improvements for los2 and viewshed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33-2

Utility Functions for Computing Distance and Position Along Meridians

......................................................... 33-2

Some GUIs Are No Longer Available from the Command Line . . . . . . . . 33-2

New Functions for Degrees-Minutes-Seconds Conversions . . . . . . . . . . . 33-3

Time Conversion Functions to be Removed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33-4

R2006b

Standard Formulations of Five Major Map Projections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34-2

Two New Geodetic/Geocentric Latitude Conversion Functions . . . . . . . . 34-2

Accelerated Performance for geoshow, mapshow, and bufferm . . . . . . . 34-2

Changes in Behavior of mapshow and geoshow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34-2

dted Automatically Fixes Incorrectly Specified Longitude Directions in

DTED Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34-4

R2006a

Full Support for 64-Bit Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35-2

Third-Party Library and Code Upgrades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35-2

Support for 32-Bit Floating-Point GeoTIFF Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35-2

Utility Functions for NaN-Separated Polygons and Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . 35-2

closePolygonParts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35-2
isShapeMultipart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35-2
removeExtraNanSeparators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35-3

Standardized Vector Topology in coast.mat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35-3

Three New Demos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35-3

Converting Coastline Data (GSHHS) to Shapefile Format . . . . . . . . . . . . 35-3
Plotting a 3-D Dome as a Mesh Over a Globe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35-3

xviii Contents
 Unprojecting a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35-3

R14SP3

Geodetic-Geocentric Coordinate Conversion Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36-2

Additional User Control Over Shapefile Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36-2

Shapefile Read/Write Efficiency Enhanced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36-2

Improved Rendering of Polygons with Inner Rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36-2

Map Viewer Now Georeferences Images It Saves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36-2

TIGER/Line File Support Upgraded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36-3

R14SP2

New Function Reads Both 5-Minute and 2-Minute ETOPO Data . . . . . . . 37-2

Function gshhs Now Returns a Version 2 Geostruct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37-2

Geodata Can Now Be Exported in Shapefile Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37-2

Accessing Geodata Resources on the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37-2

Changes to Atlas Data and Associated Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37-2

Changes to worldmap and usamap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37-3

Changes to worldmap and usamap Display Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37-4

Data Files Added in This Release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37-9

Atlas Data MAT-Files Removed in This Release . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37-9

World MAT-File Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37-9
United States MAT-File Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37-10

Functions Being Removed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37-10

xix
 1

R2023a

Version: 5.5

New Features

Bug Fixes

Compatibility Considerations
R2023a

Map Axes: Create maps in any supported projection using new axes
type
Set up a map display from a projected coordinate reference system (CRS) by using the newmap or
mapaxes function. Specify the projected CRS by using a projcrs object.

• Use newmap when you want to create a map in a specified projection.

• Use mapaxes when you want advanced control of the map, or when you want to include the map
in an app.

You can change aspects of the resulting map axes, such as the projection or the appearance, by
setting MapAxes Properties.

Map axes enable you to display data with coordinates in any supported geographic or projected CRS.
Display data by using functions such as geoplot, geoscatter, and bubblechart. For more
information about creating plots using map axes, see “Create Common Plots Using Map Axes”.

Map axes integrate with MATLAB® graphics, so you can use map axes with many MATLAB graphics
functions. For example, you can change the map limits using geolimits, add text using text,
interactively query point locations using ginput, and build apps using App Designer. For an
example that shows how to include map axes in apps, see “Create Map Axes in an App”.

In many cases, you can replace axesm-based maps created using the axesm, worldmap, or usamap
function with map axes created using the newmap or mapaxes function.

1-2
Coordinate Reference Systems: Change projection parameters for
projected CRS objects
You can now change the values of projection parameters for a projected CRS by setting the
parameters of the object stored in the ProjectionParameters property of a projcrs object. In
previous releases, the ProjectionParameters property was read-only.

This capability enables you to customize projcrs objects created from authority codes without using
well-known text (WKT) strings. For example, this code creates a projcrs object for a Bonne
projection and then changes the latitude of natural origin.

p = projcrs(54024,"Authority","ESRI");
p.ProjectionParameters.LatitudeOfNaturalOrigin = 90;

This capability also enables you to customize the projections used by map axes. For example, this
image shows four world maps that use a Bonne projection. Each map uses a different latitude of
natural origin. For examples of how to customize the projections used by map axes, see “Change
Projection and Projection Parameters”.

Vector Basemaps: Add custom basemaps from vector basemaps

hosted by Esri and from MBTiles files containing vector data
You can now use the addCustomBasemap function to add vector basemaps from these sources:

1-3
R2023a

• Vector basemaps hosted by Esri®. Specify the basemap using a URL.

• MBTiles files containing vector map tiles.

The appearance of a vector basemap, such as line colors and font names, depends on the style you
specify when you add the basemap. For more information about customizing the appearance of vector
basemaps, see “Customize Appearance of Vector Basemaps”.

Mapping Toolbox includes a vector MBTiles file, naturalearth.mbtiles, with low-zoom levels of
region and land boundaries.1 The file was created using data from Natural Earth. This image shows a
geographic axes with a vector basemap added from the MBTiles file. The basemap uses a predefined
style with colors based on OpenStreetMap®.

WMS Database: Search updated database

The WMS Database has 70 new servers and 1417 new layers. In addition, 157 servers and 23,667
layers have been removed. The updated database contains 4177 servers and 71,448 layers. Search
the database for layers using the wmsfind function.

The WMS Database has these specific updates.

• There are 66 new WMS servers from the NOAA Environmental Research Division Data Access
Program (ERDDAP). For more information about these data sets, see the ERDDAP list of data sets

1 Alignment of boundaries and region labels are a presentation of the feature provided by the data vendors and do not
imply endorsement by MathWorks®.

1-4
 on the NOAA website. You can search for these servers and layers by specifying the search string
as "coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov".

layer = wmsfind("coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov",SearchFields="serverurl");
• There is one updated server URL from the NASA Earth Observations (NEO) server. You can search
for the updated server and layers by specifying the search string as "neo.gsfc.nasa.gov/wms/
wms".

layer = wmsfind("neo.gsfc.nasa.gov/wms/wms",SearchFields="serverurl");
• There is one new WMS server from the United States Geological Survey National Map server. You
can search for this server and layer by specifying the search string as
"services.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/services/USGSNAIPImagery/ImageServer/
WMSServer".

layer = wmsfind("services.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/services/USGSNAIPImagery/ImageServer/WMSServe
SearchFields="serverurl");

Functionality being removed or changed

Some functions that accept referencing matrices as inputs will be removed in a future
release
Warns

Some functions that accept referencing matrices as inputs will be removed in a future release. Use
functions that accept reference objects instead.

• The pix2map function will be removed in a future release. Use the intrinsicToWorld function
instead.
• The map2pix function will be removed in a future release. Use the worldToIntrinsic function
instead.
• The pix2latlon function will be removed in a future release. Use the
intrinsicToGeographic function instead.
• The latlon2pix function will be removed in a future release. Use the
geographicToIntrinsic function instead.

mfwdtran and minvtran will be removed in a future release

Warns

• The mfwdtran function will be removed in a future release. Use the projfwd or geodetic2ecef
function instead.
• The minvtran function will be removed in a future release. Use the projinv or ecef2geodetic
function instead.

Some file import, map display, data analysis, and geometric geodesy functions have been
removed
Errors
File import functions have been removed

• The readfields and readmtx functions have been removed. Depending on the file format, use
the readmatrix function, the readtable function, or a different file import function. For more
information about common supported file formats and their import functions, see “Supported File
Formats for Import and Export”.

1-5
R2023a

• The spcread function has been removed. Use the readmatrix function instead.
• The readfk5 function has been removed.

Map display functions, UIs, and app have been removed

• The panzoom function has been removed. Use the zoom function instead.
• The project function has been removed. Use the projfwd function instead.
• The makemapped function and colorm, mobjects, and qrydata UIs have been removed.
• The mapview app has been removed.

Data analysis functions and UIs have been removed

• The extractm function has been removed. Use geospatial tables instead. For more information
about geospatial tables, see “Create Geospatial Tables”.
• The getseeds function and the seedm UI have been removed.

Geometric geodesy functions have been removed

• The ecef2lv function has been removed. Use the ecef2enu function instead.
• The lv2ecef function has been removed. Use the enu2ecef function instead.
• The geocentric2geodeticLat function has been removed. Use the
geodeticLatitudeFromGeocentric function instead.
• The geodetic2geocentricLat function has been removed. Use the geocentricLatitude
function instead.
• The elevation function has been removed. Use the geodetic2aer function instead.
• The npi2pi function has been removed. Use the wrapTo180 or wrapToPi function instead.
• The zero22pi function has been removed. Use the wrapTo360 or wrapTo2Pi function instead.
• The epsm function has been removed. For accuracy in degrees, use 1.0E-6. For radians, use
deg2rad(1.0E-6).

1-6
 2

R2022b

Version: 5.4

New Features

Bug Fixes

Compatibility Considerations
R2022b

Vector Data: Determine which shape objects are multipoint shapes

Determine which shape objects are multipoint shapes by using the ismultipoint function. A shape
object is a multipoint shape when it is a geopointshape or mappointshape object and the value of
its NumPoints property is greater than 1.

georasterinfo function: Read RPC coefficient tags from GeoTIFF files

Read RPC coefficient tags from GeoTIFF files by using the georasterinfo function. The function
stores RPC coefficient tags as RPCCoefficientTag objects in the Metadata property of the
returned RasterInfo object.

projfwd and projinv functions: Improved performance on Windows

with repeated use of projection
The projfwd and projinv functions show improved performance on Windows® when used multiple
times in the same MATLAB session with the same projcrs object or map projection structure as
input.

For example, this code is about 1.67 times faster than in the previous release. The code:

• Gets the grid coordinates for a DTED file

• Projects and unprojects the coordinates using a projcrs object
• Gets the grid coordinates for a different DTED file
• Measures the time required to project and unproject the coordinates using the same projcrs
object

function timingTest
info1 = georasterinfo("n39_w106_3arc_v2.dt1");
R1 = info1.RasterReference;
[latGrid1,lonGrid1] = geographicGrid(R1);

p = projcrs(4088);
[xfwd1,yfwd1] = projfwd(p,latGrid1,lonGrid1);
[latinv1,loninv1] = projinv(p,xfwd1,yfwd1);

info2 = georasterinfo("n40_w106_3arc_v2.dt1");
R2 = info2.RasterReference;
[latGrid2,lonGrid2] = geographicGrid(R2);

tic
[xfwd2,yfwd2] = projfwd(p,latGrid2,lonGrid2);
[latinv2,loninv2] = projinv(p,xfwd2,yfwd2);
toc
end

The approximate execution times are:

• R2022a: 0.70 s
• R2022b: 0.42 s

2-2
This code was timed on a Windows 10 Intel® Xeon® CPU W-2133 @ 3.6 GHz test system, by calling
the function timingTest.

Web Map Service: New server with terrain elevation data hosted by
MathWorks
MathWorks hosts a Web Map Service (WMS) server with a layer that provides terrain elevation data
derived from GMTED2010. You can search the WMS Database for this server and layer by using the
wmsfind function. Specify the search string as "wms.mathworks.com".

layer = wmsfind("wms.mathworks.com",SearchFields="serverurl");

You can read data from the layer as an image or as quantitative data. For an example that shows how
to read an image from the layer, see the Customize Map Appearance example on the wmsread
reference page. For examples that show how to read quantitative data from the layer, see Read
Quantitative Data from WMS Server.

WMS Database: Search updated database

The WMS Database has 19 new servers and 2721 new layers. In addition, 67 servers and 2277 layers
have been removed. The updated database contains 4263 servers and 93,712 layers. Search the
database for layers using the wmsfind function.

The WMS Database has these specific updates.

• There are four new WMS servers from the NOAA Environmental Research Division Data Access
Program (ERDDAP). For more information about these data sets, see the ERDDAP list of data sets
on the NOAA website. You can search for these servers and layers by specifying the search string
as "coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov".

layer = wmsfind("coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov",SearchFields="serverurl");
• There are four new WMS servers from the European Environment Agency (EEA). For more
information about these data sets, see the EEA public map services website or the services
directory on the EEA DiscoMap website. You can search for these servers and layers by specifying
the search string as "discomap.eea.europa.eu".

layer = wmsfind("discomap.eea.europa.eu",SearchFields="serverurl");

Documentation refers to maps created using axesm, worldmap, or

usamap as axesm-based maps
Starting in R2022b, the documentation refers to maps created using the axesm, worldmap, or
usamap function as axesm-based maps. In previous releases, the documentation referred to these
maps as map axes.

Functionality being removed or changed

Adding new plot to geographic globe does not reset basemap or terrain
Behavior change

2-3
R2022b

When you add a plot to a geographic globe by using the geoplot3 function, MATLAB does not reset
the basemap or terrain. In R2022a and earlier releases, the basemap and terrain reset when you add
new plots.

As a result, you can specify the basemap or terrain and then visualize data without using the hold
function. For example, this code creates a globe using the "streets" basemap and no terrain data.
Then, it displays a plot and adjusts the camera view. In R2022b, the basemap and terrain do not reset.
In R2022a and earlier releases, the basemap reset to the default "satellite" and the terrain reset
to the default "gmted2010".
lat = [42.3501 42.3515 42.3598 42.3584 42.3529 42.3626];
lon = [-71.0870 -71.0926 -71.0662 -71.0598 -71.0662 -71.0789];

uif = uifigure;
g = geoglobe(uif,Basemap="streets",Terrain="none");

p = geoplot3(g,lat,lon,0,"ro",LineWidth=3);
campos(g,42.33,-71.0756,2113)
campitch(g,-42.2458)

This change does not affect existing code that sets the hold state to "on" between commands.

To reset the basemap and terrain, set the Basemap and Terrain properties to the defaults after you
create the plot.
g.Basemap = "satellite";
g.Terrain = "gmted2010";

For more information about changing the basemap and terrain of geographic globes, see Access
Basemaps and Terrain for Geographic Globe.

combntns has been removed

Errors

The combntns function has been removed. Use the nchoosek function instead.

Some functions that accept referencing vectors or referencing matrices as inputs will be
removed in a future release
Warns

2-4
Some functions that accept referencing vectors or referencing matrices as inputs will be removed in a
future release. Use functions that accept reference objects instead.

• The setltln function will be removed in a future release. Use the intrinsicToGeographic
function instead.
• The meshgrat function will be removed in a future release. Use the geographicGrid,
linspace, or ndgrid function instead.
• The setpostn function will be removed in a future release. Use the geographicToDiscrete
function instead.
• The pixcenters function will be removed in a future release. Use the worldGrid or
geographicGrid function instead.

Some functions will not accept referencing vectors or referencing matrices as input in a
future release
Still runs

Some file export, map display, and data analysis functions will not accept referencing vectors or
referencing matrices as input in a future release. Use raster reference objects as input instead.
File Export Functions

• The geotiffwrite function will not accept referencing vectors or referencing matrices as input.
Use a geographic raster reference object or a map raster reference object as input instead.
• The worldfilewrite function will not accept referencing matrices as input. Use a geographic
raster reference object or a map raster reference object as input instead.
Map Display Functions

• The contourm function will not accept referencing vectors or referencing matrices as input. Use a
geographic raster reference object as input instead.
• The contourfm function will not accept referencing vectors or referencing matrices as input. Use
a geographic raster reference object as input instead.
• The contour3m function will not accept referencing vectors or referencing matrices as input. Use
a geographic raster reference object as input instead.
• The meshm function will not accept referencing vectors or referencing matrices as input. Use a
geographic raster reference object as input instead.
• The meshlsrm function will not accept referencing vectors or referencing matrices as input. Use a
geographic raster reference object as input instead.
Data Analysis Functions

• The gradientm function will not accept referencing vectors or referencing matrices as input. Use
a geographic raster reference object as input instead.
• The vec2mtx function will not accept referencing vectors or referencing matrices as input. Use a
geographic raster reference object as input instead.
• The los2 function will not accept referencing vectors or referencing matrices as input. Use a
geographic raster reference object as input instead.
• The viewshed function will not accept referencing vectors or referencing matrices as input. Use a
geographic raster reference object as input instead.
• The mapprofile function will not accept referencing vectors or referencing matrices as input.
Use a geographic raster reference object as input instead.

2-5
R2022b

• The imbedm function will not accept referencing vectors or referencing matrices as input. Use a
geographic raster reference object as input instead.
• The areamat function will not accept referencing vectors or referencing matrices as input. Use a
geographic raster reference object as input instead.
• The filterm function will not accept referencing vectors or referencing matrices as input. Use a
geographic raster reference object as input instead.
• The findm function will not accept referencing vectors or referencing matrices as input. Use a
geographic raster reference object as input instead.
• The mapoutline function will not accept referencing matrices or structure arrays as input. Use a
geographic raster reference object or a map raster reference object as input instead.
• The neworig function will not accept referencing vectors or referencing matrices as input. Use a
geographic raster reference object as input instead.

Some file import, map display, and geometric geodesy UI functions will be removed in a
future release
Still runs
File Import UI Functions

• The demdataui function will be removed in a future release. Use the readgeoraster function
instead.
• The vmap0ui function will be removed in a future release. Use the vmap0read function instead.

Map Display UI Functions

• The maptool function will be removed in a future release. Select a replacement function based on
the desired menu item. For more information about replacement functionality, see the maptool
reference page.
• The maptrim function will be removed in a future release. Use the geocrop or geoclip function
instead.
• The originui function will be removed in a future release. Instead, set the Origin property of
the axesm-based map by using the setm function.
• The parallelui function will be removed in a future release. Instead, set the MapParallels
property of the axesm-based map by using the setm function.
• The clrmenu function will be removed in a future release. Use the colormap function instead.

Geometric Geodesy UI Functions

• The trackui function will be removed in a future release. Use the trackg function instead.
• The surfdist function will be removed in a future release. Use the distance function instead.
• The scirclui function will be removed in a future release. Use the scircleg function instead.
• The sectorg function will be removed in a future release. Use the scircle1 function instead.

shapewrite truncates text when length exceeds 254 characters or value of FieldLength
Behavior change

When a text attribute contains more than 254 characters, the shapewrite function issues a warning
and truncates the text to 254 characters. In previous releases, the shapewrite function did not
truncate the text and, as a result, created a file that does not conform to shapefile specifications.

2-6
When a text attribute contains more characters than the value stored in the FieldLength field of the
dbfspec argument, the shapewrite function issues a warning and truncates the text to the number
of characters equal to the value of FieldLength. In previous releases, the shapewrite function
issued an error.

2-7
 3

R2022a

Version: 5.3

New Features

Bug Fixes

Compatibility Considerations
R2022a

Vector Data: Create maps from point, line, and polygon shapes or
geospatial tables
Create maps over geographic axes from point, line, and polygon shapes or from geospatial tables by
using the geoplot function. The geoplot function can display shapes and geospatial tables with
coordinates in any supported geographic or projected coordinate reference system.

When you plot data over geographic axes, you can change the basemap by using the geobasemap
function and change the map limits by using the geolimits function. You can also customize the
map by modifying properties of the parent GeographicAxes object.

This image shows a choropleth map of average farm size per US state in 2019. For more information
about creating choropleth maps, see Create Choropleth Map from Table Data.

Vector Data: Clip point, line, and polygon shapes and determine if
points are within polygons
Clip point, line, and polygon shapes to bounding box

Clip geographic point, line, and polygon shapes within geopointshape, geolineshape, and
geopolyshape objects to a geographic quadrangle by using the geoclip function.

Clip planar point, line, and polygon shapes within mappointshape, maplineshape, and
mappolyshape objects to a rectangle in xy-coordinates by using the mapclip function.

3-2
Determine if points are within polygons

Determine if geographic or planar point shapes are within a geographic or planar polygon shape,
respectively, by using the isinterior function. Specify the point shapes as geopointshape or
mappointshape objects and specify the polygon shape as a geopolyshape or mappolyshape
object.

Basemaps: Add custom basemap from MBTiles file

Add a custom basemap from an MBTiles file containing raster map tiles by using the
addCustomBasemap function.

Creating custom basemaps from MBTiles files is useful when you do not have internet access.
Mapping Toolbox includes an MBTiles file with low-resolution USGS imagery called
usgsimagery.mbtiles. This image shows a geographic globe using the USGS imagery basemap.

Basemaps: Read georeferenced image from basemap

Read a basemap image, as an array and a MapCellsReference object in Web Mercator coordinates,
by using the readBasemapImage function. You can read the image from any basemap supported by
the geobasemap function or any custom basemap created using the addCustomBasemap function.

You can display data over basemap images by using the mapshow function. For examples of creating
plots over basemap images, see Create Common Plots Over Basemap Images.

This image shows a digraph of sample airport traffic data over the "landcover" basemap.

3-3
R2022a

Raster Data: Read coordinate reference system for GeoTIFF files using
geotiffinfo
The geotiffinfo function now reads the projected or geographic coordinate reference system
(CRS) for GeoTIFF files as a projcrs or geocrs object, respectively.

To find the CRS, get information about the GeoTIFF file using the geotiffinfo function, returned as
a structure array. Then, query the CRS property of the raster reference object within the
SpatialRef field of the structure array. If the file is referenced to a projected CRS, query the
ProjectedCRS property. If the file is referenced to a geographic CRS, query the GeographicCRS
property. This code snippet shows how to get the CRS of the boston.tif file, which is referenced to
a projected CRS.

info = geotiffinfo("boston.tif");
crs = info.SpatialRef.ProjectedCRS

crs =

projcrs with properties:

Name: "NAD83 / Massachusetts Mainland"

GeographicCRS: [1×1 geocrs]
ProjectionMethod: "Lambert Conic Conformal (2SP)"
LengthUnit: "U.S. survey foot"
ProjectionParameters: [1×1 map.crs.ProjectionParameters]

3-4
You can also get the CRS for a GeoTIFF file by using the georasterinfo or readgeoraster
function.

LAS and LAZ Data: Read coordinate reference system for LAS and LAZ
files using Lidar Toolbox
Read the coordinate reference system (CRS) for a LAS or LAZ file by using a lasFileReader (Lidar
Toolbox) object and the readCRS (Lidar Toolbox) function. The function returns a projcrs object
when the file is referenced to a projected CRS and returns a geocrs object when the file is
referenced to a geographic CRS.

Determine if a LAS or LAZ file has CRS data by using a lasFileReader object and the hasCRSData
(Lidar Toolbox) function.

For information about creating a spatially referenced digital surface model (DSM) from a LAS or LAZ
file, see Create, Process, and Export Digital Surface Model from Lidar Data.

WMS Database: Search updated database

The WMS Database has 581 new servers and 29,815 layers. In addition, 105 servers and 3030 layers
have been removed. The updated database contains 4318 servers and 93,486 layers. Search the
database for layers using the wmsfind function.

The WMS Database has these specific updates.

• There are 372 new WMS servers from the NOAA Environmental Research Division Data Access
Program (ERDDAP). For more information about these data sets, see the ERDDAP list of data sets
on the NOAA website. You can search for these servers and layers by specifying the search string
as "coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov".

layer = wmsfind("coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov", ...

"SearchFields","serverurl");
• There is 1 new WMS server from the European Space Agency (ESA) EOX server. For more
information about EOX, see the EOX::Maps website. You can search for these servers and layers
by specifying the search string as "tiles.maps.eox.at".

layer = wmsfind("tiles.maps.eox.at", ...

"SearchFields","serverurl");

Functionality being removed or changed

Some functions that return referencing vectors or referencing matrices will be removed in
a future release
Warns

Some functions that return referencing vectors or referencing matrices will be removed in a future
release. Use functions that return reference objects instead.
Functions that return referencing vectors

• The zerom function will be removed in a future release. Use the georefcells and zeros
functions instead.

3-5
R2022a

• The onem function will be removed in a future release. Use the georefcells and ones functions
instead.
• The nanm function will be removed in a future release. Use the georefcells and NaN functions
instead.
• The spzerom function will be removed in a future release. Use the georefcells and sparse
functions instead.
• The sizem function will be removed in a future release. Instead, create a geographic raster
reference object, and then query its RasterSize property.
• The refmat2vec function will be removed in a future release. Instead, convert referencing
matrices to geographic raster reference objects by using the refmatToGeoRasterReference
function.

Functions that return referencing matrices

• The makerefmat function will be removed in a future release. Use the georefcells,
georefpostings, georasterref, maprefcells, maprefpostings, or maprasterref
function instead.
• The worldFileMatrixToRefmat function will be removed in a future release. Use the
georasterref or maprasterref function instead.
• The refvec2mat function will be removed in a future release. Instead, convert referencing
vectors to geographic raster reference objects by using the refvecToGeoRasterReference
function.

Some functions that accept referencing vectors or referencing matrices as inputs will be
removed in a future release
Warns

Some functions that accept referencing vectors or referencing matrices as inputs will be removed in a
future release. Use functions that accept reference objects instead.

• The ltln2val function will be removed in a future release. Use the geointerp function instead.
• The maptrims function will be removed in a future release. Use the geocrop function instead.
• The resizem function will be removed in a future release. Use the georesize function instead.
• The limitm function will be removed in a future release. Instead, create a geographic raster
reference object, and query its LatitudeLimits and LongitudeLimits properties.
• The mapbbox function will be removed in a future release. Instead, create a map raster reference
object, and query its XWorldLimits and YWorldLimits properties.

Some function syntaxes that return referencing vectors or referencing matrices will be
removed in a future release
Warns

The worldfileread and egm96geoid function syntaxes that return referencing vectors or
referencing matrices will be removed in a future release. Use syntaxes that return reference objects
instead.

Some file import, map display, data analysis, and geometric geodesy functions will be
removed in a future release
Warns

3-6
File import functions to be removed

• The readfields and readmtx functions will be removed in a future release. Depending on the
file format, use the readmatrix function, the readtable function, or a different file import
function. For more information about common supported file formats and their import functions,
see Supported File Formats for Import and Export.
• The spcread function will be removed in a future release. Use the readmatrix function instead.
• The readfk5 function will be removed in a future release.
Map display functions, UIs, and app to be removed

• The panzoom function will be removed in a future release. Use the zoom function instead.
• The project function will be removed in a future release. Use the projfwd function instead.
• The makemapped function and colorm, mobjects, and qrydata UIs will be removed in a future
release.
• The mapview app will be removed in a future release.
Data analysis functions and UIs to be removed

• The extractm function will be removed in a future release. Use geospatial tables instead. For
more information about geospatial tables, see Create Geospatial Tables.
• The getseeds function and the seedm UI will be removed in a future release.
Geometric geodesy functions to be removed

• The ecef2lv function will be removed in a future release. Use the ecef2enu function instead.
• The lv2ecef function will be removed in a future release. Use the enu2ecef function instead.
• The geocentric2geodeticLat function will be removed in a future release. Use the
geodeticLatitudeFromGeocentric function instead.
• The geodetic2geocentricLat function will be removed in a future release. Use the
geocentricLatitude function instead.
• The elevation function will be removed in a future release. Use the geodetic2aer function
instead.
• The npi2pi function will be removed in a future release. Use the wrapTo180 or wrapToPi
function instead.
• The zero22pi function will be removed in a future release. Use the wrapTo360 or wrapTo2Pi
function instead.
• The epsm function will be removed in a future release. For accuracy in degrees, use 1.0E-6. For
radians, use deg2rad(1.0E-6).

Some file import, map display, and angle wrapping functions have been removed
Errors
File import functions that have been removed

• The dcwdata function has been removed. Use the VMAP0 data set and the vmap0data function
instead.
• The dcwgaz function has been removed. Use the VMAP0 data set and the vmap0ui function
instead.
• The dcwread function has been removed. Use the VMAP0 data set and the vmap0read function
instead.

3-7
R2022a

• The dcwrhead function has been removed. Use the VMAP0 data set and the vmap0rhead function
instead.
• The fipsname and tgrline functions have been removed. Use a more recent TIGER/Line data
set and the readgeotable function instead.
• The grepfields function has been removed. Use the textscan function instead.

Map display functions that have been removed

• The cometm function has been removed. Use the projfwd and comet functions instead.
• The comet3m function has been removed. Use the projfwd and comet3 functions instead.
• The symbolm function has been removed. Use the scatterm function instead.
• The colorui function has been removed. Use the uisetcolor function instead.
• The restack function has been removed. Use the uistack function instead.
• The rootlayr function and mlayers UI have been removed.

Angle wrapping functions that have been removed

• The eastof and westof functions have been removed. Use the mod function instead.

USGS Shaded Relief base layer has been removed from web map
Errors

Starting in R2022a, the webmap function issues an error when you specify the base layer as "USGS
Shaded Relief". In previous releases, the web map window shows red tiles. Update your code by
specifying a different base layer, such as "World Shaded Relief".

geopointshape and mappointshape objects with missing coordinate data have some
changed property values
Behavior change

When a geopointshape or mappointshape object has missing coordinate data, its NumPoints
property has a value of 0 and its coordinate properties (Latitude and Longitude or X and Y,
respectively) have NaN values.

• When you create a point by specifying both coordinates as NaN values, its NumPoints property
has a value of 0. In the previous release, the property had a value of 1.
• When a geopointshape object has no coordinate data, its Latitude and Longitude properties
each have a value of NaN. In the previous release, the properties were each empty double values.
• When a mappointshape object has no coordinate data, its X and Y properties each have a value
of NaN. In the previous release, the properties were each empty double values.

These changes make it easier to create and access the properties of geopointshape and
mappointshape arrays when the input coordinates contain missing data. For example, you can now
access the coordinates of a geopointshape or mappointshape array when the array contains a
combination of points with coordinate data (NumPoints is 1) and without coordinate data
(NumPoints is 0). In the previous release, MATLAB issued an error.

3-8
 4

R2021b

Version: 5.2

New Features

Bug Fixes

Compatibility Considerations
R2021b

Vector Data: Read, display, and write vector data using geospatial
tables
Read vector data from files into geospatial tables

Read point, line, and polygon data from a file into a geospatial table by using the readgeotable
function. You can read data from formats with these file extensions.

File Format Extension

Esri file geodatabase .gdb
GeoJSON .json or .geojson
GPX .gpx
KML .kml
Shapefile .shp

A geospatial table is a table or timetable object with a Shape variable and attribute variables.

• The Shape variable contains 2-D information about point, line, and polygon shapes. Shapes with
coordinates in geographic coordinate reference systems (CRSs) are represented by
geopointshape, geolineshape, and geopolyshape objects. Shapes with coordinates in
projected CRSs are represented by mappointshape, maplineshape, and mappolyshape
objects. The Shape variable can contain combinations of point, line, and polygon shapes.
• Attribute variables contain data such as names, classifications, and measurements.

When vector data files contain CRS information, the readgeotable function stores the information
as a projcrs or geocrs object within each shape object.

For more information about geospatial tables, see Create Geospatial Tables.

Create maps using geospatial tables

Create maps by passing a geospatial table directly to the geoshow and mapshow functions. Use the
geoshow function when the Shape variable of the table uses geographic coordinates and the
mapshow function when the Shape variable uses projected coordinates.

Create web maps by passing a geospatial table directly to the wmmarker, wmline, or wmpolygon
function. These functions require that the Shape variable of the table use geographic coordinates.

Write geospatial tables to shapefile and KML formats

Write geospatial tables to shapefile and KML formats by using the shapewrite and kmlwrite
functions. Create an attribute specification for shapefile formats by using the makedbfspec function
and for KML formats by using the makeattribspec function.

Convert between structures, tables, and geospatial tables

Convert tables and structures with point, line, or polygon data into geospatial tables by using the
table2geotable and struct2geotable functions. Specify the point, line, or polygon shapes as
numeric latitudes and longitudes or numeric x- and y-coordinates. For table2geotable, you can
also specify the shapes as geometric objects in well-known text (WKT) strings.

4-2
Convert geospatial tables to tables using the geotable2table function. You can convert the Shape
variable of the geospatial table to latitude and longitude coordinate variables, x- and y-coordinate
variables, or WKT strings.

Basemaps: Interactively change basemap of geographic plots

Interactively change the basemap of geographic plots by adding a basemap picker to the axes toolbar.
Add the basemap picker to the axes toolbar by using the addToolbarMapButton function. You can
add the basemap picker to plots created using functions such as geoplot, geoscatter,
geodensityplot, and geoaxes. To use the addToolbarMapButton function, the plot must be in a
figure created using the uifigure function.

Remove the basemap picker by using the removeToolbarMapButton function.

Raster Import: Read SRTM Height data

You can now read SRTM Height data files with extension .hgt by using the readgeoraster
function. You can also get information about these files by using the georasterinfo function.

WMS Database: Search updated database

The WMS Database has 37 new servers and 1570 new layers. In addition, 155 servers and 2218
layers have been removed. The updated database contains 3921 servers and 66,878 layers. Search
the database for layers using the wmsfind function.

The WMS Database has these specific updates.

4-3
R2021b

• Eleven new WMS servers from the NOAA Environmental Research Division Data Access Program
(ERDDAP). For more information about these data sets, see the ERDDAP list of data sets. You can
search for these servers and layers by specifying the search string as
"coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov".

layer = wmsfind("coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov", ...

"SearchFields","serverurl");
• One new WMS server from the NASA WorldWind server. For more information about NASA
WorldWind, see the NASA WorldWind website. You can search for these servers and layers by
specifying the search string as "worldwind26.arc.nasa.gov".

layer = wmsfind("worldwind26.arc.nasa.gov", ...

"SearchFields","serverurl");

Functionality being removed or changed

Some functions that accept referencing matrices as inputs will be removed in a future
release
Still runs

Some functions that accept referencing matrices as inputs will be removed in a future release. Use
functions that accept reference objects instead.

• The pix2map function will be removed in a future release. Use the intrinsicToWorld function
instead.
• The map2pix function will be removed in a future release. Use the worldToIntrinsic function
instead.
• The pix2latlon function will be removed in a future release. Use the
intrinsicToGeographic function instead.
• The latlon2pix function will be removed in a future release. Use the
geographicToIntrinsic function instead.

Some raster reading functions that do not return reference objects will be removed in a
future release
Warns

Some raster reading functions that return referencing vectors, referencing matrices, or latitude-
longitude grids will be removed in a future release. The functions that will be removed are usgsdem,
etopo, globedem, gtopo30, satbath, sdtsdemread, tbase, and usgs24kdem. In most cases, use
the readgeoraster function to return a raster reference object instead.

Previous removal of coast.mat file

Errors

The coast.mat file, which contains global coastline coordinates in the variables lat and long, was
removed in R2020b. Use the coastlines.mat file instead. The coastlines.mat file contains
global coastline coordinates in the variables coastlat and coastlon.

To update your code, replace instances of coast.mat with coastlines.mat, instances of lat with
coastlat, and instances of long with coastlon.

4-4
 5

R2021a

Version: 5.1

New Features

Bug Fixes

Compatibility Considerations
R2021a

Raster Import: Read data in Vertical Mapper Grid formats

You can now read data in the Vertical Mapper Numeric Grid and Vertical Mapper Classified Grid
formats by using the readgeoraster function. You can also get information about data in these
formats by using the georasterinfo function.

Raster Analysis: Get geographic or world coordinates of raster

elements
Get coordinates of raster elements using the geographicGrid and worldGrid functions. Use the
geographicGrid function for geographic coordinates and the worldGrid function for world
coordinates.

3-D Geographic Plotting: Use geographic globes in MATLAB Online

You can now create, plot data on, and manipulate your view of geographic globes in MATLAB
Online™. Create a geographic globe by using the geoglobe function.

Prior to R2021a, geographic globes were not supported in MATLAB Online.

Code Generation: Generate C and C++ code using MATLAB Coder

These functions and objects now support code generation:

• 3-D coordinate and vector transformation functions such as ecef2enu, geodetic2ned, and
ecef2enuv
• The oblateSpheroid object and wgs84Ellipsoid function
• The wrapToPi, wrapTo2Pi, wrapTo180, and wrapTo360 functions

Web Map Service: Read WMS capabilities documents from additional

servers, get additional keywords, get additional layer information
There are several improvements to reading Web Map Service (WMS) capabilities documents. Read
capabilities documents using the wmsinfo function.

• Read capabilities documents from servers that are not supported in releases prior to R2021a. For
example, you can read capabilities documents from the Lunaserv Global Explorer.
• The KeywordList property of the WMSCapabilities object returned by the wmsinfo function
can contain additional keywords.
• The Layer property of the WMSCapabilities object returned by the wmsinfo function can
contain additional details about layer styles and legend graphics.
• The Layer property of the WMSCapabilities object returned by the wmsinfo function excludes
coordinate reference system codes if the codes do not have a corresponding bounding box.

WMS Database: Search updated database

The WMS Database has 34 new servers and 2248 new layers. In addition, 86 servers and 3531 layers
have been removed. The updated database contains 3955 servers and 67,139 layers. Search the
database for layers using the wmsfind function.

5-2
The WMS Database has these specific updates.

• 12 new WMS servers from the NOAA Environmental Research Division Data Access Program
(ERDDAP). For more information about these data sets, see the ERDDAP list of data sets. You can
search for these servers and layers by specifying the search string as
'coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov'.

layer = wmsfind('coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov', ...

'SearchFields','serverurl');
• 11 new WMS servers from the NASA NCCS THREDDS data server. For more information about
these data sets, see the THREDDS Data Server. You can search for these servers and layers by
specifying the search string as 'dataserver3.nccs.nasa.gov'.

layer = wmsfind('dataserver3.nccs.nasa.gov', ...

'SearchFields','serverurl');

Functionality being removed or changed

Web maps appear in multiple windows and have a default size
Behavior change

Starting in R2021a, web maps created using the webmap function have these differences from
previous releases:

• Each web map appears in a separate window. In previous releases, each web map appeared as a
tab in a single window.
• Web maps have a default size of 750-by-550 pixels. In previous releases, each new web map
matched the size of the previous web map.
• You cannot dock a web map.

Some functions that accept referencing vectors or matrices as inputs will be removed in a
future release
Still runs

Some functions that accept referencing vectors or matrices as inputs will be removed in a future
release. Use functions that accept reference objects instead.

• The setltln function will be removed in a future release. Use the intrinsicToGeographic
function instead.
• The meshgrat function will be removed in a future release. Use the geographicGrid,
linspace, or ndgrid function instead.
• The setpostn function will be removed in a future release. Use the geographicToDiscrete
function instead.
• The pixcenters function will be removed in a future release. Use the worldGrid or
geographicGrid function instead.

geoloc2grid and vec2mtx functions return raster reference objects

Behavior change

Starting in R2021a, the geoloc2grid function and most syntaxes of the vec2mtx function return a
raster reference object instead of a referencing vector. This change is unlikely to affect your existing
code because most Mapping Toolbox functions that accept referencing vectors as inputs also accept

5-3
R2021a

raster reference objects. For more information about raster reference objects, see the
GeographicCellsReference, GeographicPostingsReference, MapCellsReference, or
MapPostingsReference object.

If you specify a referencing vector or matrix as an input, then the vec2mtx function still returns a
referencing vector or matrix.

5-4
 6

R2020b

Version: 5.0

New Features

Compatibility Considerations
R2020b

3-D Geographic Plotting: Programmatically navigate geographic globe

using camera functions
Programmatically navigate GeographicGlobe objects by using object functions that control the
camera position and camera rotation angles.

• Use camheight to control the ellipsoidal height of the camera.

• Use campos to control the latitude, longitude, and optionally the ellipsoidal height of the camera.
• Use camroll, campitch, and camheading to rotate the camera around its x-, y-, and z-axes,
respectively.

Coordinate Reference Systems: Create projected and geographic CRS

objects from imported data, named spatial reference codes, or well-
known text strings
Get information about projected and geographic coordinate reference systems (CRS) by using
projcrs and geocrs objects. You can create projcrs and geocrs objects by importing vector or
raster data, by specifying named spatial reference codes, or by specifying well-known text strings.

Coordinate Reference Systems: Project or unproject coordinates using

projcrs objects and additional map projection structures
Project or unproject coordinates by using the projfwd or projinv object function and specifying a
projcrs object. A projcrs object allows you to transform coordinates using projection methods not
available in earlier releases, such as Hotine Oblique Mercator.

Additionally, you can now project or unproject coordinates by using the projfwd or projinv
function and specifying a map projection structure with any valid mapprojection field. For a list of
mapprojection field options, use the maplist or maps function.

Coordinate Reference Systems: Use reference ellipsoid information in

geocrs objects with analysis functions
The gradientm, mapprofile, areamat, and geopeaks functions now perform calculations using
the reference ellipsoid for the specified geographic raster reference object. To find the reference
ellipsoid for a geographic raster reference object, R, first get its geographic coordinate reference
system as a geocrs object. Then, query the Spheroid property of the geocrs object.

g = R.GeographicCRS;
g.Spheroid

To use these functions with a different spheroid or ellipsoid, specify the spheroid or ellipsoid
argument.

WMS Database: Search updated database

The WMS Database has 22 new servers and 1189 new layers. In addition, 144 servers and 1166
layers have been removed. The updated database contains 4005 servers and 68,388 layers. Search
the database for layers using the wmsfind function.

6-2
For example, the database contains 20 new WMS servers from NOAA's Environmental Research
Division Data Access Program (ERDDAP). For more information about these data sets, see the
ERDDAP list of data sets. You can search for these servers and layers by specifying the search string
as 'coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov'.

layer = wmsfind('coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov', ...

'SearchFields','serverurl');

Functionality being removed or changed

mfwdtran will be removed in a future release
Still runs

The mfwdtran function will be removed in a future release. Use the projfwd or geodetic2ecef
function instead.

minvtran will be removed in a future release

Still runs

The minvtran function will be removed in a future release. Use the projinv or ecef2geodetic
function instead.

Some functions that return referencing matrices will be removed in a future release
Still runs

Some functions that return referencing matrices will be removed in a future release. Use functions
that return reference objects instead.

• The makerefmat function will be removed in a future release. Use the georefcells,
georefpostings, georasterref, maprefcells, maprefpostings, or maprasterref
function instead.
• The worldFileMatrixToRefmat function will be removed in a future release. Use the
georasterref or maprasterref function instead.

Some functions that accept referencing vectors or matrices as inputs will be removed in a
future release
Still runs

Some functions that accept referencing vectors or matrices as inputs will be removed in a future
release. Use functions that accept reference objects instead.

• The ltln2val function will be removed in a future release. Use the geointerp function instead.
• The maptrims function will be removed in a future release. Use the geocrop function instead.
• The resizem function will be removed in a future release. Use the georesize function instead.
• The limitm function will be removed in a future release. Instead, create a geographic raster
reference object, and query its LatitudeLimits and LongitudeLimits properties.
• The mapbbox function will be removed in a future release. Instead, create a map raster reference
object, and query its XWorldLimits and YWorldLimits properties.

Some function syntaxes that return referencing vectors or referencing matrices will be
removed in a future release
Still runs

6-3
R2020b

The worldfileread and egm96geoid function syntaxes that return referencing vectors or
referencing matrices will be removed in a future release. Use syntaxes that return reference objects
instead.

Name property for some referenceEllipsoid objects has changed

Behavior change

The Name property of referenceEllipsoid objects now always contains the names of the ellipsoids
as they appear in the EPSG Geodetic Database. In R2020a and previous releases, the value of the
Name property depended on the name or code you used to create the object.

If you have existing code in which you create a reference ellipsoid object by specifying a name to the
referenceEllipsoid creation function, you do not need to update your code to correspond to a
name in the EPSG Geodetic Database.

Path for example data files has changed

Behavior change

Most of the example data files for Mapping Toolbox are now in matlabroot/examples/map/data.
In R2020a and earlier releases, many example data files were in matlabroot/toolbox/map/
mapdata.

EPSG CSV files have been removed

Behavior change

The folder matlabroot/toolbox/map/mapproj/projdata/epsg_csv and its data files have been

removed, including pcs.csv and gcs.csv. Instead of using these files to find EPSG codes for the
geotiffwrite function, find valid EPSG codes using resources such as the EPSG registry.

6-4
 7

R2020a

Version: 4.10

New Features

Compatibility Considerations
R2020a

3-D Geographic Plotting: Plot 3-D data on globe display using

geoglobe and geoplot3
Create a geographic globe display with high-zoom-level basemaps and terrain using the geoglobe
function. Add custom basemaps for use with geographic globe displays using the
addCustomBasemap function.

Plot lines and markers on a geographic globe using the geoplot3 function. You can reference the
height data of lines and markers to the geoid (mean sea level), the terrain, or the WGS84 reference
ellipsoid.

3-D Geographic Plotting: Add and remove custom terrain

Add custom terrain data to use with the geographic globe by using the addCustomTerrain function.
Once you have added custom terrain, apply it to a geographic globe by setting its Terrain property.
Otherwise, the geographic globe uses default terrain derived from the GMTED2010 model.

Remove custom terrain using the removeCustomTerrain function.

egm96geoid Function: Return geoid heights referenced to geographic

reference object
Use the egm96geoid function to return geoid heights and a reference object from the Earth
Gravitational Model of 1996 (EGM96). You can specify GeographicCellsReference or
GeographicPostingsReference objects, or return geoid heights and a reference object for the
entire globe spaced at 15-minute intervals.

MATLAB Online: Mapping Toolbox is supported on MATLAB Online

Mapping Toolbox is now supported on MATLAB Online. For more information about supported
toolboxes, see Specifications and Limitations.

Raster Cropping: Crop raster data using mapcrop and geocrop

Crop raster data using the mapcrop or geocrop functions. Use mapcrop with data referenced to
projected coordinates by a MapCellsReference or MapPostingsReference object. Use geocrop

7-2
with data referenced to geographic coordinates by a GeographicCellsReference or
GeographicPostingsReference object.

Raster Import: Read geospatial raster data from a file using

readgeoraster and georasterinfo
Read geospatial raster data from a file using the readgeoraster function. Get information about a
file using the georasterinfo function. You can read data from formats with these file extensions. In
some cases, you can read supported file formats using extensions other than the ones listed.

File Format Extension

GeoTIFF .tif or .tiff
Esri Binary Grid .adf
Esri ASCII Grid .asc or .grd
Esri GridFloat .flt
DTED .dt0, .dt1, or .dt2
SDTS .DDF
USGS DEM .dem
ER Mapper ERS .ers
ENVI .dat
ERDAS IMAGINE .img

WMS Database: Search updated database

25 new servers and 1374 layers have been added to the WMS Database. 17 servers and 1056 layers
have been removed. The updated database contains 4129 servers and 68,381 layers. Search the
database for layers using the wmsfind function.

For example, the database contains 18 new WMS servers from NOAA's Environmental Research
Division Data Access Program (ERDDAP). For more information about these data sets, see https://
coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov/erddap/info/index.html. You can search for these servers and layers by
specifying the search string as 'coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov'.

layer = wmsfind('coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov', ...

'SearchFields','serverurl');

Functionality being removed or changed

arcgridread and geotiffread are not recommended
Still runs

arcgridread and geotiffread are not recommended, except when reading a GeoTIFF file from a
URL or when reading multiple GeoTIFF images from the same file. In other situations, use
readgeoraster instead.

There are some differences between these functions that require updates to your code. For more
detailed information about how to update your code, see the reference page for each function.

7-3
R2020a

Raster reading functions that do not return reference objects will be removed in a future
release
Still runs

Raster reading functions that return referencing vectors, referencing matrices, or latitude-longitude
grids will be removed in a future release. These functions are usgsdem, dted, etopo, globedem,
gtopo30, satbath, sdtsdemread, tbase, and usgs24kdem.

In most cases, use the readgeoraster function to return a raster reference object instead. For
information about how to update your code to use readgeoraster, see the reference page for each
function.

Compiling web maps using Linux requires files in directory of application

Behavior change

Starting in R2020a, to compile web maps created with the webmap function using MATLAB
Compiler™ on Linux®, you must copy these files to the application directory and distribute them with
the application.

• icudtl.dat
• natives_blob.bin
• snapshot_blob.bin

You can find the path to these files using the command
fullfile(matlabroot,'bin','glnxa64').

7-4
 8

R2019b

Version: 4.9

New Features

Compatibility Considerations
R2019b

egm96geoid Function: Return geoid heights at specified latitudes and

longitudes
Return geoid height in meters from the Earth Gravitational Model of 1996 (EGM96) with the
egm96geoid function by specifying latitude and longitude in degrees. For example, find the geoid
height at a latitude of 42.3601 degrees and a longitude of -71.589 degrees:

N = egm96geoid(42.3601,-71.589);

egm96geoid Function: Return geoid heights with improved

performance
In previous releases, egm96geoid accessed geoid heights using WW15MGH.GRD, a file that you
downloaded from the Internet. Starting in R2019b, a grid of geoid heights from EGM96 is included
with Mapping Toolbox, and egm96geoid no longer reads data from WW15MGH.GRD.

As a result, the egm96geoid function shows improved performance. For example, this code shows
about a 15x speed-up when you return the entire grid of geoid heights:

function timingTest
N = egm96geoid(1);
end

The approximate execution times are:

• R2019a: 0.1838 s
• R2019b: 0.0121 s

This code was timed on a Windows 10 test system with a 3.6-GHz Intel Xeon W-2133 CPU using the
timeit function:

timeit(@timingTest)

WMS Database: Modified or removed servers

The WMS database changes on a release-to-release basis. Some servers are added, and other servers
are removed because they are offline or their availability is too sporadic. A total of 101 servers
(2.43% of the number of servers listed in R2019a) and 5550 layers have been removed from the
database. A total of 58 new servers, with 2022 layers, have been added. The new database contains a
total of 4122 servers and 68,071 layers.

Find layers using the wmsfind function. To find layers provided by particular servers, specify the
SearchField name-value pair argument as 'serverurl'. Return the URLs of the servers using the
servers function.

layers = wmsfind(urlSearchString,'SearchField','serverurl')
urls = servers(layers)

The most recent and up-to-date version of the database is hosted on the MathWorks website. To use
this version, call wmsfind and specify the Version name-value pair argument as 'online'.

The following specific updates have been made to the WMS database since the last release:

8-2
• 1 new WMS server from Esri provides Landsat layers. Search for these servers and layers by
specifying urlSearchString as 'landsat2.arcgis.com'. Use the layers 'PS:Pansharpened
Enhanced with DRA' or 'PS:Pansharpened Natural Color'.
• 11 new WMS servers from the USGS National Map provide layers that contain data about land
cover, tree canopies, hydrology, shaded relief, and impervious surfaces. Search for these servers
and layers by specifying urlSearchString as 'nationalmap.gov'.
• 16 new WMS servers from NOAA's Environmental Research Division Data Access Program
(ERDDAP) provide layers that contain oceanographic data. For more about these data sets, see
https://coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov/erddap/info/index.html. Search for these servers and layers by
specifying urlSearchString as 'coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov'.
• The USGS Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium (MRLC) servers from https://
www.mrlc.gov/ are no longer available. Use the USGS servers from https://www.usgs.gov/core-
science-systems/national-geospatial-program/national-map instead.

Functionality being removed or changed

Different polygon vertex order for poly2v and bufferm function output
Behavior change

Starting in R2019b, the poly2fv and bufferm functions might return polygon vertices in a different
order. The polygons that these vertices define are geometrically equivalent to those in previous
releases.

8-3
 9

R2019a

Version: 4.8

New Features
R2019a

mapresize function: Resize projected raster geospatial data

Use mapresize to resize projected raster geospatial data in x- and y-coordinates. The mapresize
function can transform a projected raster to a more manageable size or increase the size of a raster
size to have more granularity.

georesize function: Resize unprojected raster geospatial data

Use georesize to resize unprojected raster geospatial data in latitude and longitude coordinates.
The georesize function can transform a unprojected raster to a more manageable size or increase
the size of a raster size to have more granularity.

WMS Database Modified

The WMS Database changes on a release-to-release basis, as some new servers are added and other
servers are removed because they are no longer online or because their availability is too sporadic. A
total of 59 servers (1.54% of the number of servers listed in R2018b) and 4,659 layers have been
removed from the database. A total of 393 new servers, with 6,703 layers, have been added. The new
database contains a total of 4,170 servers and 71,662 layers. A total of 3,662 servers are using
HTTPS.

If you want to find a server, use the server URL or a server URL search string with wmsfind to
search for layers provided by the server or servers. Use the servers method of the WMSLayer object
returned by wmsfind to obtain the server or server URLs as in the following example.

layers = wmsfind(urlSearchString,'SearchField','serverurl')
urls = servers(layers)

If you want to use the most recent and up-to-date version of the database, use the version hosted on
the MathWorks website. Specify the 'Version','online' Name-Value pair argument with
wmsfind.

The following specific updates have been made to the WMS Database since the last release:

• 36 new WMS servers from the USGS Science Catalog servers providing layers containing a variety
of scientific data. Search for the layers and servers using the urlSearchString
'sciencebase.gov'.
• 53 new WMS servers from the USDA Forest Service servers providing layers containing land
management and fire data. Search for the layers and servers using the urlSearchString
'apps.fs.usda.gov'.
• 25 new WMS servers from NOAA's Environmental Research Division Data Access Program
(ERDDAP) providing layers containing oceanographic data. To find out more about them, visit the
ERDDAP web site. Search for the layers and servers using the urlSearchString
'coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov'.

9-2
 10

R2018b

Version: 4.7

New Features

Bug Fixes
R2018b

Custom basemaps: Access high zoom-level custom basemaps by URL

for use in web map and geographic plots in MATLAB
You can now specify custom basemaps when calling the webmap function. You use the
addCustomBasemap function to specify a custom basemap. To remove the basemap, use the
removeCustomBasemap functions.

WMS Database Modified

The WMS Database changes on a release-to-release basis, as some new servers are added and other
servers are removed because they are no longer online or because their availability is too sporadic. A
total of 207 servers (5.26% of the number of servers listed in R2018a) and 4,180 layers have been
removed from the database. A total of 100 new servers, with 4,074 layers, have been added. The new
database contains a total of 3,828 servers and 69,531 layers.

If you want to find a server, use the server URL or a server URL search string with wmsfind to
search for layers provided by the server or servers. Use the servers method of the WMSLayer object
returned by wmsfind to obtain the server or server URLs as in the following example.

layers = wmsfind(urlSearchString,'SearchField','serverurl')
urls = servers(layers)

If you want to use the most recent and up-to-date version of the database, use the version hosted on
the MathWorks website. Specify the 'Version','online' Name-Value pair argument with
wmsfind.

The following specific updates have been made to the WMS Database since the last release:

• Five new WMS servers from British Columbia's Open Map servers providing layers containing
orthophoto mosaics, satellite imagery, and hill shaded relief data. Search for the layers and
servers using the urlSearchString 'openmaps.gov.bc.ca'.
• Three new WMS servers from the USGS Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics Consortium
(MRLC) servers providing layers containing land cover, land fire, and GTOPO data. Search for the
layers and servers using the urlSearchString 'www.mrlc.gov'.
• 29 new WMS servers from NOAA's Environmental Research Division Data Access Program
(ERDDAP) providing layers containing oceanographic data. To find out more about them, visit the
ERDDAP web site. Search for the layers and servers using the urlSearchString
'coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov'.
• The USGS server http://raster.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/services/LandCover/
USGS_EROS_LandCover_NLCD/MapServer/WMSServer is no longer available. Instead use the
USGS server from https://www.mrlc.gov/arcgis/services/NLCD/
USGS_EDC_LandCover_NLCD/MapServer/WMSServer.

10-2
 11

R2018a

Version: 4.6

New Features

Bug Fixes

Compatibility Considerations
R2018a

geotiffwrite function: Export data containing more than 4 GB in

BigTIFF format
The geotiffwrite function now supports a TiffType name-value pair that lets you choose the
format of the GeoTIFF file being written. You can choose either classic TIFF format or BigTIFF
format. The BigTIFF format enables you to create files that exceed 4 GB in size.

WMS Database Modified

The WMS Database changes on a release-to-release basis, as some new servers are added and other
servers are removed because they are no longer online or because their availability is too sporadic. A
total of 681 servers (15% of the number of servers listed in R2017b) and 2,747 layers have been
removed from the database. A total of 73 new servers, with 2,369 layers, have been added. The new
database contains a total of 3,935 servers and 69,637 layers.

If you want to find a server, use the server URL or a server URL search string with wmsfind to
search for layers provided by the server or servers. Use the servers method of the WMSLayer object
returned by wmsfind to obtain the server or server URLs as in the following example.

layers = wmsfind(urlSearchString,'SearchField','serverurl')
urls = servers(layers)

If you want to use the online and most recent up-to-date version of the database hosted on the
MathWorks website, use the 'Version','online' Name-Value pair argument of wmsfind.

The following specific updates have been made to the WMS Database since the last release:

• Seven new WMS servers from NOAA’s National Weather Service servers providing layers
containing climate outlook, forecast guidance, and weather observations data. Search for the
layers and servers using the urlSearchString 'idpgis.ncep.noaa.gov'.
• Two new WMS servers from NOAA's Environmental Web Mapping Portal to Real-Time Coastal
Observations, Forecasts, and Warning (now Coast) servers providing layers containing weather
data. Search for the layers and servers using the urlSearchString 'nowcoast.noaa.gov'.
• 54 new WMS servers from NOAA's Environmental Research Division Data Access Program
(ERDDAP) providing layers containing oceanographic data. To find out more about them, visit the
ERDDAP web site. Search for the layers and servers using the urlSearchString
'coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov'.
• The USGS server http://raster.nationalmap.gov/arcgis/services/Orthoimagery/
USGS_EROS_Ortho_1Foot/ImageServer/WMSServer is no longer available. Instead, use the
USGS server from http://basemap.nationalmap.gov/ArcGIS/services/
USGSImageryOnly/MapServer/WMSServer .

11-2
 Functions Being Removed
Functionality What Happens When Use This Instead Compatibility
You Use This Considerations
Functionality?
polybool Still works. polyshape Consider using the
MATLAB polyshape
function instead of
polybool. Create the
shapes with the
polyshape function and
then use polyshape
object functions to
perform the Boolean
operation. For an example,
see polybool.

11-3
 12

R2017b

Version: 4.5.1

Bug Fixes
R2017b

WMS Database Modified

The WMS Database changes on a release-to-release basis, as some new servers are added and other
servers are removed because they are no longer online or because their availability is too sporadic. A
total of 83 servers (1.8% of the number of servers listed in R2017a) and 4,365 layers have been
removed from the database. A total of 21 new servers, with 1,895 layers, have been added. The new
database contains a total of 4,543 servers and 70,015 layers.

If you want to find a server, use the server URL or a server URL search string with wmsfind to
search for layers provided by the server or servers. Use the servers method of the WMSLayer object
returned by wmsfind to obtain the server or server URLs as in the following example.

layers = wmsfind(urlSearchString,'SearchField','serverurl')
urls = servers(layers)

If you want to use the online and most recent up-to-date version of the database hosted on the
MathWorks website, use the 'Version','online' Name-Value pair argument of wmsfind.

The following specific updates have been made to the WMS Database since the last release:

• 4 new WMS servers from the Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES
DISC) providing layers containing atmospheric data. Search for the layers and servers using the
urlSearchString 'disc1.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov'.
• 16 new WMS servers from NOAA's Environmental Research Division Data Access Program
(ERDDAP) providing layers containing oceanographic data. To find out more about them, visit the
ERDDAP web site. Search for the layers and servers using the urlSearchString
'coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov'.
• 26 servers from the United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Geospatial Computing Tile
Server have been removed since they have moved to using HTTPS and their certificates are
signed by the DOD Certificate Authorities. These certificates are not typically installed by
browsers and are not installed with MATLAB. These include the servers providing OpenStreetMap
and the USGS Digital Raster Graphics layers.

12-2
 13

R2017a

Version: 4.5

New Features

Bug Fixes
R2017a

Raster Interpolation: Interpolate images and raster grids referenced

to geographic and projected map coordinates
The new functions, geointerp and mapinterp, interpolate images and raster grids referenced to
geographic and projected map coordinates.

wmsfind: Search Online Version of WMS Database

The wmsfind function Version parameter supports a new value, 'online', that you can use to
search a version of the WMS Database hosted on the MathWorks website. The information in this
web-hosted version of the database is more up-to-date than searching the database included with the
product because it is updated regularly. Note, however, that searching the online version requires an
Internet connection.

WMS Database Modified

The WMS Database changes on a release-to-release basis, as some new servers are added and other
servers are removed because they are no longer online or because their availability is too sporadic. A
total of 4,327 servers (48.6% of the number of servers listed in R2016b) and 15,496 layers have been
removed from the database. A total of 24 new servers, with 2,167 layers, have been added. The new
database contains a total of 4,605 servers and 72,485 layers.

If you want to find a server, use the server URL or a server URL search character vector with
wmsfind to search for layers provided by the server or servers. Use the servers method of the
WMSLayer object returned by wmsfind to obtain the server or server URLs as in the following
example.

layers = wmsfind(urlSearchString, 'SearchField', 'serverurl')

urls = servers(layers)

The following specific updates have been made to the WMS Database since the last release:

• 2 new WMS servers from the USGS National Map server providing layers containing orthographic
(USGSImageOnlyLarge) and NAIP (USGSNAIPPlus) imagery. Search for the layers and servers
using the urlSearchString 'nationalmap.gov'.
• 11 new WMS servers from the United States Census Bureau Tiger web server providing layers
containing census information. Search for the layers and server using the urlSearchString
'tigerweb.geo.census.gov'.
• 3 servers from the USGS National Map server have been removed since they have moved and are
no longer accessible. These include the servers providing the USGS_EROS_Ortho,
USGS_EROS_Ortho_NAIP_Scale, and USGS_EROS_Ortho_SCALE layers.
• 3,861 servers from the service http://gstore.unm.edu have been removed since they are no
longer accessible.
• 376 servers from the service http://thredds.met.no/thredds have been removed since they
are no longer accessible.

13-2
 14

R2016b

Version: 4.4

New Features

Bug Fixes

Compatibility Considerations
R2016b

lookAtSpheroid: Trace line of sight from points in space to oblate

spheroid
The new function, lookAtSpheroid, computes the latitude and longitude of the intersection of the
line of sight from a viewpoint in space with the surface of an oblate spheroid.

worldfileread: Achieve high-precision raster referencing

The worldfileread function can compensate for truncated repeating decimals (not uncommon in
world files in geographic coordinates), creating high-precision raster reference objects from limited-
precision input, and thus avoiding round-off errors in downstream computations.

Compatibility Considerations
worldfileread might return slightly different results than in previous releases. Additionally, some
cases that previously caused an error will no longer error.

wmsfind: Specify which Web server database to use

The wmsfind function supports a new parameter, Version, that you can use to specify which server
database you want to use. By default, the value for this new parameter is'installed' which causes
the wmsfind function to use the database included with the toolbox. You use the other option,
'custom', to specify another version of the server database.

wmsfind and WMSLayer.refine: Accept string inputs

The wmsfind and WMSLayer.refine functions can now accept string inputs as well as character
vector inputs.

Map Quest Layers and USGS Hydrography Layer No Longer Available

The Map Quest layers and USGS Hydrography layer are no longer available in the web map. Map
Quest now requires a key to access their Open Data maps. The Hydrography layer is no longer
available.

los2: Improved performance

There have been incremental improvements in the efficiency of the los2 function, which should also
slightly improve viewshed performance.

WMS Database Modified

The WMS Database changes on a release-to-release basis, as some new servers are added and other
servers are removed because they are no longer online or because their availability is too sporadic. A
total of 633 servers (11.9% of the number of servers listed in R2016a) and 32,522 layers have been
removed from the database. A total of 4,224 new servers, with 8,904 layers, have been added. The
new database contains a total of 8,908 servers and 85,814 layers.

If you want to find a server, use the server URL or a server URL search character vector with
wmsfind to search for layers provided by the server or servers. Use the servers method of the

14-2
WMSLayer object returned by wmsfind to obtain the server or server URLs as in the following
example.

layers = wmsfind(urlSearchString, 'SearchField', 'serverurl')

urls = servers(layers)

The following specific updates have been made to the WMS Database since the last release:

• 337 new WMS servers from NOAA's Environmental Research Division Data Access Program
(ERDDAP) providing layers containing oceanographic data. To find out more about them, visit the
ERDDAP web site. Search for the layers and servers using the urlSearchString
'coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov'.
• 1 new WMS server (http://geoservice.dlr.de) from the Earth Observation Center (EOC)
basemap server providing layers containing Natural Earth images, GSHHS vector overlays, and
OpenStreetMap overlays. Search for the layers and servers using the urlSearchString
'geoservice.dlr.de'.
• 4 servers from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) National Map have been removed
since they are no longer accessible. These include the servers providing the
TNM_Vector_Fills_Small, TNM_Vector_Small, TNM_Contours, and USGSHydroNHD layers.
• 1 server from the service http://wms.openweathermap.org/service has been removed
since it is unreliable.

Functions Being Removed

Function Name What Happens Use This Instead Compatibility
When You Use the Considerations
Function?
sizem Still runs Consider using None.
georefcells and
accessing the
RasterSize property.

14-3
 15

R2016a

Version: 4.3

New Features

Bug Fixes

Compatibility Considerations
R2016a

kmlwrite and kmlwritepolygon: Export polygons to KML file format

The new kmlwritepolygon function writes a geographic polygon specified by latitude and longitude
coordinate vectors, and optionally an altitude vector, to a KML file. KML stands for Keyhole Markup
Language which is an XML dialect used to structure geographic data for display in an Earth browser,
such as Google Earth™. The function kmlwritepolygon joins the two existing functions
kmlwritepoint and kmlwriteline to provide simple interfaces to write shapes to a KML file. You
can also use the existing kmlwrite function to write polygons to a KML file—it now accepts polygon
geoshape objects as input.

wmpolygon: Display polygons on Web Maps

The new wmpolygon function supports displaying polygon features on web maps. This function
complements the wmline and wmmarker functions for displaying shapes on web maps.

arcgridread: Import data in GridFloat format, including USGS

elevation grids
The arcgridread function now supports the GridFloat format, in addition to the Arc Grid ASCII
format that it already supported. GridFloat is one of the data formats supported by the USGS.

geocontourxy: Contour data gridded in local Cartesian system and

transform to latitude-longitude geoshapes
The new geocontourxy function contours data gridded in a local Cartesian coordinate system and
transforms the data to a geographic coordinate system, returning latitude and longitude values in
geoshapes.

webmap: Display data over high-resolution world imagery

The webmap function now includes high-resolution world imagery as one of its base layer options. Use
this function to view detailed images of the world’s surface in a web browser and to overlay your data
onto these images.

New KML options: Control transparency of icons, points, and lines,

and polygon faces and edges
The KML functions, kmlwrite, kmlwritepoint, kmlwriteline, and kmlwritepolygon, now all
support several new optional parameters, including the Alpha option to control transparency of icons,
points, and lines, and the faces and edges of polygons.

arcgridread: Return raster reference objects

The arcgridread function can now return raster reference objects when it can determine
information about the coordinate system used in the data.

15-2
Compatibility Considerations
In previous releases, arcgridread returned only referencing matrix. Now, arcgridread can return
a raster referencing object, if it can determine the coordinate system. For all uses of this information,
the switch to a raster reference object should be transparent.

WMS Database Modified

The WMS Database changes on a release-to-release basis, as some new servers are added and other
servers are removed because they are no longer online or because their availability is too sporadic. A
total of 4247 servers (44.8% of the number of servers listed in R2015b) and 27,217 layers have been
removed from the database. A total of 85 new servers, with 4,565 layers, have been added. The new
database contains a total of 5,318 servers and 109,432 layers.

If you want to find a server, use the server URL or a server URL search character vector with
wmsfind to search for layers provided by the server or servers. Use the servers method of the
WMSLayer object returned by wmsfind to obtain the server or server URLs as in the following
example.

layers = wmsfind(urlSearchString, 'SearchField', 'serverurl')

urls = servers(layers)

The following specific updates have been made to the WMS Database since the last release:

• 57 new WMS servers from NOAA's Environmental Research Division Data Access Program
(ERDDAP) providing layers containing oceanographic data. To find out more about them, visit the
ERDDAP web site. Search for the layers and servers using the urlSearchString
'coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov'.
• 1 new WMS server (http://geoint.nrlssc.navy.mil/nrltileserver/wms/
bluemarblebymonth) from the United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Geospatial
Computing Tile Server providing layers containing monthly Blue Marble images. Search for the
layers and servers using the urlSearchString 'geoint.nrlssc.navy.mil'.
• 14 new WMS servers from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) National Map providing
layers containing small scale map features including shaded relief, land cover, impervious surface,
tree canopy, boundaries, hydrography, and transportation. Search for the layers and server using
the urlSearchString 'services*SmallScale'.
• 1 new WMS server from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) National Map providing
layers containing National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) imagery. Search for the layer and
server using the urlSearchString 'USGSNAIPImagery'.
• The Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s WMS servers, onearth.jpl.nasa.gov and
onmars.jpl.nasa.gov, have been removed since they are no longer accessible.
• 3871 servers from the service http://gstore.unm.edu/apps/rgis/datasets have been
removed since they are no longer accessible.

15-3
 16

R2015b

Version: 4.2

New Features

Bug Fixes

Compatibility Considerations
R2015b

New functions to make raster referencing objects with specific cell

extents or sample spacings
The toolbox includes four new functions that make it easier to create raster reference objects, listed
in the following table.

Function Description
georefcells Reference raster cells to geographic coordinates
georefpostings Reference raster postings to geographic coordinates
maprefcells Reference raster cells to map coordinates
maprefpostings Reference raster postings to map coordinates

Raster reference objects returned by wmsread and included in

WMSMapRequest
The wmsread function now returns a raster reference object and the WMSMapRequest class has a
new property named RasterReference that contains a raster reference object.

Compatibility Considerations
In previous releases, wmsread returned a referencing matrix. This change requires no action because
a referencing object can be substituted for a referencing matrix in essentially all Mapping Toolbox
functions. The most likely exception is if your code calls mapshow with the data returned by
wmsread. mapshow expects data in a projected coordinate system and the data returned by wmsread
is in a geographic coordinate reference system. mapshow errors in this case, use geoshow instead.

TIFF RPCCoefficientTag tags enabled in GeoTIFF file import and export

The geotiffinfo and geotiffwrite functions now support the RPCCoefficientTag.
geotiffinfo returns this value, if the tag is present in the file, in a
map.geotiff.RPCCoefficientTag object. geotiffwrite can write a GeoTIFF file that contains
this object.

Improved viewshed and line of sight performance due to the new

MATLAB execution engine
The performance of the viewshed and los2 functions has been further improved over the R2015a
improvement. The R2015b improvement is due directly to the new MATLAB execution engine.

deg2rad and rad2deg functions moved to MATLAB

The deg2rad and rad2deg functions have been moved from the Mapping Toolbox to MATLAB. The
behavior of some of the functions has changed slightly, as described in the compatibility
considerations section.

Use of the Mapping Toolbox functions degtorad and radtodeg is not recommended. Use deg2rad
and rad2deg instead.

16-2
Compatibility Considerations
In previous releases, deg2rad and rad2deg accepted input arguments of integer types, such as
uint8. Now that they are in MATLAB,these functions only accept input arguments of type single or
double.

ispolycw function more robust

The ispolycw function is now more robust with the way it handles self-intersections (often called
bow-ties). Even though such self-intersections are corruptions, ispolycw returns a value based on
the direction of the curve bounding the larger part (or parts) of the closed self-intersecting curve. The
result is now also invariant with regard to rotations of the input polygon in the plane.

WMS Database Modified

The WMS Database changes on a release-to-release basis, as some new servers are added and other
servers are removed because they are no longer online or because their availability is too sporadic. A
total of 237 servers (2.5% of the number of servers listed in R2015a) and 5,377 layers have been
removed from the database. A total of 251 new servers, with 7,224 layers, have been added. The new
database contains a total of 9,480 servers and 132,084 layers.

If you want to find a server, use the server URL or a server URL search character vector with
wmsfind to search for layers provided by the server or servers. Use the servers method of the
WMSLayer object returned by wmsfind to obtain the server or server URLs as in the following
example.

layers = wmsfind(urlSearchString, 'SearchField', 'serverurl')

urls = servers(layers)

The following specific updates have been made to the WMS Database since the last release:

• 193 new WMS servers from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Center for
Climate Simulation THREDDS server containing the NASA Earth Exchange Global Downscaled
Daily Downscaled Projections (NEX-GDDP). For reference, see: https://cds.nccs.nasa.gov/nex-
gddp. Search for the layers and servers using the urlSearchString 'nccs.nasa.gov'.
• 12 new WMS servers from the United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Geospatial
Computing Tile Server containing a variety of layers including OpenStreetMap. Search for the
layers and servers using the urlSearchString 'geoint.nrlssc.navy.mil'.
• 1 new WMS server from the Meteorological Service of Environment Canada OWS Data Server
containing global weather observations. Search for the layers and server using the
urlSearchString 'geo.weather.gc.ca'.
• 3 new WMS servers from the Kansas Applied Remote Sensing (KARS) WMS server containing land
cover, elevation, and county boundaries for Kansas. Search for the layer and server using the
urlSearchString 'kars.ku.edu'.

16-3
R2015b

Functions Being Removed

Function Name What Happens Use This Instead Compatibility
When You Use the Considerations
Function?
nanm Still runs Consider using None.
georefcells with
nan.
onem Still runs Consider using None.
georefcells with
ones.
spzerom Still runs Consider using None.
georefcells with
sparse.
zerom Still runs Consider using None.
georefcells with
zeros.

16-4
 17

R2015a

Version: 4.1

New Features

Bug Fixes
R2015a

Settable raster reference cell extent and sample spacing properties

Several properties of the map.rasterref.MapRasterReference and
map.rasterref.GeographicRasterReference classes that were read-only are now settable.

stereographic Properties pre-preference Properties

CellExtentInLatitude CellExtentInWorldX
CellExtentInLongitude CellExtentInWorldY
SampleSpacingInLatitude SampleSpacingInWorldX
SampleSpacingInLongitude SampleSpacingInWorldY

Support for reading non-standard USGS 24K DEM files

The usgs24kdem function has been enhanced to read digital elevation model (DEM) data from a
broader range of sources.

Improved viewshed function performance

The performance of the viewshed function has been improved.

WMS Database Modified

The WMS Database changes on a release-to-release basis, as some new servers are added and other
servers are removed because they are no longer online or because their availability is too sporadic. A
total of 155 servers (2.75% of the number of servers listed in R2014b) and 5,054 layers have been
removed from the database. A total of 3,982 new servers, with 12,903 layers, have been added. The
new database contains a total of 9,466 servers and 130,237 layers.

If you want to find a server, use the server URL or a server URL search character vector with
wmsfind to search for layers provided by the server or servers. Use the servers method of the
WMSLayer object returned by wmsfind to obtain the server or server URLs as in the following
example.

layers = wmsfind(urlSearchString, 'SearchField', 'serverurl')

servers = layers.servers

The following specific updates have been made to the WMS Database since the last release:

• 1 new WMS server from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) National Map containing
small-scale contours generated for the conterminous United States from the 1 arc-second National
Elevation Dataset (NED), which can be displayed between 1:289K and 1:72K scales. Search for
the layer and server using the urlSearchString 'TNM_Contours'.
• 1 new WMS server from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) National Map containing the
National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) at small-scale resolutions. Search for the layer and server
using the urlSearchString 'USGSHydroNHD'.
• 1 new WMS server from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) National Map containing a
combination of imagery and contours, along with vector layers, that provide a composite base map
that resembles the US Topo product. Search for the layer and server using the urlSearchString
'basemap*USGSImageryTopo'.

17-2
• 1 new WMS server from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) National Map containing the
USGS Hill Shade base map. Search for the layer and server using the urlSearchString
'USGSShadedReliefOnly'.
• 3,871 new WMS servers from the Earth Data Analysis Center at the University of New Mexico.
These servers provide geographic data layers for New Mexico that include political boundaries,
ortho and aerial photography, satellite imagery, elevation data, and natural resources data. Search
for the layers and servers using the urlSearchString 'gstore.unm.edu'.
• 8 new WMS servers from the United States Census Bureau containing geography, census, and
physical features. Search for the layers and servers using the urlSearchString 'tigerweb'.
• 4 new WMS servers from the United States National Atlas hosted by the USGS National Map
servers. Search for the layers and servers using the urlSearchString 'nationalatlas'.
• 1 new WMS server from Chart Bundle hosting aviation charts and maps. Search for the layers and
server using the urlSearchString 'chartbundle'.

17-3
 18

R2014b

Version: 4.0.2

Bug Fixes

Compatibility Considerations
R2014b

WMS Database Modified

The WMS Database changes on a release-to-release basis, as some new servers are added and other
servers are removed because they are no longer online or because their availability is too sporadic. A
total of 477 servers (9.1% of the number of servers listed in R2014a) and 5,016 layers have been
removed from the database. A total of 1,168 new servers, with 15,514 layers, have been added. The
new database contains a total of 5,641 servers and 122,388 layers.

If you want to find a server, use the server URL or a server URL search character vector with
wmsfind to search for layers provided by the server or servers. Use the servers method of the
WMSLayer object returned by wmsfind to obtain the server or server URLs as in the following
example.

layers = wmsfind(urlSearchString, 'SearchField', 'serverurl')

servers = layers.servers

The following specific updates have been made to the WMS Database since the last release:

• 16 new WMS servers from the Arctic Research Mapping Application (ARMAP) hosted by the
University of Texas at El Palo. Search for the layers and servers using the urlSearchString
'arcticdata.utep.edu'.
• 11 new map servers of the European Environment Agency. These servers obtain a wide range of
environmental data for Europe. Search for the layers and servers using the urlSearchString
'discomap.eea.europa.eu'.
• 104 new WMS servers from NOAA's National Ocean Service supporting coastal communities,
promoting a robust economy, and protecting coastal and marine ecosystems. Search for the layers
and servers using the urlSearchString 'egisws02.nos.noaa.gov'.
• 41 new WMS servers from the California Natural Resources Agency / Map Server. These servers
provide map services for departments, boards and commissions within the Natural Resources
Agency, and to make some of these services available to the public. Search for the layers and
servers using the urlSearchString 'atlas.resources.ca.gov'.
• 103 new WMS servers from the Illinois State Geological Survey Prairie Research Institute. These
servers provide scientific data layers in Earth science. Search for the layers and servers using the
urlSearchString 'geothermal.isgs.illinois.edu'.
• 169 new WMS servers from the Spatial Data Infrastructure Government of La Rio (Spain). These
servers provide data layers in basic topographic cartography, orthoimagery, and thematic maps for
the comprehension and study of La Rio. Search for the layers and servers using the
urlSearchString 'ogc.larioja.org'.
• 20 layers from the Solar Energy Environmental Mapper server. The server provides environmental
data for the U.S. in the context of utility-scale solar energy development. Search for the layers and
servers using the urlSearchString 'solarmapper.anl.gov'.
• 17 layers from the Open Weather Map server. The server provides meteorological data for the
world. Search for the layers and servers using the urlSearchString 'openweathermap'.

New look of map graphics with improved clarity and aesthetics

MATLAB graphics has a new look and graphics produced by Mapping Toolbox functions benefits from
these updates, including:

• Lines and edges are anti-aliased, producing a smoother, cleaner look.

18-2
• Text, even when rotated, is clearer.
• The new default colormap, called parula, meets modern standards for color perception. See
colormap for more information.

For example, compare these two maps created using the worldmap function. In the R2014b map,
note the new background color, the smoothness of the lines and edges, and, in particular, the clarity
of the degree symbols in the text labels.

copyobj does not work with certain Map graphics

Some functions in Mapping Toolbox return graphics that are a composite of standard MATLAB
graphics objects. When you copy these graphics, copyobj copies only the primary object, so the
result of the copy operation may look different and appear incomplete. Property updates and other
interactions with the copied object might not work as expected.

Compatibility Considerations
Rather than copying Mapping Toolbox graphics objects using copyobj, repeat the construction of the
object in the new axis.

Functions Being Removed

Function Name What Happens Use This Instead Compatibility
When You Use the Considerations
Function?
lightmui Errors Consider using lightm Remove all existing instances
with inputm to of lightmui.
position the light
source.
roundn Still runs Use round instead. Consider replacing all existing
instances of roundn with
round.

18-3
 19

R2014a

Version: 4.0.1

New Features

Bug Fixes

Compatibility Considerations
R2014a

Zoom via Standard MATLAB Tools and Functions

In the colorm, maptool, maptrim, and seedm interfaces, zoom and pan operations are now
provided through the standard MATLAB tools. The panzoom function is now nearly the same as the
MATLAB zoom function.

Compatibility Considerations
panzoom will be removed in a future release. You can use zoom instead of panzoom for all panning
and zooming operations, except for 'fullview'. To replace zoom fullview, use the following
sequence of commands:

axis auto % Reset the axes limits

zoom reset % Clear the zoom limit settings
zoom on % Enable/re-enable zoom

Streamlined maptool Interface

The maptool interface is simpler and more standard.

• The MATLAB figure toolbar is no longer hidden when maptool is opened.

• The Zoom, Rotate, and Origin buttons are no longer added to the map axes when maptool is
opened.
• The Zoom Tool and Rotate entries are no longer present in the Tools menu that maptool adds to
the current figure.
• The Edit—>Latest Object entry is no longer present in the Tools menu.
• The climits button is no longer present on the contour dialogs invoked via maptool.
• Opening maptool no longer adds a Session menu to the figure.

Compatibility Considerations
You should use the standard MATLAB Zoom In, Zoom Out, Pan, and Rotate tools to zoom, pan, and
rotate your axes. There is no replacement for Tools->Edit->Latest Object. There are no
replacements for the climits button or the Session menu.

X Label, Y Label, and Title removed from Map Viewer

The X Label, Y Label, and Title menu items are no longer present in the Map Viewer Insert menu.

Compatibility Considerations
If you need a title and/or labels, use a standard MATLAB axes instead of a Map Viewer window, and
display objects with the mapshow function.

19-2
Less Obtrusive Contextual Help
Contextual help for many dialog boxes, including those accessed via maptool, is now provided via
tool tip messages. The Help button transforms the dialogs into a temporary state in which clicking on
a button presents help text rather than performing an action.

Standard Property Editing

For most map display objects, "extended click" now opens the MATLAB graphics property editor,
instead of opening up a custom property edit dialog specific to Mapping Toolbox.

namem and handlem no longer create an axes

The namem and handlem functions no longer create an axes when one does not already exist.

WMS Database Modified

The WMS Database changes on a release-to-release basis, as some new servers are added and other
servers are removed because they are no longer online or because their availability is too sporadic. In
R2014a, a total of 106 servers (4.7% of the number of servers listed in R2013b) and 5,040 layers have
been removed from the database and 2,771 new servers, with 50,477 layers, have been added. The
updated database contains a total of 4,920 servers and 111,890 layers.

If you want to find a server, use the server URL or a server URL search character vector with
wmsfind to search for layers provided by the server or servers. Then use the servers method of the
WMSLayer object to obtain the server or server URLs:

layers = wmsfind(urlSearchString, 'SearchField', 'serverurl')

servers = layers.servers

The following specific updates have been made to the WMS Database since the last release:

• Three new WMS servers from NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services
Center (GES DISC). These servers provide near real-time Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS)
Calibrated Radiance data, Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) data, and Tropical Rainfall
Measurement Mission (TRMM) Gridded Rainfall data. Search for the layers and servers using the
urlSearchString 'disc1.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov'.
• Twenty new WMS servers from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory’s Geospatial Computing Tile
Server. These servers provide Digital Nautical Charts, Electronic Nautical Charts, OpenStreetMap
for the World, FAA Sectionals, Terminal Area Charts, World Aeronautical Charts, and NOAA Raster
Navigation Charts. Search for the layers and servers using the urlSearchString
'geoint.nrlssc.navy.mil'.
• Three new WMS servers from Webservice-Energy.org. The Global Atlas for Solar and Wind Energy
provides solar and wind data designed to support policy formulation, planning, and pre-feasibility
studies for wind and solar projects. Search for the layers and servers using the
urlSearchString 'geoserver.webservice-energy.org'.
• Fifty-two new WMS servers from the Pacific Islands Ocean Observing System THREDDS servers.
These servers provide bathymetry, water salinity, temperature, velocity, sea surface height, and
wave and tide model layers. Search for the layers and servers using the urlSearchString
'oos.soest.hawaii.edu'.

19-3
R2014a

• 2609 new WMS servers from the Norwegian Meteorological Institute THREDDS server. These
servers provide scientific data layers in meteorology, atmosphere, climate, ocean, and Earth
science. Search for the layers and servers using the urlSearchString 'thredds.met.no'.
• Ten new WMS servers from the Balearic Islands Coastal Observing and Forecasting System
THREDDS server. These servers provide scientific data layers in meteorology, atmosphere,
climate, ocean, and Earth science. Search for the layers and servers using the urlSearchString
'thredds.socib.es'.
• Over 7,000 layers from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center
(ORNL DAAC) for biogeochemical dynamics. The server provides a number of land cover,
biophysical, elevation, and geopolitical layers. Search for the layers and servers using the
urlSearchString 'webmap.ornl.gov'.
• Three layers from the LANCE FIRMS WMS server from NASA. This server provides layers for the
latest MODIS Fire/Hotspot data. Search for the layers and servers using the urlSearchString
'eosdis.nasa.gov'.
• Over 60 layers form the National Renewable Energy Laboratory WMS server. This server provides
layers for solar and wind energy resource assessment. Search for the layers and servers using the
urlSearchString 'mapservices.nrel.gov'.

Functions Being Removed

Function Name What Happens Use This Instead Compatibility
When You Use the Considerations
Function?
combntns Warns nchoosek Replace all existing instances
of combntns with nchoosek.
mlayers Warns N/A N/A
panzoom Still runs. zoom Replace all existing instances
of panzoom with zoom.
rootlayr Warns N/A N/A

19-4
 20

R2013b

Version: 4.0

New Features

Bug Fixes

Compatibility Considerations
R2013b

Web map display with dynamic base maps from OpenStreetMap and
other sources
The new webmap function displays map base layers obtained from Web servers located on the
Internet in a browser window. Map base layers are either named layers, such as Open Street Map,
World Terrain Base, or Ocean Basemap, or Web Map Service layers (WMSLayer). You can
dynamically switch base layers by selecting a base layer from the layer manager in the window and
add vector overlay layers to web maps. You can use the wmclose function to close the web map
window and wmprint to print your web map to a printer. You can also publish a web map using the
MATLAB publish command.

Functions to add or remove geographic point marker and line overlays

on a web map display
You can add geographic point markers and line overlays on a web map display using the wmmarker
and wmline functions, and remove them using the wmremove function.

Interactive navigation and commands to control web map limits,

center, and zoom level
You can navigate around a web map, using a mouse, or by using the wmlimits, wmcenter, and
wmzoom functions.

Additional object properties for referencing images or data grids to

geographic or planar coordinates
The geographic raster reference and map raster reference classes include new properties that
describe the dimensions of cells or spacing between postings. The following table lists the properties
in relation to the class types, coordinate system type, and key properties.

Class Name Coordinate System RasterInterpr Cell Dimensions

Type etation
map.rasterref.Geographi geographic cells CellExtentInLatitude
cCellsReference CellExtentInLongitude
map.rasterref.Geographi geographic postings SampleSpacingInLatitude
cPostingsReference SampleSpacingInLongitude
map.rasterref.MapCellsR planar cells CellExtentInWorldX
eference CellExtentInWorldY
map.rasterref.MapPostin planar postings SampleSpacingInWorldX
gsReference SampleSpacingInWorldY

These new properties are unsigned because the existing ColumnStartFrom and RowStartFrom
properties already provide directional information.

These new properties make the DeltaLat, DeltaLon, DeltaX, and DeltaY properties redundant.
These older properties still exist but are hidden.

20-2
The four new classes replace the two existing classes spatialref.GeoRasterReference and
spatialref.MapRasterReference.

georasterref, maprasterref, and worldfileread functions return new

types
The georasterref and maprasterref functions return new types of objects, depending on the
value of the RasterInterpretation parameter. By default, if you do not specify this parameter, the
functions return an object with the raster interpretation cells.

The worldfileread function returns new types of objects, depending on the value of the
coordinateSystemType parameter.

The following table lists these classes.

Function Type Returned When Type Returned When

RasterInterpretation Is RasterInterpretation Is
'cells' 'postings'
georasterref map.rasterref.GeographicCe map.rasterref.GeographicPost
llsReference ingsReference
maprasterref map.rasterref.MapCellsRefe map.rasterref.MapPostingsRef
rence erence
worldfileread(___,'g map.rasterref.GeographicCe n/a
eographic',___) llsReference
worldfileread(___,'p map.rasterref.MapCellsRefe n/a
lanar',___) rence

Compatibility Considerations
It is no longer possible to set the RasterInterpretation property of a referencing object once it
has been created (because there are now separate classes for each raster interpretation). This
reduces the possibility of having a referencing object with incorrect property values.

Raster reference conversion functions accept new parameter and

return new types
The refmatToGeoRasterReference and refmatToMapRasterReference functions accept an
optional input argument and return new types of objects. Using the new rasterInterpretation
input argument, you can create a raster reference object with the raster interpretation cells or
postings. By default, if you do not specify this parameter, the functions return an object with the
raster interpretation cells.

The refvecToGeoRasterReference function does not accept a new parameter but does return a
new type of object, as shown in this table.

20-3
R2013b

Function Type Returned When Type Returned When

rasterInterpretation is 'cells' rasterInterpretation is 'postings'
refmatToGeoRasterRe map.rasterref.GeographicCellsR map.rasterref.GeographicPostingsR
ference eference eference
refmatToMapRasterRe map.rasterref.MapCellsReferenc map.rasterref.MapPostingsReferenc
ference e e
refvecToGeoRasterRe map.rasterref.GeographicCellsR N/A
ference eference

Properties and method name changes

The geographic raster reference and map raster reference classes include the following changed
property names. The properties with the old names still exist but are hidden.

Existing Property Name New Property Name

Geographic Raster Reference Classes
XLimIntrinsic XIntrinsicLimits
YLimIntrinsic YIntrinsicLimits
Latlim LatitudeLimits
Lonlim LongitudeLimits
AngleUnits AngleUnit
Map Raster Reference Classes
XLimIntrinsic XIntrinsicLimits
YLimIntrinsic YIntrinsicLimits
XLimWorld XWorldLimits
YLimWorld YWorldLimits
RasterWidthInWorld RasterExtentInWorldX
RasterHeightInWorld RasterExtentInWorldY
AngleUnits AngleUnit

The geographic raster reference class and map raster reference class have one changed method
name. The methods with the old names still exist but are hidden.

Existing Method Names New Method Names

Geographic Raster Reference Classes
geographicToSub geographicToDiscrete
Map Raster Reference Classes
worldToSub worldToDiscrete

Parameter names (for name-value pairs) supported by georasterref and maprasterref functions
that correspond to the changed property names have been changed.

20-4
Existing Parameter Names New Parameter Names
Geographic Raster Reference Classes
Latlim LatitudeLimits
Lonlim LongitudeLimits
Map Raster Reference Classes
XLimWorld XWorldLimits
YLimWorld YWorldLimits

Maps in the Stereographic Projection can extend more than 90

degrees from the origin
When using axesm to construct a map axes with MapProjection set to 'stereo', the map is no
longer limited to areas within 90 degrees of the origin. Instead, areas can extend out as far as 179.5
degrees, although the largest practical range is probably somewhere between 120 and 150 degrees.

Spheroid objects display additional properties

The command-line display for single instances of the oblateSpheroid and referenceEllipsoid classes
now lists the following additional (and dependent) properties:

• Flattening
• ThirdFlattening
• MeanRadius
• SurfaceArea
• Volume

The display for a single instance of referenceSphere now lists SemimajorAxis, SemiminorAxis,
InverseFlattening, Eccentricity, along with the five properties already included in the
preceding list. To avoid cluttering the display, the numerical values of these additional properties are
omitted, but can be view individually.

WMS Database Modified

The WMS Database changes on a release-to-release basis, as some new servers are added and other
servers are removed because they are no longer online or because their availability is too sporadic.

A total of 297 servers (12.5% of the number of servers listed in R2013a) and 15,907 layers have been
removed from the database. A total of 174 new servers, with 6,077 layers, have been added. The new
database contains a total of 2,253 servers and 66,453 layers.

A total of 17 new servers, with 1,896 layers, have been added. The new database contains a total of
2,378 servers and 76,283 layers.

If you want to find a server, use the server URL or a server URL search character vector with
wmsfind to search for layers provided by the server or servers. Then use the servers method of the
WMSLayer object to obtain the server or server URLs:

20-5
R2013b

layers = wmsfind(urlSearchString, 'SearchField', 'serverurl')

servers = layers.servers

The following specific update has been made to the WMS Database since the last release:

• The Unidata Program Center's THREDDS Data Server (TDS) using the domain name
motherlode.ucar.edu has been upgraded to use the domain name thredds.ucar.edu. The
domain name motherlode.ucar.edu will not work after August 1, 2013. These layers have been
updated in the database to use the new thredds.ucar.edu domain name.
• The notable new servers added to the database are from the USGS National Map:

'http://basemap.nationalmap.gov/ArcGIS/services/USGSTopo/MapServer/
WMSServer?'
'http://basemap.nationalmap.gov/ArcGIS/services/USGSImageryOnly/
MapServer/WMSServer?'
'http://basemap.nationalmap.gov/ArcGIS/services/NHD_Small/MapServer/
WMSServer?'
'http://services.nationalmap.gov/ArcGIS/services/US_Topo/MapServer/
WMSServer?'
'http://services.nationalmap.gov/ArcGIS/services/TNM_Vector_Large/
MapServer/WMSServer?'

Functions Being Removed

Function Name What Happens Use This Instead Compatibility
When You Use the Considerations
Function?
colorm Still runs N/A N/A
extractm Still runs N/A The use of display structures
is not recommended. Use
geoshape vectors instead.
geodetic2geocentri Still runs Use Examine instances of
cLat geocentricLatitud geodetic2geocentricLat
e instead. and consider replacing them
with calls to
geocentricLatitude
geocentric2geodeti Still runs Use Examine instances of
cLat geodeticLatitudeF geocentric2geodeticLat
romGeocentric and consider replacing them
instead with calls to
geodeticLatitudeFromGeo
centric
getseeds Still runs N/A N/A
makemapped Still runs N/A N/A
mlayers Still runs N/A N/A
mobjects Still runs N/A N/A

20-6
Function Name What Happens Use This Instead Compatibility
When You Use the Considerations
Function?
project Still runs N/A N/A
qrydata Still runs N/A N/A
readfk5 Still runs N/A N/A
refmat2vec Still runs Use Examine usages of
refmatToGeoRaster refmat2vec and consider
Reference instead replacing them with calls to
refmatToGeoRasterRefere
nce
refvec2mat Still runs Use Examine usages of
refvecToGeoRaster refvec2mat and consider
Reference instead replacing them with calls to
refvecToGeoRasterRefere
nce
rootlayr Still runs N/A N/A
seedm Still runs N/A N/A
smoothlong Errors Use Use unwrapMultipart
unwrapMultipart instead. Note that
unwrapMultipart requires
its input to be in radians.
When working in degrees, use
unwrapMultipart(lon,'de
grees').
unitstr Errors Use N/A
validateLengthUni
t instead

20-7
 21

R2013a

Version: 3.7

New Features

Bug Fixes

Compatibility Considerations
R2013a

KML export for line features

The new kmlwriteline function writes a geographic line specified by latitude and longitude
coordinate vectors, and optionally an altitude vector, to a KML file. The existing kmlwrite function
can now write geographic line features from a geoshape vector or line geostruct vector to a KML
file.

Additional KML attributes for both points and lines: AltitudeMode,

Camera, Color, and LookAt
The kmlwrite function can now include additional KML attributes when writing exporting
geographic points or lines to a KML file: AltitudeMode, Camera, Color, LookAt, and Width.

Multiple track log and route import in gpxread function

The gpxread function can now read multiple track logs or routes from a GPX file

Dynamic vector input in shapewrite, geoshow, and mapshow

The geoshow, mapshow, shapewrite and kmlwrite functions now accept dynamic vectors as input.
The following table lists the functions and identifies the specific dynamic vectors that they accept.

geoshow mapshow shapewrite kmlwrite

geopoint Yes — Yes Yes
mappoint — Yes Yes —
geoshape Yes — Yes Yes
mapshape — Yes Yes —

Auxiliary latitude converter objects

The toolbox includes several new classes, listed below, that provide methods for performing
conversions between geodetic latitude and the four types of auxiliary latitude commonly used to
implement map projections: authalic, conformal, isometric, and rectifying.

map.geodesy.authaliclatitudeconve Convert between geodetic and authalic latitudes

rter
map.geodesy.conformallatitudeconv Convert between geodetic and conformal latitudes
erter
map.geodesy.isometriclatitudeconv Convert between geodetic and isometric latitudes
erter
map.geodesy.rectifyinglatitudecon Convert between geodetic and rectifying latitudes
verter

When using these classes, make sure there is no variable named map in the same workspace. The
existence of a variable named map will cause MATLAB to return an error with the message:

"Attempt to reference field in non-structure array."

21-2
Additional KML enhancements
The toolbox supports the following enhancements to KML support:

• The new kmlwritepoint function writes a geographic line specified by latitude and longitude
coordinate vectors, and optionally an altitude vector, to a KML file
• The kmlwrite function can now export geographic point features from a geopoint vector or
geoshape vector to a KML file.
• The kmlwrite function now accepts a vector of altitudes in addition to latitude and longitude
coordinate vectors.

Geocentric and parametric latitude functions

Four new functions, geocentricLatitude, geodeticLatitudeFromGeocentric,
parametricLatitude, and geodeticLatitudeFromParametric provide conversions between
geodetic latitude and either geocentric latitude or parametric latitude.

Predicate for checking and validating angle unit inputs

The new map.geodesy.isDegree function provides an easy consistent mechanism for checking and
validating angle unit inputs in which the alternatives 'degrees' and 'radians' are supported.

When using the map.geodesy.isDegree function, make sure there is no variable named map in the
same workspace. The existence of a variable named map will cause MATLAB to return an error with
the message:

"Attempt to reference field in non-structure array."

Support for PolarStereographic (Variant B) Projection

The functions geotiffinfo, geotiff2mstruct, projfwd, and projinv now support the
PolarStereographic (Variant B) projection, which is used in various coordinate systems such as
WGS84/Antarctic Polar Stereographic.

Enhancements to geoshape and mapshape classes

The dynamic shape classes geoshape and mapshape have been made more robust with respect to
possible data corruptions given invalid inputs in set operations.

Improved performance for gpxread function

Enhanced performance for reading GPX files containing waypoints using the gpxread function.

WMS Database Modified

The WMS Database changes on a release-to-release basis, as some new servers are added and other
servers are removed because they are no longer online or because their availability is too sporadic. A
total of 279 servers (10.6% of the number of servers listed in R2012b) and 21,761 layers have been
removed from the database.

21-3
R2013a

A total of 17 new servers, with 1,896 layers, have been added. The new database contains a total of
2,378 servers and 76,283 layers.

If you want to find a server, use the server URL or a server URL search character vector with
wmsfind to search for layers provided by the server or servers. Then use the servers method of the
WMSLayer object to obtain the server or server URLs:

layers = wmsfind(urlSearchString, 'SearchField', 'serverurl')

servers = layers.servers

The following specific update has been made to the WMS Database since the last release:

• The USGS retired the Seamless Server on July 31, 2012. Services have been moved to the
National Map at 'nationalmap.gov'. Search for equivalent layers using the urlSearchString
'nationalmap.gov'.

Functions Being Removed

Function Name What Happens When Use This Instead Compatibility
You Use the Function? Considerations
combntns Still runs nchoosek Replace all existing
instances of combntns
with nchoosek.
epsm Still runs If necessary, you can
replace the expressions
below with the constants to
the right: epsm() 1.0E-6
epsm('deg') 1.0E-6
epsm('rad')
deg2rad(1.0E-6)
cometm Still runs Replace instances of
cometm with the following:
[x,y] =
mfwdtran(lat,lon);
comet(x,y,p)
cometm3 Still runs Replace instances of
cometm3 with the
following:
[x,y,z] =
mfwdtran(lat,lon,z);
comet3(x,y,z,p)
restack Still runs uistack Replace all existing
instances of restack with
uistack
grepfields Still runs textscan Replace all existing
instances of grepfields
with textscan

21-4
Function Name What Happens When Use This Instead Compatibility
You Use the Function? Considerations
fipsname Still runs shaperead Import the more recent
TIGER/Line data set,
available in shapefile
format, using shaperead
colorui Warning uisetcolor Replace all existing
instances of colorui with
uisetcolor
dcwdata Still runs vmap0data The VMAP0 dataset has
replaced DCW and can be
accessed using
vmap0data.
dcwgaz Still runs vmap0ui. The VMAP0 dataset has
replaced DCW and can be
explored using vmap0ui.
dcwread Still runs vmap0read The VMAP0 dataset has
replaced DCW and can be
read using vmap0read.
dcwrhead Still runs vmap0rhead The VMAP0 dataset has
replaced DCW, the header
data for which can be read
using vmap0rhead.

21-5
 22

R2012b

Version: 3.6

New Features

Bug Fixes

Compatibility Considerations
R2012b

Dynamic representation of geographic line and polygon features with

geoshape class
Geographic multi-point, line, and polygon features, in a geographic coordinate system, are
represented by a geoshape vector.

Dynamic representation of point, line, and polygon map features with

mappoint and mapshape classes
Geographic point feature, in a planar coordinate system, are represented by a mappoint vector.
Geographic multi-point, line, and polygon features, in a planar coordinate system, are represented by
a mapshape vector.

Coordinate transformations to/from local east-north-up, north-east-

down, and spherical systems
A new set of 20 functions for transforming between 3-D coordinate systems has been introduced.
There are two global coordinate systems: the geodetic system and ECEF (Earth-Centered, Earth-
Fixed) system. The three local coordinate systems are ENU (east-north-up), NED (north-east-down),
and AER (azimuth-elevation-range).

• Geodetic to local coordinate transforms: geodetic2enu, geodetic2ned, geodetic2aer

• ECEF to local coordinate transforms: ecef2enu, ecef2ned, ecef2aer
• Local to geodetic coordinate transforms: enu2geodetic, ned2geodetic, aer2geodetic
• Local to ECEF coordinate transforms: enu2ecef , ned2ecef, aer2ecef
• Transformations between local systems: aer2enu, aer2ned, enu2aer, ned2aer
• 3-D vector transformations between the three Cartesian systems (ECEF, ENU and NED):
enu2ecefv, ned2ecefv, ecef2enuv, ecef2nedv

Geographic quadrangles bounding points and lines with geoquadpt

and geoquadline functions
geoquadpt computes a geographic quadrangle bounding scattered points. geoquadline computes
a geographic quadrangle bounding a multi-part line. Both functions account for spherical topology.

Expanding latitude-longitude quadrangle with bufgeoquad function

The bufgeoquad function expands the latitude and longitude limits of geographic quadrangle,
accounting for spherical topology.

Spheroid class methods for 3-D coordinate transformations

The three spheroid classes, oblateSpheroid, referenceEllipsoid, and referenceSphere,
include 3-D transformation methods using geodetic and Earth-Centered Earth-Fixed (ECEF)
Cartesian coordinates.

• geodetic2ecef - transforms geodetic to geocentric (ECEF) coordinates

22-2
• ecef2geodetic - transforms geocentric (ECEF) to geodetic coordinates
• ecefOffset - Computes Cartesian ECEF offset between geodetic positions

These methods can be used with either degrees or radians.

Compatibility Considerations
If you choose to replace calls to the existing geodetic2ecef and ecef2geodetic functions with
calls to the new methods of the same names, be aware that the methods use latitude and longitude in
units of degrees, but the functions assume units of radians.

Option to use in degrees in unwrapMultipart

The unwrapMultipart function now accepts an optional angle unit, which can match either
'degrees' or 'radians'.

Changes in geopoint class

A new collection property, Geometry, has been added to the geopoint class. Its value is always
'point'.

Compatibility Considerations
• The lat and lon inputs are restricted to either class type single or double. In R2012a, the lat
and lon inputs may be any numeric type.
• If a dynamic property is set with a cell array of values, the class type of the values are restricted
to character vectors. In R2012a, the class type of the values in the cell array input may be
numeric, logical, or character vectors.
• When the input coordinate vectors are of different lengths, the lengths of the Latitude and
Longitude property values are set to the longest length of the input vectors. In R2012a, the
lengths of the property values is set to the length of the Longitude property.

Links to Internet geodata resources moved to Mapping Toolbox

documentation
The information on finding geospatial data on the Internet, previously located in "Tech Note 2101" at
URL https://www.mathworks.com/support/tech-notes/2100/2101.html has been moved into the
Mapping Toolbox documentation. The same content and links to external data sources, with some
updates and improvements, can be found in “Find Geospatial Data Online”.

Compatibility Considerations
The MathWorks web site provides a seamless redirect from the old tech note URL to the new one in
the web-based documentation, but If you have any browser favorites or bookmarks to the old tech
note URL, you could update them.

Smoother colormap interpolation in function demcmap

The demcmap function uses a smoother colormap interpolation scheme.

22-3
R2012b

Compatibility Considerations
Differences in colors may occur from earlier versions, but the change should be barely perceptible.

Change in gshhs output structure

In the structure returned by the gshhs function, the field name CrossGreenwich has changed to
CrossesGreenwich.

Compatibility Considerations
In scripts, or other MATLAB files, that refer to it, the field name CrossGreenwich needs to be
changed to CrossesGreenwich.

New method option in intrplat and intrplon

The intrplat and intrplon functions now accept the method'pchip', which designates shape-
preserving piecewise cubic interpolation (as in the MATLAB interp1 function).

Compatibility Considerations
The option 'cubic' is still accepted, but is now synonymous with 'pchip'. Calls to intrplat and
intrplon that use 'cubic' may interpolate slightly different latitude and longitude values.

Certain sample data files can be included in a deployed application

The geoid MAT-file and the following shapefiles can now be included, using the '-a' option, when
using the MATLAB Compiler (TM) to build an application that uses Mapping Toolbox: landareas,
usastatehi, usastatelo, worldcities, worldlakes, worldrivers.

WMS Database Modified

The WMS Database changes on a release-to-release basis, as some new servers are added and other
servers are removed because they are no longer online or because their availability is too sporadic. A
total of 7044 servers (75% of the number of servers listed in R2012a) and 15,488 layers have been
removed from the database. The vast majority (6,982) of the servers no longer available are from the
following server which has either changed its URL or is no longer in service.

http://nomads.ncdc.noaa.gov/thredds/wms/ncdcPaleoClimate

A total of 284 new servers, with 24,675 layers, have been added. The new database contains a total of
2,636 servers and 96,417 layers.

If you want to find a server, use the server URL or a server URL search character vector with
wmsfind to search for layers provided by the server or servers. Then use the servers method of the
WMSLayer object to obtain the server or server URLs:

layers = wmsfind(urlSearchString, 'SearchField', 'serverurl')

servers = layers.servers

The following specific updates have been made to the WMS Database since the last release:

22-4
• 19 new WMS servers from the USGS National Map Server. These servers provide ortho-imagery,
land cover, scanned topo maps, and shaded relief layers. Search for the layers and servers using
the urlSearchString 'isse.cr.usgs.gov' or 'nationalmap.gov'.
• 3 new WMS servers from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Search for the
layers and servers using the urlSearchString 'ipcc-data.org'.
• 29 new WMS servers from the University of San Diego focusing on natural disasters. Search for
the layers and servers using the urlSearchString 'hyperquad.ucsd.edu'.
• 33 new WMS servers from the USGS Energy Resources Program (http://energy.usgs.gov/). Search
for the layers and servers using the urlSearchString 'certmapper.cr.usgs.gov' .

The USGS is moving services from imsortho.cr.usgs.gov to raster.nationalmap.gov.

Some notable servers that have been removed are:

http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov:80/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Connecticut
http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov:80/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Iowa
http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov:80/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Mexico
http://imsortho.cr.usgs.gov:80/wmsconnector/com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Minnesota

Search for equivalent layers using the urlSearchString 'isse.cr.usgs.gov' or 'nationalmap.gov'.

Microsoft has retired the TerraServer. The following servers have been removed.

http://terraserver-usa.com/ogccapabilities.ashx?
http://terraserver-usa.net/ogccapabilities.ashx?
http://terraservice.net/ogccapabilities.ashx?
http://columbo.nrlssc.navy.mil/ogcwms/servlet/WMSServlet/TerraServer.wms

Search for equivalent layers in the USGS National Map server by using the following
urlSearchStrings:

• 'nationalmap.gov*Ortho'
• 'nationalmap.gov*Scanned'
• 'nationalmap.gov*DRG'
• 'nationalmap.gov*Imagery'
• 'isse*USGS_EDC_Ortho_HRO'

22-5
 23

R2012a

Version: 3.5

New Features

Compatibility Considerations
R2012a

Data File Removal or Location Change

The following data files have been removed. (The data has been inlined in source code.)

toolbox/map/mapdisp/globedems.dat
toolbox/map/mapdisp/gtopo30s.dat

Also, the usgsdems.dat file has moved from mapdisp:

toolbox/map/mapdisp/usgsdems.dat

to mapformats:

toolbox/map/mapformats/usgsdems.dat

Compatibility Considerations
Before R2011b, you needed to include these three data files:

toolbox/map/mapdisp/globedems.dat
toolbox/map/mapdisp/gtopo30s.dat
toolbox/map/mapdisp/usgsdems.dat

and the –a flag when compiling code that used the functions, globedems, gtopo30s or usgsdems.
You no longer need to do this.

geotiffinfo Now Handles Non-compliant GeoTIFF Files

Changes to the geotiffinfo function allow it to handle non-compliant GeoTIFF files better than in
previous releases. If the GTModelTypeGeoKey is not set, geotiffinfo now issues a warning,
assumes that the model type is 'ModelTypeProjected', and constructs a
spatialRef.MapRasterReference object and a corresponding RefMatrix. If the
GTModelTypeGeoKey is set to the value 3 (geocentric model), then geotiffinfo sets the
ModelType field to 'ModelTypeGeocentric' rather than empty (as in previous releases). When the
ModelTiepointTag contains a nonsensical corner latitude, geotiffinfo issues a warning and
clamps the corner latitude value to the interval [-90 90].

Compatibility Considerations
Before R2012a, if a GeoTIFF file did not include either the ModelTypeGeographic or
ModelTypeProjected tag, the geotiffinfo RefMatrix and SpatialRef fields were empty. The
empty tags led to the creation of degenerative files.

geopoint Class to Hold Geographic Point Data

The new geopoint class provides a convenient, memory-efficient way to represent one or more
geographic points. A geopoint vector can include a set of non-geographic attributes for each point.
(When used for cities, for example, attributes might include name, country, population, and so on.)
The geopoint class provides a rich set of properties and methods to describe, access and modify the
geographic point data.

23-2
gpxread Function to Read GPX Files
Use the new gpxread function to read data from a GPX file. It enables import of GPS waypoints,
routes, and track logs into MATLAB, via the GPS Exchange Format (GPX).

geotiffinfo Now Sets Filename to URL

If the input to geotiffinfo is a URL, then the value in the Filename field of the output structure
equals the URL.

Compatibility Considerations
Before R2012a, the value in the Filename field was a temporary file name.

Length Unit Validation and Conversion

The new validateLengthUnit function validates and standardizes a length unit. It accepts a wide
variety of abbreviations, and both plural and singular forms. The call validateLengthUnit('km')
returns 'kilometer'. The unitsratio function now handles several additional length units that
are used for geodetic applications in different parts of the world.

Improved Reference Spheroid Representations and Support

New referenceEllipsoid and referenceSphere classes provide intuitive, self-documenting
representations of reference ellipsoids and spheres, with name and length unit properties as well as
geometric properties, The reference ellipsoid class is based on the new oblateSpheroid class,
which encapsulates the purely geometric aspects of a flattened ellipsoid of revolution.

You can easily construct a reference ellipsoid object for most commonly used coordinate systems,
including all those supported by the almanac function and those included in the EPSG/OGP Geodetic
Parametric Dataset (which is used in connection with the GeoTIFF Format). Similarly, you can
construct reference sphere objects representing spherical models of the Earth, Sun, Moon and
planets.

wgs84Ellipsoid Function

Many users today work exclusively in the World Geodetic System of 1984 (WGS 84). Along with many
other roles, it serves as the native coordinate system the NAVSTAR Global Positioning System (GPS).
All that may be needed in this case is the new wgs84Ellipsoid function, which returns a
referenceEllipsoid object with property settings appropriate to the WGS ˋ84 ellipsoid.

Compatibility Considerations
In addition to the earlier “ellipsoid vector” representation, the following functions have been
extended to work with reference ellipsoid, oblate spheroid, and reference sphere objects:

areaint, areamat, areaquad, axesm, azimuth, convertlat, defaultm, departure, distance,

ecef2geodetic, ecef2lv, elevation, ellipse1, eqa2grn, geodetic2ecef, gradientm,
grn2eqa, hista, lv2ecef, mapprofile, meanm, meridianarc, meridianfwd, mfwdtran,
minvtran, rcurve, reckon, rsphere, scircle1, scircle2, setm, stdist, stdm, track,
track1, track2, vfwdtran, vinvtran

23-3
R2012a

An “ellipsoid vector” is a 2–by-1 double having the form [semimajor_axis eccentricity]. Ellipsoid
vectors are not self-identifying, they do not have a name property, and the length unit of the
semimajor axis must be known and managed separately.) For backward compatibility, these functions
continue to support ellipsoid vectors as well as the new representations.

referenceSphere, referenceEllipsoid and wgs84Ellipsoid provide superior alternatives to

the almanac function and should be used in its place going forward.

The etopo function now supports reading additional ETOPO1 data sets
The complete set of ETOPO1 supported data sets is as follows:

etopo1_ice_c.flt
etopo1_bed_c.flt
etopo1_ice_c_f4.flt
etopo1_bed_c_f4.flt
etopo1_ice_c_i2.bin
etopo1_bed_c_i2.bin

Improvement to Functions usamap and worldmap

In the functions usamap and worldmap the axes are initialized with a spherical Earth model having a
radius of 6,371,000 meters rather than with a unit sphere, making 3D viewing more robust. The
options 'all' and 'allequal' are now equivalent. In future releases 'allequal' will be removed.

Compatibility Considerations
This radius change affects the X and Y limits of the axes. If you are setting the CameraPosition,
CameraTarget, CameraUpVector, or CameraLightPosition properties of the axes with
hardwired values determined in releases prior to R2012a, then you need to multiply the first two
elements (X and Y values) by 6,371,000. Likewise, if you are using the XLoc or YLoc properties to
position a scaleruler, you need to multiply their values by 6,371,000.

To opt out of this change, set the value of the geoid property as in the following code:

worldmap world
setm(gca,'geoid',[1 0])

or

ax = worldmap('world');
setm(ax,'geoid',[1 0])

WMS Database Modified

The WMS Database changes on a release-to-release basis, as some new servers are added and other
servers are removed because they are no longer online or because their availability is too sporadic. A
total of 265 servers (2.75% of the number of servers listed in R2011b) and 13,505 layers have been
removed from the database. A total of 29 new servers, with 3,589 layers, have been added. The new
database contains a total of 9,396 servers and 87,230 layers.

23-4
If you want to find a server, use the server URL or a server URL search character vector with
wmsfind to search for layers provided by the server or servers. Then use the WMSLayer.servers
method to obtain the server or server URLs:

layers = wmsfind(urlSearchString, 'SearchField', 'serverurl')

servers = layers.servers

A notable server that has been removed is:

http://aes.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/wms?

Please use "gsfc.nasa.gov" rather than "gsfc.nasa.gov when finding layers from the NASA
SVS Image Server.

23-5
 24

R2011b

Version: 3.4

New Features

Compatibility Considerations
R2011b

New contourcbar Function Creates Color Bar for Filled Contour Display
Use the contourcbar function to create a color bar associated with a filled contour display created
with contourfm, contourm, contour3m, or geoshow.

Support for Web Map Service Version 1.3.0

Mapping Toolbox functions and classes now support Web Map Service (WMS) Version 1.3.0. See the
tip in the wmsread reference page about how EPSG:4326 coordinates are encoded in WMS Version
1.3.0.

WMS Database Modified

The WMS Database changes on a release-to-release basis, as some new servers are added and other
servers are removed because they are no longer online or because their availability is too sporadic. A
total of 151 servers (7.52% of the number of servers listed in R2011a) and 16,466 layers have been
removed from the database. A total of 7,768 new servers, with 30,525 layers, have been added. The
new database contains a total of 9,632 servers and 97,146 layers.

If you want to find a new server, use the server URL or a server URL search character vector with
wmsfind to search for layers provided by the server or servers. Then use the WMSLayer.servers
method to obtain the server or server URLs:

layers = wmsfind(urlSearchString, 'SearchField', 'serverurl')

servers = layers.servers

The following updates have been made to the WMS Database since the last release:

• 7,708 new WMS servers from Unidata's Thematic Realtime Environmental Distributed Data
Services (THREDDS) project. These servers are provided through several different institutions.
Search for the layers and servers using the urlSearchString: 'thredds'.
• 7 new WMS servers from various institutions that provide layers focused on Japan:

http://cernunosat05.cern.ch/ArcGIS/services/Japan/...
Japan_earthquake_Tsunami_area/MapServer/WMSServer?
http://cernunosat05.cern.ch/arcgis/services/Japan/...
SendaiMosaic/ImageServer/WMSServer?
http://hazardmap.service-section.com/cgi-bin/...
mapserv?map=/map/UserRaster/alav2a_0312_1.map
http://hyperquad.telascience.org/cgi-bin/jp_earthquake?
http://openls.geog.uni-heidelberg.de/geoserver/wms?
http://ows.geogrid.org/JapanBaseMap?
http://www.geographynetwork.ne.jp/ogc/wms?
• 21 new servers from the European Space Agency's ERDAS Apollo servers. To search for them, use
the urlSearchString: 'erdas.esrin'.

Two of the servers from the European Space Agency (ESA) are no longer available:

http://mapdev.eo.esa.int/mapServer/mapServer
http://mapdev.esrin.esa.int/mapServer/mapServer

24-2
You can find many of the layers from these servers on the new ERDAS Apollo servers. These changes
have resulted in slight modifications to the documentation examples for the WebMapServer.getMap
and WebMapServer.updateLayers methods since the global MODIS layer has moved.

Some notable servers that have been removed are:

http://ims.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/...
com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_StateLocal?
http://ims.cr.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/...
com.esri.wms.Esrimap/USGS_EDC_Ortho_Urban?
http://nhdgeo.usgs.gov/wmsconnector/...
com.esri.wms.Esrimap/nhdgeowms?
http://nmcatalog.er.usgs.gov/catalogwms/base
http://nmcatalog.usgs.gov/catalogwms/base
http://columbo.nrlssc.navy.mil/ogcwms/servlet/...
WMSServlet/OpenGIS_Web_Mapping_Services_(WMS).wms?

Changes to Error and Warning Identifiers

In R2011b, some error and warning message identifiers in Mapping Toolbox have changed.

Compatibility Considerations
If you have scripts or functions that use specific identifiers, you must update the code to use the new
identifiers. Typically identifiers are used to turn off specific warnings, or in code that uses a try/
catch statement and performs an action based on a specific error identifier.

For example, the map:eastof:obsolete identifier has changed to map:removing:eastof. If your

code checks for map:eastof:obsolete, you must update it to check for map:removing:eastof
instead.

To determine the identifier for a warning, run the following command just after you see the warning:

[msg,msgid] = lastwarn;

This command saves the message identifier to the variable msgid.

To determine the identifier for an error, run the following commands just after you see the error:

exception = MException.last;
msgid = exception.identifier;

For a mapping of the new warning identifiers to the original identifiers, see the solution Why is my
code that includes Mapping Toolbox message identifiers not working?

New Location for Sample Data

The Mapping Toolbox sample data sets, such as coast.mat and boston.tif, moved from
toolbox/map/mapdemos to toolbox/map/mapdata. All these data sets are still on the MATLAB
path, but it's helpful to know their specific location if you want to peruse them (or their attributions),

24-3
R2011b

or use them to try out the Map Viewer. Also note that the sample SDTS DEM data has moved into its
own subfolder, sdts, within the mapdata folder.

almanac Function Now Returns More Precise Eccentricity Value

When used with parameter 'airy', the almanac function now returns an eccentricity value derived
from a full-precision value of inverse flattening.

Compatibility Considerations
In previous releases, the inverse flattening value used to calculate eccentricity was truncated and
therefore less precise.

Note When 'airy' is used, almanac returns an ellipsoid vector for the Airy 1830 reference
ellipsoid. This has always been the case and has not changed in R2011b, but through R2011a the
documentation incorrectly indicated that 'airy' was the designation for the Airy 1849 reference
ellipsoid. In R2011b this documentation error has been corrected. There is no Airy 1849 option in
almanac, but if you need to you can construct an ellipsoid vector for the 1849 ellipsoid as follows:

[6377.340189 flat2ecc(1/299.3249646)]

In this case, the semi-major axis length is given in kilometers, which is consistent with the length unit
default of almanac.

24-4
 25

R2011a

Version: 3.3

New Features

Compatibility Considerations
R2011a

Spatial Referencing Improvements

Raster Referencing Classes

The new spatialref.GeoRasterReference and spatialref.MapRasterReference classes

relate georeferenced images or data to geographic or planar coordinates. Most Mapping Toolbox
functions that work with referencing vectors and matrices now work with referencing objects, as
well. Unlike the older referencing matrix and vector representations, a referencing object is self-
documenting, providing a rich set of properties to describe both the intrinsic and extrinsic geometry.

These functions now work with GeoRasterReference objects:

areamat contour3m contourfm contourm

filterm findm geoshow geotiffinfo
geotiffread gradientm grid2image imbedm
latlon2pix limitm los2 ltln2val
mapprofile maptrims meshgrat meshlsrm
meshm neworig pix2latlon resizem
setltln setpostn usamap vec2mtx
viewshed worldfileread worldfilewrite worldmap

These functions now work with MapRasterReference objects:

geotiffinfo geotiffread map2pix mapbbox

mapoutline mapshow mapview pix2map
pixcenters worldfileread worldfilewrite

Use the new georasterref and maprasterref functions to construct GeoRasterReference and
MapRasterReference objects.

Compatibility Considerations
Use the new referencing classes instead of referencing matrices and referencing vectors. To convert
referencing matrices or referencing vectors to the GeoRasterReference class, use the conversion
functions refvecToGeoRasterReference and refmatToGeoRasterReference as shown:

R = refvecToGeoRasterReference(refvec, rasterSize)
R = refmatToGeoRasterReference(refmat, rasterSize)

To convert a referencing matrix to the MapRasterReference class, use the conversion function
refmatToMapRasterReference as shown:

R = refmatToMapRasterReference(refmat, rasterSize)

New geotiffwrite Function to Write GeoTIFF Files

The geotiffwrite function exports georeferenced images or data. Now, in addition to reading
georeferenced images with geotiffread, you can also write them, with geotiffwrite.

25-2
WMS Database Modified
The WMS Database changes on a release-to-release basis, as some new servers are added and some
unavailable servers are removed. A total of 666 servers (26.8% of the number of servers listed in
R2010b) and 234,156 layers have been removed from the database. A total of 190 new servers, with
16,395 layers, have been added. The new database contains a total of 2,023 servers and 83,087
layers. Since the number of layers stored in the database is significantly reduced from earlier
versions, the access time is quicker.

If you want to find one of the new servers, use wmsfind to search for the URL:
wmsfind(URL, 'SearchField', 'serverurl')

The following updates have been made to the WMS Database since the last release:

• 57 new WMS servers from NOAA's Environmental Research Division Data Access Program
(ERDDAP):
http://coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov/erddap/wms

These servers provide oceanographic data. To find out more about them, visit the ERDDAP web
site.
• Two new WMS servers from the U.S. Geological Survey Coastal and Marine Program ncWMS
program:
http://coast-enviro.er.usgs.gov/ncWMS/wms)
• A new Mars Space Flight Facility MapServer:
http://ms.mars.asu.edu/TES_TI_Putzig?
• Two new servers from the Bureau of Land Management in partnership with the U.S. Forest
Service:
http://www.geocommunicator.gov
• A new Metacarta WMS server providing images from VMP0 tiles:
http://vmap0.tiles.osgeo.org/wms/vmap0
• A new server from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Institute providing data for the Tropical
Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM):
http://gdata2.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/daac-bin/wms_trmm?
• This version of the database is significantly reduced from earlier versions primarily due to the
reduction of servers (servlets) hosted by the NRL GIDB Portal server:
http://columbo.nrlssc.navy.mil

In R2010b, 425 servers with 228,227 layers were listed in the database. At the time of
qualification, the portal server is hosting data from only 51 servers, with a total of 10,715 layers.
• The JPL Global Imagery Service server:
http://onearth.jpl.nasa.gov/wms.cgi?

is no longer providing full WMS services for any of the datasets. Any server (e.g., http://
webapps.datafed.net/OnEarth_JPL.ogc?) that cascades data from this server is also
affected by the change. The server is still included in the database. Examples in the help and
reference pages that referred to this server have been updated to use a different server.

25-3
R2011a

A small subset of the data can be accessed using a non-standard TiledWMS request. The available
tiled patterns can be found at:

http://pat.jpl.nasa.gov/wms.cgi?request=GetTileService

The WMS parameters must be in the exact order. If you wish to obtain a tile, you can use the
prefix:

'http://onearth.jpl.nasa.gov/wms.cgi?/SERVICE=WMS&'

in front of the request (found in the CDATA section of the GetTileService request). For
example:

url = ['http://onearth.jpl.nasa.gov/wms.cgi?/SERVICE=WMS&' ...

'request=GetMap&layers=global_mosaic&srs=EPSG:4326&' ...
'format=image/jpeg&styles=visual&width=512&height=512&' ...
'bbox=-180,58,-148,90'];
[A, R] = wmsread(url);

Enhancements to geotiffinfo, geotiffread, and worldfileread

The geotiffinfo, geotiffread, and worldfileread functions now have additional syntax
options. Also, the geotiffinfo function now returns information about GeoTIFF tags.

Improved Performance for gtopo30

Enhanced performance for reading GTOPO30 tiles using the gtopo30 function.

Improved Performance for gshhs

Enhanced performance for reading GSHHS data sets using the gshhs function. The gshhs function
has been qualified on GSHHS releases 1.1 through 2.1 (version 8). Also, it can now read even newer
versions, if they adhere to the same header format as releases 2.0 and 2.1.

The improved gshhs can now read the files below:

wdb_borders_x.b
wdb_rivers_x.b

where x is one of the letters c, l, i, h, and f, corresponding to increasing resolution.

Second Input Argument of roundn No Longer Optional

The second input argument to roundn, a real, integer-valued exponent n, is no longer optional.

Compatibility Considerations
If you omitted n in previous releases, a warning was issued and a default value of −2 was used. Now,
if you omit n, you will receive an error. Change any code that calls roundn with one input argument
like this: roundn(x) to this: roundn(x,-2).

25-4
Comet Menu Item Removed from maptool
The Comet menu item is no longer available in maptool. You can still call cometm directly from the
command line.

25-5
 26

R2010b

Version: 3.2

New Features

Compatibility Considerations
R2010b

MATLAB Plot Selector Now Includes mapshow and geoshow

The Plot Selector workspace tool creates graphs of workspace variables. The mapshow and geoshow
functions have been added to the list of possible plotting functions available in the Plot Selector. For
more information about the Plot Selector, see Enhanced Plot Selector Simplifies Data Display.

Support for Retrieving Web Map Service Data in Image/BIL Format

Some servers render layers in the 'image/bil' format as a single band with a class type of int16
or int32. You can now use the wmsread function to retrieve this data.

Expanded Data Type Support for mapshow and geoshow

The mapshow and geoshow functions now have expanded class support for raster data display.

WMS Database Modified

The WMS Database changes on a release-to-release basis, as some new servers are added and some
unavailable servers are removed. A total of 244 servers (10.4% of the number of servers listed in
R2010a) and 111,514 layers have been removed from the database. A total of 380 new servers, with
65,834 layers, have been added. The new database contains a total of 2,502 servers and 300,848
layers. Some notable new servers in the database are:

• 242 new WMS servers from NOAA's Environmental Research Division Data Access Program
(ERDDAP) (http://coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov/erddap/wms). These servers provide
oceanographic data, and additional information about them may be found at http://
coastwatch.pfeg.noaa.gov/erddap/info/index.html.
• A server from the European Space Agency, removed in R2010a but now back in the Database
(http://ssems1.esrin.esa.int/mapServer/mapServer?).
• 115 new servers from the DataFed Web Map Server (http://webapps.datafed.net).
• Two new servers from NASA WorldWind WMS (http://www.nasa.network.com/elev? and
http://www.nasa.network.com/wms?). The 'elev' server provides data in the 'image/bil'
format.
• Two new servers from the USGS dedicated to emergency operations. These servers provide
imagery of the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico:

http://hdds.usgs.gov/arcgis/services/...
201004_OilSpill_GulfOfMexico/MapServer/...
WMSServer

and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti:

http://hdds.usgs.gov/ArcGIS/services/...
201001_Earthquake_Haiti/MapServer/...
WMSServer?

KML Schema Updated to Version 2.2

The KML schema has been updated to Version 2.2.

26-2
Population Density Data Added to usastatelo.shp
The usastatelo shapefile now contains average population density data by state for the year 2000
from the U.S. Census Bureau Web site.

Elements in korea.mat File Rounded

In the korea.mat file, the numbers in the referencing vector (the refvec) were very nearly integer
valued. Elements of these variables have been rounded slightly to become exact integers, as follows:

[12 45 115]

Compatibility Considerations
If you use the new version of the korea.mat file, your results will be slightly different than those
obtained with the older version of the file.

Changes in Behavior for Contouring Functions

Due to a recent bug fix, the contouring functions now exhibit many improvements. The bug fix in
question, Bug 192285, addressed problems with contours displayed by contourm, contour3m, and
contourfm. The following figure illustrates filled contours produced by the contourfm function in
R2010b, as compared to R2010a and earlier releases.

figure('Color','white');
worldmap world;
load geoid;
contourfm(geoid, geoidrefvec)

Compatibility Considerations
If you call any of the contouring functions, expect the behavior changes described in the following
table.

26-3
R2010b

Summary New Behavior Compatibility Considerations

Handles Each of the three contouring functions In previous releases, contourm
now returns a handle to an hggroup returned a handle to a MATLAB
object as its second output. contourgroup object as its second
output, while contourfm and
contour3m each returned an array of
patch handles.
Contour lines and The contouring functions now produce The contouring functions now construct
levels one line per contour level. The hggroup an equivalent (or better) display using
returned by contourm has exactly one fewer graphics objects than in previous
line child per contour level. releases.
Default contour In contourfm and contour3m, the The default contour levels have changed
levels default contour levels are now from those in previous releases.
consistent with contourm, as well as
the MATLAB contour and contourf
functions.
Non-positive If you supply 0 or a negative number for In previous releases, if you supplied 0 or
contour levels V in the syntaxes contourm(Z,R,V) or a negative number for V, the contourm
contourm(lat,lon,Z,V), contourm function drew no contour lines, returned
creates a plot with a single contour at an empty contour matrix, and
that level. constructed a contourgroup with no
children.
Parameter The parameter settings for contourm In previous releases, you could set any
settings and contourfm are both more selective valid contourgroup property (possibly
and more fully documented. You can set with unexpected results).
only the parameters described in the
contourm reference page.
Contour level tag In R2010b, each contour line has its Tag In previous releases, the tags contained
property set to a character vector only the contour level character vectors.
representation of its contour level,
preceded by 'contour line:'. These
tags display in the lower left of the axes
when you click on a contour line.
Filled area tag In R2010b, each fill polygon (patch) has In previous releases, the tags in patches
its Tag property set to a character created by contourfm contained the
vector beginning with 'contour character vector 'Cpatches' and did
interval:' and followed by its not display when you clicked.
minimum and maximum levels (as
character vectors) in square brackets.
These tags display in the lower left of
the axes when you click within a fill
polygon.

26-4
Summary New Behavior Compatibility Considerations
AppData and Each contour line object now has a Previously, UserData was set to the
UserData contour Level field in its AppData contour level value for each line and to a
property, and the patches representing minimum contour level value for each
fill polygons have 'MinLevel' and patch. If you have an application or GUI
'MaxLevel' AppData fields. contourm that checks UserData values for
and related functions no longer set the individual lines or patches, work with
UserData property of any graphics the getappdata function instead.
object.
Contours By default, the contourfm function now In previous releases, the function did
separating filled draws black contour lines to separate not draw lines by default. To suppress
areas filled areas of different colors. the lines, specify
'LineColor','none'.
Border of data When 'LineColor' is set to a value In previous releases, the function drew
other than 'none', the contourfm lines around the boundary of the data, in
function no longer draws lines around addition to the contour lines themselves.
the boundary of the data. The data
boundary is not a contour, so it is not
treated as such. The only lines drawn
are true contours.
Line colors If you set 'LineColor' for contourm In previous releases, if you changed the
or contour3m to 'auto' or 'flat', figure's colormap after creating the
the line colors come from the figure's contours, the line colors changed. To
colormap, as always. But, as of R2010b, change the line colors, use
if you change the figure's colormap after contourcmap.
creating the contours, the line colors do
not change.
Fill colors When you call contourfm, the fill colors To change the fill colors after plotting
are derived from the figure's colormap, the filled contours, call contourcmap.
as in previous releases. As of R2010b, if
you change the figure's colormap after
calling contourfm, the fill colors are
not affected.
Globe map display You can now use the globe map display In previous releases, you could not use
with the contouring functions. The the globe map display with the
contour3m function warns, but if you contouring functions.
are careful to scale your input data
correctly relative to the radius of your
reference sphere, you can still use it.

Now that contourfm produces correct results more consistently, it also takes somewhat longer to
run.

clabelm No Longer Breaks Contour Lines

In previous releases, the clabelm function broke contour lines to display the contour level tag. The
breaks failed to scale appropriately during zooming or when the figure size changed. Now, instead of
breaking the contour line, the clabelm function sets the color of the background where the tag is
inserted to the color of the ancestor axes or line.

26-5
R2010b

Compatibility Considerations
If you want to display the contour labels without a background color, as in previous releases, use set
to specify 'BackgroundColor','none' on the text object handle array returned by clabelm.

Changes in geoshow Behavior with 'DisplayType', 'contour'

Many aspects of the fix to Bug 192285 apply to geoshow contouring options as well as to contourm.
When applied to a data grid with the DisplayType parameter set to 'contour', geoshow now
contours the grid in the same way that contourm would, constructs a handle to the same sort of
hggroup, and accepts the same set of optional parameters (as documented on the contourm
reference page).

Compatibility Considerations
When used with 'DisplayType','contour' in previous releases, geoshow constructed a MATLAB
contourgroup and returned its handle. In previous releases, you could set any contourgroup property
via geoshow (possibly with unexpected results); you can now set only the parameters described in
the contourm reference page—a useful, relevant, and validated subset.

Changes in geoshow Behavior with 'DisplayType', 'surface'

When applied to a data grid with the 'DisplayType' parameter set to 'surface', geoshow now
sets the 'FaceColor' property to 'interp', unless the 'CData' property is also passed into the
function. In that case, the 'FaceColor' is set to 'texturemap'.

Compatibility Considerations
When used with 'DisplayType', 'surface', in previous releases, geoshow set the 'FaceColor'
property to 'texturemap'.

Changes in Behavior for the handlem Function

Changes in Finding Filled Contour Handles

The 'Cpatches' option has been removed in R2010b and replaced by 'fillcontour'.

Compatibility Considerations
In earlier versions of MATLAB, you could do the following:

load geoid
worldmap world
contourfm(geoid, geoidrefvec, 10)
h = handlem('Cpatches');

(The output h is an array of patch object handles.)

In R2010b, to achieve a comparable result, you can use either:

h = handlem('fillcontour');

26-6
or

h = handlem('contour');

(The output h is a handle to an hggroup.)

In cases where hggroups with both filled and unfilled contours exist, use the 'fillcontour' syntax
to return only handles to the hggroups with filled contours. If you use the handlem('contour')
syntax, you will return handles to all hggroups containing contours generated by Mapping Toolbox
functions.

Changes in Finding 3-D Contour Handles

The 'contour3d' syntax has been removed in R2010b and replaced by 'contour'.

Compatibility Considerations
In earlier versions of MATLAB, you could do the following:

load geoid
worldmap world
contour3m(geoid, geoidrefvec, 10)
h = handlem('contour3d');

(The output h is an array of patch object handles.)

In R2010b, to achieve a comparable result, you can use:

h = handlem('contour');

(The output h is a handle to an hggroup.)

Changes in Finding Contour Label Handles

The documentation in R2010a noted 'clabels' as the character vector to use in finding contour
labels. This is incorrect and should be 'clabel'. The documentation has been changed to 'clabel'
in R2010b.

Syntax Changes for contourcmap

In previous releases, the contourcmap function had the following syntax:

contourcmap(cdelta,cmapstr)

Now, contourcmap accepts the colormap character vector by itself:

contourcmap(cmapstr)

Or the colormap character vector with cdelta:

contourcmap(cmapstr,cdelta)

Notice that the position of the two input arguments has changed. The cdelta argument now appears
after the colormap character vector.

In addition to this change in syntax, the contourcmap function exhibits some changes in behavior:

26-7
R2010b

• When the axes contains Mapping Toolbox contour objects, cdelta is ignored and the resultant
colormap contains the same number of colors as the original colormap. The ColorAlignment is
set to 'center' for contour lines and 'ends' for filled contours and cannot be modified.
• After you have created a contourcmap, if you change the figure's colormap, the colorbar will
change colors. The contour lines and the fill will not change colors. To work around this problem,
do not set the figure colormap directly; set contourcmap.
• You can now set the 'Colorbar' parameter to 'off' to remove it from your map.

Compatibility Considerations
The original syntax, with the colormap character vector and cdelta in the reverse order, still works.
In a future release, this undocumented syntax will be removed.

Change in Behavior for bufferm

If you specify 'out' for the direction argument when calling the bufferm function, the returned
buffer zone will include all points outside the polygon within a specified distance of its edge. In
previous releases, the returned buffer zone also included the points within the polygon.

Compatibility Considerations
If you have code that specifies 'out' for the direction argument, you now receive only the region
outside the polygon but not the polygon itself. If you want to receive the union of the polygon and the
buffer zone, as you did in previous releases, use the polybool function.

maptrims No Longer Trims Edge Rows and Columns

In previous releases, you could call maptrims with an input value for latlim or lonlim that
corresponded to a parallel or meridian that ran precisely along a cell boundary. However, when you
did so, the cells adjacent to that boundary would be trimmed off even if they fell completely within
the requested limits. Now, if latlim or lonlim corresponds to a cell boundary, the output grid
extends all the way to that limit. If a limiting parallel or meridian cuts through a column or row of
input cells, the limit is truncated to avoid partial cells.

Change in Longitude Limits for WMSMapRequest and WMSLayer

The WMSMapRequest and WMSLayer objects now accept longitude limits from [0 360] or from
[-180 180]. In previous releases, longitude limits had to be from [-180 180].

polyxpoly Now Issues Warning when 'unique' Option Combined with

Segment Indices
If you attempt to use the following syntax:

[xi,yi,ii] = polyxpoly(x1,y1,x2,y2,'unique')

polyxpoly issues a warning and ignores the 'unique' flag.

26-8
 27

R2010a

Version: 3.1

New Features

Compatibility Considerations
R2010a

WMS Database Modified

The WMS Database changes on a release-to-release basis, as some new servers are added and some
unavailable servers are removed. A total of 199 servers (10.2% of the original number of servers) and
66,270 layers have been removed from the database. A total of 602 servers, with 207,269 layers, have
been added.

Some notable new servers in the database are:

• The OnMars (http://onmars.jpl.nasa.gov/wms.cgi) and OnMoon (http://

onmoon.jpl.nasa.gov/wms.cgi) servers from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• The MassGIS server (http://giswebservices.massgis.state.ma.us/geoserver/wms)
from the Massachusetts Office of Geographic and Environmental Information
• The National Map Seamless servers (http://ims.cr.usgs.gov, http://
imsortho.cr.usgs.gov, and http://imselev.cr.usgs.gov) from the U.S. Geological
Survey

Compatibility Considerations
Some servers are no longer accessible and have been removed from the database. If you have code
based on these servers, it will no longer run. To fix this problem, search the WMS Database for
another comparable server.

Some examples from the R2009b documentation have been modified due to server inaccessibility.
Some notable servers that have been removed are:

• Several of the servers from CubeWerx® (http://demo.cubewerx.com/dem/cubeserver/

cubeserv.cgi)
• Two of the servers from the European Space Agency (ESA) (http://mapdev.eo.esa.int/
mapServer/mapServer and http://mapdev.esrin.esa.int/mapServer/mapServer)

The etopo Function Now Supports the ETOPO1 and ETOPO2v2 Data
Sets
Before R2010a, the etopo function supported ETOPO2–2001 (2-minute) and ETOPO5 (5-minute)
data. Support has been added for ETOPO2v2c (2-minute) and ETOPO1c (1-minute) data. The ETOPO1
model, released in March 2009, is the most recent and contains the highest resolution data. For
information on downloading the ETOPO data sets, see Technical Note 2101: Accessing Geospatial
Data on the Internet for the Mapping Toolbox on the Mathworks Web site.

Compatibility Considerations
The etopo function still works with ETOPO2 and ETOPO5 data.

Now Possible to Retrieve Legend for WMS Map

The Details property of the WMSLayer class contains a Style field. A LegendURL structure has
been added to this field. The information in the LegendURL structure, if provided by the server,
enables you to retrieve a legend image for a specific WMS map.

27-2
Clipping Property Default Now Set to 'off'
Clipping is now 'off' by default for both map frames and graticule ("grid") lines. This is
advantageous in certain display situations, but it also means that the frame and graticule may extend
outside the axes limits (unlike the data plotted on the map), if you zoom in on a figure containing a
map. You can use set to turn clipping back on, like this, for example:

set(handlem('frame'),'Clipping','on')
set(handlem('grid'),'Clipping','on')

Compatibility Considerations
In releases before R2010a, the default for the Clipping property was 'on'.

The shaperead and shapewrite Functions Now Support Non-ASCII

Characters
You can now use the shaperead and shapewrite functions to import and export attributes with
non-ASCII characters. To use this feature, you must set your character encoding scheme to match
that used by the shapefile. For example, if your session is configured to support US_ASCII character
encoding and you want to import a shapefile with Japanese characters, you must first change your
configuration to support Shift_JIS.

Display Range Increased for eqdazim and eqaazim Projections

In previous releases, the Equidistant Azimuthal (eqdazim) and Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area
(eqaazim) projections did not allow projection or display of data points farther than 160 degrees
from the projection origin. Now you can set the projection radius for either of these projections to up
to 179.5 degrees.

Use the FLatLimit property to control this setting. For example, to choose the largest possible
value, pass the following property name-value pair to axesm or setm:

'FLatLimit',[-Inf 179.5]

Compatibility Considerations
The default value of the projection radius remains 160 degrees, so you do not need to update any
code that relies on the default value.

Before R2010a, you could use the following line of code to initialize the equatorial aspect of an
azimuthal projection:

axesm(projectionName,'MapLonLimit',westernAndEasternLimits)

Now, if you enter this line of code with eqdazim or eqaazim in place of projectionName, you will
receive a warning message, and your 'MapLonLimit' input will be ignored. To use the
'MapLonLimit' property to initialize the equatorial aspect of an azimuthal projection, you should
enter the following:

axesm(projectionName,'FLatLimit',[], ...
'MapLonLimit',westernAndEasternLimits)

27-3
R2010a

See Example 7: Equatorial Azimuthal Projection in the Axes for Drawing Maps section in the User's
Guide for an illustration of this usage.

The GUIs mlayers and mobjects No Longer Support EraseMode

The EraseMode property, represented by the Emode button, has been removed from the mlayers
and mobjects GUIs.

Compatibility Considerations
Before R2010a, the mlayers and mobjects GUIs had an EraseMode option, which made it possible
to set the erase mode on a particular map layer or object. This property controlled the technique
MATLAB used to draw and erase hggroup child objects.

scatterm Now Returns a Handle to an hggroup Object

The function scatterm in the syntax

h = scatterm(...)

now returns a handle to an hggroup.

Compatibility Considerations
In previous releases, scatterm returned a vector of patch handles.

mdistort Now Returns a Handle to a contourgroup Object

The output of the syntax

h = mdistort(...)

is now a scalar handle to a contourgroup object containing the contours and text.

Compatibility Considerations
In previous releases, mdistort returned handles to the line and text objects and used the syntax

[h,ht] = mdistort(...)

with two output arguments. The second output of mdistort is now redundant because these handles
will be available as children of h.

polybool No Longer Errors when Given Empty Input Vertex Arrays

When one or both pairs of input vertex arrays is empty, the polybool function now returns either
empty values or the values of the non-empty input pair, depending on the requested operation.

For example, consider the following case:

[x,y] = polybool('union', [0 0 1 1], [0 1 1 0], [], [])

27-4
The polybool function returns the first input pair: [0 0 1 1], [0 1 1 0]. Now consider the
'intersection' operation:

[x,y] = polybool('intersection', [0 0 1 1], [0 1 1 0], [], [])

The polybool function returns [], [].

Compatibility Considerations
In previous releases, if one or both pairs of input vertex arrays were empty, the polybool function
would issue an error.

Functions Being Removed

Function Name What Happens When Use This Instead Compatibility
You Use the Function? Considerations
etopo5 Errors etopo Replace all existing
instances of etopo5
with etopo.

27-5
 28

R2009b

Version: 3.0

New Features

Compatibility Considerations
R2009b

New Features for Creating Web Map Service Maps

New functions and classes now make it possible to interact with Web Map Service (WMS) servers and
render WMS maps. Use the new features to search a built-in database of pre-qualified WMS servers
and layers. Retrieve customized geographic data sets and related metadata from WMS servers. The
new classes encapsulate WMS servers, data layers, metadata, and map requests. See the Creating
Web Map Service Maps chapter in the User's Guide and related Class Reference for more
information.

New makerefmat Syntax for Constructing Referencing Matrices

A new parameter name-value pair syntax makes it easier to construct referencing matrices with
makerefmat. You can use the new syntax for an image or raster grid that is referenced to and
aligned with a geographic coordinate system but not for one that is referenced to a 2-D map
coordinate system. Use parameters to set the number of rows (M) and columns (N) of the raster or
image to be used with the referencing matrix; the latitude and longitude limits of the geographic
quadrangle bounding the georeferenced raster; and the edges from which row and column indexing
start, designating, for example, columns that run either south-to-north or north-to-south.

Some Functions Now Accept Referencing Matrices as Input

The functions below now accept referencing matrices as input, and some of them (maptrims,
resizem, and vec2mtx) also generate referencing matrices as output. The functions that generate
referencing matrices as output do so only in cases where referencing matrices are used as input. If
referencing vectors are used as input, referencing vectors are also generated as output. Note that the
functions in this table work exclusively with data grids or images that are referenced to geographic
(latitude or longitude) coordinates.

areamat imbedm maptrims setltln usamap

filterm limitm meshgrat setpostn worldmap
findm los2 meshlsrm resizem
getseeds ltln2val meshm vec2mtx
gradientm mapprofile neworig viewshed

Expanded Support for GSHHS Global Coastline Data

The gshhs function now supports Versions 1.4 and later of the Global Self-Consistent, Hierarchical,
High-Resolution Shoreline Database (GSHHS).

New Behavior for polymerge when Three or More Line Segments Have
Common End Point
The behavior of the polymerge function has changed in cases of three or more distinct parts with a
common end point. In such cases, the choice of which parts to merge is ambiguous; therefore, none
of the corresponding parts are connected at that common point.

28-2
Compatibility Considerations
In previous releases, if three or more parts shared a common end point, the polymerge function
attempted to merge them. The result, however, was unspecified and sometimes obviously wrong.

Automatic Conversion of Latitude Limits to Ascending Order

The functions axesm and setm require that the latitude limits in the 'MapLatLimit' property be
provided in ascending order. If you enter the limits in descending order, these functions will now
automatically convert the limits to ascending order, and return a warning message notifying you of
this change.

Compatibility Considerations
In previous releases, if you entered the latitude limits of the 'MapLatLimit' property in descending
order when using axesm or setm, you could end up with a map axes that was internally inconsistent,
possibly resulting in unexpected errors during subsequent operations. This is no longer the case.

Second Input Argument of roundn No Longer Supports Complex

Numbers, Non-integers, or Default Values
roundn no longer accepts certain types of input for the second input argument, N, which is supposed
to be a real, integer-valued exponent. Now, if you use a complex number or non-integer as the second
input to roundn, you will receive an error; and if you omit N, you will receive a warning. You will also
receive an error if you call roundn with a second output argument to capture error messages.

Compatibility Considerations
In previous releases, if you used a complex number or non-integer as the second input to roundn,
this number would be converted into a real integer. If you called roundn with a second output
argument to capture error messages, you would receive an obsolete syntax warning.

In R2009b, -2 is still the default value for the second input argument. This default is being phased
out, however, and in the future you will receive an error if you fail to supply the second input
argument. If there are any instances in your code with the usage roundn(x), you should replace
them with roundn(x,-2).

The two-output syntax option was previously deprecated and has resulted in a warning in the past
several releases.

28-3
R2009b

Functions Removed
Functions Being Removed in a Future Release

Name Stage Compatibility Considerations

colorui Still runs Replace all existing instances of colorui with uisetcolor.
eastof Warns If you are using degrees, replace

eastof(lon, meridian, 'degrees')

with

meridian + mod(lon - meridian, 360)

and if you are using radians, replace

eastof(lon, meridian, 'radians')

with

meridian + mod(lon - meridian, 2*pi)

imagem Errors Replace all existing instances of imagem with grid2image.
smoothlong Warns Use unwrapMultipart instead. This function requires its input to be
in radians. When working in degrees, use

rad2deg(unwrapMultipart(deg2rad(lon)))
tgrline Still runs More recent Tiger/Line® data sets are available in shapefile format and
can be imported using shaperead.
unitstr Warns The syntax

str = unitstr(str,'times')

has already been removed.

westof Warns If you are using degrees, replace

westof(lon, meridian, 'degrees')

with

meridian - mod(meridian - lon, 360)

and if you are using radians, replace

westof(lon, meridian, 'radians')

with

meridian - mod(meridian - lon, 2*pi)

28-4
Functions Removed in R2009b

deg2dm hms2hm hr2sec sec2hms cmapui

deg2dms hms2hr mat2dms sec2hr tigermif
dms2deg hms2mat mat2hms time2str tigerp
dms2dm hms2sec rad2dm timedim
dms2mat hr2hm rad2dms contorm
dms2rad hr2hms sec2hm contor3m

The functions above have been completely removed from the toolbox and error if used.

28-5
 29

R2009a

Version: 2.7.2

New Features

Compatibility Considerations
R2009a

geoshow and mapshow Now Construct Ordinary Patch Objects

When displaying polygons, instead of constructing graphics objects whose classes derive from patch,
geoshow and mapshow now construct ordinary patch objects.

Compatibility Considerations
This change has no effect on the display, but it does have some effect on your ability to load and save
figures. If you have a figure containing a polygon displayed by geoshow or mapshow that was saved
in R2008b or earlier, you will not be able to load it in R2009a.

You may also notice the change if you call get on a handle. The older (derived) class included several
extra properties used only for internal bookkeeping. In R2009a, these properties have been removed,
and the output of get looks different in terms of both layout and property order. (It now looks the
same as for any ordinary patch.)

29-2
 30

R2008b

Version: 2.7.1

New Features

Compatibility Considerations
R2008b

Using the Map Axes Map Limit Properties with axesm, setm, and
defaultm
Changes and enhancements have been made to axesm, setm, and defaultm with respect to map
axes properties that affect the fundamental display geometry:

• MapProjection
• Zone
• Origin
• FLatLimit
• FLonLimit
• MapLatLimit
• MapLonLimit

The changes result in the following improvements:

• The use of the map limit properties to set up a map axes is more intuitive.
• The way in which defaultm resolves possible inconsistencies between these properties is now
consistent with the behavior of axesm and setm.
• The map limit properties (MapLatLimit and MapLonLimit), the frame limit properties
(FLatLimit and FLonLimit), and the Origin, MapProjection, and Zone properties interact in
a more clear and predictable fashion.

For more information, see the section Using the Map Limit Properties in the Mapping Toolbox User's
Guide and bug report 319891 on the MathWorks Web site.

Changing Projection Type of an Existing Map Axes with setm

In previous releases, calling the setm function to change the MapProjection property of a map
axes, especially when switching between an azimuthal and non-azimuthal projection (e.g., a conic or
cylindrical projection), often resulted in the following types of problems:

• The modified map axes might cover a different part of the Earth.
• The map frame and graticule might fail to update properly.
• Map limit properties changed at the same time as the projection might not have the proper effect.

The setm function now more effectively resets the projection, clearing out settings that were specific
to the earlier projection, updating the map frame and graticule, and staying in the same general part
of the world (even when switching between azimuthal and non-azimuthal projections).

Compatibility Considerations
You may need to change the way in which you reset various map axes properties, such as Origin,
FLatLimit, and FLonLimit after changing projections, as discussed in the section Switching
Between Projections. In many cases it will no longer be necessary to reset as many properties.

30-2
Other Bug Fixes

Compatibility Considerations
• The default FLatLimit for lambert and lambertstd has been changed to [-45 45]. In
previous releases, axesm produced huge map frames, due to the FLatLimit default of [-90
90].
• The function gridm now returns handles to the line objects used to display the parallels and
meridians. In previous releases, a call to gridm using linespec or property name/property value
syntaxes returned empty.
• The function geotiff2mstruct no longer sets the maplatlimit and maplonlimit fields.
• A reference ellipsoid set to a non-default value (via the geoid property) no longer reverts to the
default when the UTM zone is reset. For more information, see bug report 459353 on the
MathWorks Web site.
• The daspectm function now works for azimuthal projections and units of radians.

coast.MAT Data File Revised

Portions of the global coastline latitude-longitude vectors in the coast.MAT data file have been
revised to ensure proper polygon topology. The data edits comprise the following:

• Replacing or removing various "bow-tie" and degenerate linear (non-polygonal) island features.
• Opening a "pinched" section in the middle of Lake Balkhash in Central Asia.
• Merging the eastern and western sections of Wrangel Island near the Bering Strait (cut by the
180-degree meridian) into a single polygon with longitudes ranging from slightly less than 180 to
slightly greater than 180.
• Eight additional edits to pull apart landmasses with points of contact and remove coastal "spikes."

Map Limit Syntaxes Removed

The following syntaxes are obsolete. An error occurs if you use them.

• pcolorm(Z)
• pcolorm(Z,gratsize)
• surfacem(Z)
• surfacem(Z,gratsize)
• surflm(Z)
• surflm(Z,s)
• surfm(Z)
• surfm(Z,gratsize)

These syntaxes displayed a data grid with geographic limits that matched the map latitude and
longitude limits in the current map axes. Using the old syntaxes correctly involved knowing the
latitude and longitude limits of your data and matching them to the values listed under maplatlimit
and maplonlimit in the map axes properties. We have replaced these syntaxes with a more direct
approach that requires you to enter the latitude and longitude limits for the data grid.

30-3
R2008b

Compatibility Considerations
The table below suggests alternative code to replace the obsolete syntaxes. In the following table, Z is
a regular data grid (a 2-D array of class double) and gratsize is a two-element vector specifying
the size of the graticule on which Z displays:

gratsize = [number_of_parallels number_of_meridians]

h is a handle to the surface that is displayed. And latlim and lonlim are the geographic limits of
the data grid (in degrees):

latlim = [southern_limit northern_limit]

lonlim = [western_limit eastern_limit]

Original Syntax Replacement Syntax

h = pcolorm(Z) [lat,lon] = meshgrat(latlim,lonlim,size(Z));

constructs a surface using the regular data h = pcolorm(lat,lon,Z)

grid Z and a graticule mesh (using
meshgrat) with size equal to size(Z) and
with geographic limits that match the map
latitude and longitude limits in the current
map axes.
h = pcolorm(Z,gratsize) [lat,lon] = meshgrat(latlim,lonlim,gratsize);

uses a graticule mesh with size equal to h = pcolorm(lat,lon,Z)

gratsize.
h = surfacem(Z) h = surfacem(latlim,lonlim,Z)

constructs a surface using the regular data

grid Z and a graticule mesh (using
meshgrat) of size 50-by-100. The
geographic limits match the map latitude
and longitude limits in the current map
axes.
h = surfacem(Z,gratsize) [lat,lon] = meshgrat(latlim,lonlim,gratsize);

uses a graticule mesh with size equal to h = surfacem(lat,lon,Z)

gratsize.
h = surflm(Z) h = surflm(latlim,lonlim,Z)

constructs a surface using the regular data

grid Z and a graticule mesh (using
meshgrat) with size equal to size(Z) and
with geographic limits that match the map
latitude and longitude limits in the current
map axes. It is displayed with a default
light source.

30-4
Original Syntax Replacement Syntax
h = surflm(Z,s) h = surflm(latlim,lonlim,Z,s)

specifies the direction of the light source. s

is a two- or three-element vector that
specifies the direction from the surface
map to the light source as defined in the
documentation for surfl.
h = surfm(Z) h = surfm(latlim,lonlim,Z)

constructs a surface using the regular data

grid Z and a graticule mesh (using
meshgrat) with size equal to size(Z) and
with geographic limits that match the map
latitude and longitude limits in the current
map axes.
h = surfm(Z,gratsize) [lat,lon] = meshgrat(latlim,lonlim,gratsize);

uses a graticule mesh with size equal to h = surfm(lat,lon,Z)

gratsize.

30-5
 31

R2008a

Version: 2.7

New Features

Compatibility Considerations
R2008a

Functions for Working with Geographic Quadrangles

A geographic quadrangle is an area on the surface of a sphere or ellipsoid bounded on the east and
west by a pair of meridians and on the north and south by a pair of parallels. In many ways, such an
object is similar to a bounding rectangle in the plane, but they can be difficult to work with because
of the way longitudes wrap around and the way meridians converge at the poles. For example,

• The western longitude limit can have a larger numerical value than the eastern longitude limit.
• If one of the bounding latitudes is +90 or -90 degrees, the quadrangle has three sides rather than
four.
• As noted below, the intersection of two geographic quadrangles might possibly comprise two
separate parts—with the eastern end of the first quadrangle intersecting the western end of the
second quadrangle, and vice versa.

Mapping Toolbox software typically represents a geographic quadrangle in terms of its latitude and
longitude limits, stored in 1-by-2 vectors having the forms
latlim = [southern_limit northern_limit]
lonlim = [western_limit eastern_limit]

Vectors like these have been used in various Mapping Toolbox functions since its inception, and can
appear in the input or output argument lists of over dozen functions.

In R2008a, three new functions let you query, intersect, and display geographic quadrangles, and
account for subtleties such as those described above:

• ingeoquad — Returns true for points inside or on latitude-longitude quadrangle

• intersectgeoquad — Returns intersection(s) of two latitude-longitude quadrangles
• outlinegeoquad — Returns sampled polygon vertices for a latitude-longitude geographic
quadrangle

Use ingeoquad, for example, to check whether a geographic point is located within the area covered
by a regular data grid, given the latitude and longitude limits computed by limitm.

Use intersectgeoquad to compute overlap, if any, between two quadrangles. Interestingly, three
general results are possible: no intersection, an intersection that is itself a geographic quadrangle,
and an intersection the comprises two distinct geographic quadrangles. (The intersection can have
two parts if the input quadrangles wrap around in longitude to overlap on both their eastern and
western sides. This case, of course, is not possible for bounding boxes in the plane.)

Use outlinegeoquad to generate a pair of latitude and longitude coordinate vectors that define a
polygon that traces the outline of a geographic quadrangle. This can be useful for displaying the
quadrangle graphically using geoshow, for example, especially on a projection where the meridians
and/or parallels do not project to straight lines, because in addition to connecting the four corners
outlinegeoquad lets you interpolate additional vertices along parallels, meridians, or both.

Fixes and Improvements to Function avhrrgoode

Function avhrrgoode has been rewritten to improve its efficiency and to remove a number of
problems and limitations:

• Fixed a spatial referencing problem when a nonglobal region has been specified which caused
locations to be offset by half a pixel.

31-2
• The function no longer returns incorrect NaN coordinate values at the equator when given certain
latitude limits that cross the equator.
• The function no longer errors when attempting to read a file name with certain legal latitude and
longitude limits.
• The new version executes at least five times faster.

Compatibility Considerations
• The nonfunctional syntaxes avhrrgoode and avhrrgoode(region) have been removed from
the documentation.
• The function now returns empty when the user-supplied limits are outside data limits.
• The function no longer permits longitude limits to be specified outside the interval [-180 180].
• Parameters other than region and filename can be specified as empty to use their default
values.
• In versions prior to R2008a, when reading from the global data set and a smaller region data set,
the size of the outputs differed by one column from each other when given identical latitude and
longitude limits. Now the sizes are the same.

Improved Accuracy for the limitm and setpostn Functions

In previous releases, after calculating the latitude and longitude limits of the geographic quadrangle
bounding a regular data grid, function limitm arbitrarily rounded those limits to the nearest one
millionth of a degree (equivalent to about 10 cm in latitude or equatorial longitude). Although it is
small, this rounding operation in effect applied an arbitrary shift to points on or very near the edge of
the grid. The direction of the shift and its magnitude were arbitrary because rounding can either
increase or decrease a value. In any given case, the shift depended on the specific referencing vector
and the number of columns and rows in the data grid. This behavior unnecessarily degraded the
numerical accuracy of limitm and those functions which depend on it, and it has now been removed.
For more information, see bug report 420038 on the MathWorks Web site.

In the setpostn function , an identical rounding step has been removed. Additional changes
eliminate a problem for certain input points near boundaries between grid cells that caused row and
column subscripts returned by setpostn to be off by 1. For points near the northern and eastern
edges of the data grid—but still within the grid—returned subscript values could exceed the
corresponding grid size. For more information, see bug report 173338 on the MathWorks Web site.

Compatibility Considerations
These corrections can cause subtle changes in the behavior of other functions that work with regular
data grids referenced to latitude-longitude, for example, imbedm.

If your referencing vector contains approximations to rational numbers that do not have an exact a
64-bit floating point representation (e.g., for cells that are 1.5 degrees wide, refvec(1) is
0.666666...), you may still find that certain points that are extremely close to a grid cell boundary
cross into a neighboring cell just across the boundary. Such numerical ambiguity is inevitable given
how the information in a referencing vector is encoded. Although it cannot be eliminated within
setpostn, the inexactness only affects points that fall within a few factors of eps (very much less
than a millionth of a degree) away from a given cell boundary.

31-3
R2008a

New Point Location Demo Data for Tsunami Events

The Mapping Toolbox demo data in the $MATLABROOT/toolbox/map/mapdata directory now
includes a global tsunami data set in shapefile format with 'Point' geometry. The data set
comprises four files:
tsunamis.dbf
tsunamis.shp
tsunamis.shx
tsunamis.txt

tsunamis.txt is not part of the shapefile set. It is a text file documenting the data set.

The data includes tidal wave events for which the maximum water height was at least one meter,
ranging for the years 1950 to 2006, inclusive. The Global Tsunami Database, U.S. National Geospatial
Data Center (NGDC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), available at
https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/hazard/tsu.shtml, is the source of the data. (To find the tsunami
data shapefile, go to https://pubs.usgs.gov/dds/dds-76/HAZPAC_ARCEX/DATA/SHAPE/.) All the files
consist of U.S. Government information that is in the public domain and is not subject to copyright
protection.

The approximate location of each event is a single point in geodetic coordinates (latitude-longitude)
with an unspecified datum. The .dbf file contains 18 separate text or numeric attributes for most
events, including wave height, causes and seismic magnitudes, and location and country names.

The shapefiles were created at MathWorks from querying the online source data, importing the
results into the MATLAB workspace, and exporting them using the Mapping Toolbox shapewrite
function. For more information, type
edit tsunamis.txt

at the MATLAB prompt.

Better Trimming Benefits fillm Function

The changes described in the Versin 2.6 (R2007b) release note “Improvements to Data Trimming in
patchm and patchesm” on page 32-5 resulting from improved polygon trimming also apply to the
fillm function.

Restored units Options for Function angl2str

The angl2str function once again can format character vectors for angles in degrees-minutes (DM)
and degrees-minutes-second (DMS) notations. These options were removed in Version 2.6 (R2007b),
and have now been restored. In addition to the 'degrees' and 'radians' units options, you can
now obtain DM- and DMS-formatted character vectors by specifying

• 'degrees2dm' — for degrees-decimal minutes formatting

• 'degrees2dms' — for degrees-minutes-decimal seconds formatting

To use these options, input angles must be in degrees. That is, angl2str uses the units argument
to indicate both the units in which the angle argument is provided and to control the output format.

This change restores the behavior of angl2str prior to Version 2.6 in a slightly different form.
Before V. 2.6, the DM and DMS options were specified by units of 'dm' and 'dms', respectively.

31-4
The new options that replace them signify that the functions degrees2dm and degrees2dms,
introduced in Version 2.5 (R2007a), perform the conversions of inputs given in degrees to DM and
DMS notation.

New Longitude-Wrapping Option in the closePolygonParts Utility

The closePolygonParts function now accepts an optional third argument, angleunits, that can
be either 'degrees' or 'radians'. If you include this argument with a value appropriate for the
first two (lat, lon) arguments, closePolygonParts can correctly account for longitude
wrapping. For example, a polygon that begins at a given latitude with a longitude of -180 degrees,
and ends at the same latitude with a longitude of 180 degrees is regarded as closed and an additional
vertex is not added.

Changes to Terminology for Geographic Data Structures

From Version 2.0 onward, the Mapping Toolbox documentation has referred to “version 1 geographic
data structures” and “version 2 geographic data structures,” using the terms “geostruct1” and
“geostruct2” respectively as shorthand for them. To reflect current usage, starting with this version
of the toolbox, these terms are obsolete; new terms and distinctions have been defined to help clarify
what these structures are and can be used for:

• Geographic data structure arrays, introduced in Version 2.0, contain vector features and are
called either

• Geostructs, if they contain geographic coordinates (latitudes and longitudes)

• Mapstructs, if they contain projected map/planar coordinates (x and y)
• Display structure arrays, dating from Version 1, also used to be called geographic data structures,
and can contain either vector features or raster geodata.

Due to their greater generality, geostructs and mapstructs are the preferred form in which to
represent vector features in the toolbox. The preferred way to package raster geodata is with regular
or geolocated data grids (2-D numeric arrays accompanied by referencing matrices or vectors). There
are only a few Mapping Toolbox functions that can still generate display structures (by importing data
from external file formats):

• dcwdata — Returns line/patch display structures

• dcwgaz — Returns line/patch display structures
• demdataui — Returns “regular”—as in regular data grid, that is—display structures
• mlayers — GUI to control plotting of display structure elements
• tgrline — Returns line/patch display structures
• vmap0data — Returns line/patch display structures
• vmap0ui — GUI for selecting data from Vector Map Level 0

Even fewer functions accept display structures as inputs:

• displaym — Displays elements of a display structure

• extractm — Extracts lat-lon coordinates from line/patch display structure

In addition to displaym and extractm, the updategeostruct function converts a line or patch
display structure to a geostruct.

31-5
R2008a

For more information, see Mapping Toolbox Geographic Data Structures.

Identifiers Provided for all Warnings

All warnings issued from within Mapping Toolbox functions now include identifiers, enabling you to
suppress them at your own discretion. Previously, this was possible for only certain warnings, but
with the addition of new identifiers in over two dozen functions in R2008a, all warnings are now
covered. For example, you can turn off the warning that setpostn issues when given a latitude-
longitude position outside the limits of the specified data grid. In this case, the warning identifier is

'map:setpostn:pointOutsideLimits'

You can suppress it using the following statement:

warnstate = warning('off','map:setpostn:pointOutsideLimits');

Then, after making your call to setpostn, you can restore the original warning state with

warning(warnstate);

See the MATLAB warning function reference page for the for more information on turning warnings
off and on and managing the warning state.

Documentation for Functions tigermif and tigerp Removed

The reference pages for following functions, which themselves were removed in R2007b, have been
removed from the Mapping Toolbox User's Guide:

• tigerp — Read TIGER p and pa thinned boundary files (ArcInfo format)

• tigermif — Read the TIGER MIF thinned boundary file (MapInfo format)

Compatibility Considerations
See the R2007b release note “Functions tigermif and tigerp Are Obsolete and Error if Used” on page
32-10 for alternatives to tigermif and tigerp.

Removed Syntaxes that Returned Error Messages in Optional

Argument
In earlier versions, the following Mapping Toolbox functions supported syntaxes that included an
optional output argument called msg. If this output argument was included in a call to one of these
functions, and certain error conditions were encountered while executing the function, then instead
of issuing an error, the function would return the corresponding error message in msg. The following
functions are affected:

• axesm
• defaultm
• displaym
• gcm
• handlem

31-6
• lightm
• linem
• maps
• meshm
• namem
• patchesm
• roundn
• surfacem
• surflsrm
• textm
• unitstr
• utmzone
• utmzoneui

For example, even with no map axes present, the command

[mstruct, msg] = gcm

returned without error in R2007b and earlier, but placed an error message in msg.

These syntaxes have been disabled in R2008a. If you try to use them, a warning is issued. The
warning may be followed by an error, depending on whether or not an error condition is encountered
within the function. For example, if a map axes is present, the command above results in

Warning: Function GCM no longer returns error message strings in

output argument MSG. Instead any errors are thrown where they occur.
You should remove the last output argument (MSG) from your call to
GCM in order to avoid this warning. If you want to handle errors
yourself, call GCM in a try-catch block.
> In mapdisp/private/warnObsoleteMSGSyntax at 6
In gcm at 20

If there is no map axes, it results in

Warning: Function GCM no longer returns error message strings in

output argument MSG. Instead any errors are thrown where they occur.
You should remove the last output argument (MSG) from your call to
GCM in order to avoid this warning. If you want to handle errors
yourself, call GCM in a try-catch block.
> In mapdisp/private/warnObsoleteMSGSyntax at 6
In gcm at 20
??? Error using ==> gcm>checkaxes at 41
No axes in current figure.
Select a figure with map axes or use AXESM to define one.

Error in ==> gcm at 24

h = checkaxes(varargin{:});

31-7
R2008a

Compatibility Considerations
As suggested by this warning, if you have any scripts or functions of your own that depend on the old
syntax, you should remove the msg argument and place the function call in a try-catch block
instead.

31-8
 32

R2007b

Version: 2.6

New Features

Compatibility Considerations
R2007b

Exporting Vector Geodata to Earth Browsers

kmlwrite is a new function for exporting vector point data to a file in KML format. KML stands for
Keyhole Markup Language; it is an XML dialect used to structure geographic data for display in an
Earth browser, such as Google Earth, Google Maps™, and Maps for Google Mobile™. KML has a
hierarchical structure of nested elements and attributes. kmlwrite has a simple API that lets
Mapping Toolbox users write vector data to a KML file in order to subsequently display the data onto
an Earth browser.

When used with Google Earth, files output from kmlwrite can be seen immediately in Google Earth,
if that application is available to the user. If the files are uploaded to a publicly accessible Web server,
they can be viewed by anyone on the Internet via Google Maps or other Web sites and browser
utilities that can read and display KML files. Google Maps and Google Maps for mobile do not support
the range of KML markup that Google Earth supports (for example, placemark locations must be
specified to them as coordinates, not as addresses). See the Google KML documentation at https://
code.google.com/apis/kml/documentation/mapsSupport.html for more information.

kmlwrite accepts latitude and longitude point vectors, passed either in geostructs or as column
arrays. It also accepts addresses, which can be as general as a country's name or as specific as a
street address. When geostructs are the input, the attribute data in the geostruct can be formatted as
HTML tables and included in the KML output. When latitude-longitude arrays are input, you can pass
attributes to kmlwrite with character vectors. When addresses are the input, geostructs are not
used.

To customize placemarks, you can control formatting of geostruct attributes in the KML file with an
attribute specification, a struct used to format them (for example, to add units to length attributes or
to control the number of decimal places for numeric values). A new support function,
makeattribspec lets you change the names used as labels in placemarks (geostruct field names are
used by default), omit fields from placemarks, and add HTML markup to the attributes displayed in
placemark tables.

See Exporting Vector Geodata in the Mapping Toolbox User's Guide and Exporting Vector Data
to KML for more information.

Improved Conversion Between Angle Units

The angledim function has been replaced by four, more specific, functions: fromRadians,
fromDegrees, toRadians, and toDegrees (described below in “Four New Angle-Unit Conversion
Functions” on page 32-3). However, angledim has been retained in Version 2.6 for backward
compatibility. The functions deg2rad, rad2deg, and unitsratio provide additional alternatives.

Because it must resolve both the input and output units, angledim is excessive for most applications.
It works only for class double and it quietly discards the imaginary part of any complex input. You
can use any of several more efficient alternatives:

If you are working from the command line, you can often replace angledim with deg2rad or
rad2deg. If you are converting angle units within a script or function and you know both the from
and to unit names at the time of coding, then you can also replace angledim with deg2rad or
rad2deg. If you know either from or to at the time of coding, then you can use fromRadians,
fromDegrees, toRadians, or toDegrees. Apply one of the following transformations to your code:

• angledim(angleIn,'radians',to) ⇒ fromRadians(to,angleIin)

32-2
• angledim(angleIn,'degrees',to) ⇒ fromDegrees(to,angleIin)
• angledim(angleIn,from,'radians') ⇒ toRadians(from,angleIn)
• angledim(angleIn,from,'degrees') ⇒ toDegrees(from,angleIn)

Also note that the functions in the fromRadians family can convert multiple variables in a single
function call. For example, you can replace this code

angle1 = angledim(angle1InRadians,'radians',to);
angle2 = angledim(angle2InRadians,'radians',to);

with

[angle1,angle2] = fromRadians(to,angle1InRadians,angle2InRadians);

If you do not know either from or to at the time of coding, then you can call unitsratio to obtain
the correct conversion factor, then multiply the values of one or more variables. For example, you can
replace:

angle1Out = angledim(angle1In, from, to);

angle2Out = angledim(angle2In, from, to);

with

r = unitsratio(to, from);
angle1Out = r * angle1In;
angle2Out = r * angle2In;

Four New Angle-Unit Conversion Functions

The following functions have been added for efficient conversion of angle units (degrees or radians)
when either the target or destination units (but not both) are unknown before run time.

• toDegrees — Convert angles to degrees

• toRadians — Convert angles to radians
• fromDegrees — Convert angles from degrees
• fromRadians — Convert angles from radians

If the output units match the inputs units, as in toDegrees(units, angle1, angle2,...),
where units turns out to equal 'degrees', then the input angles are simply copied to the output
angles.

Use these functions in place of angledim. The new functions are more efficient, especially when the
value of either the from or to argument of angledim is known in advance and the value of the other
angle-unit argument is not.

Improvements in Handling Length Units

Alternatives to the distdim Function

There are now more efficient ways to convert length and distance units than the distdim function. In
place of distdim, you can use unitsratio to compute multiplicative factors to apply when
converting between different units of distances and angles, which you can use in subsequent
calculations. For other alternatives, see Replacing distdim in the distdim reference page for details.

32-3
R2007b

The unitstr function Is Obsolete

The unitstr function, which validates names and abbreviations for units of distance, angle, and
time, is obsolete and will be removed in a future release. The syntax str =
unitstr(str,'times') has already been removed. Instead, see the documentation for
unitsratio for a list of valid unit character vectors.

Compatibility Considerations
There is no replacement for unitstr, but unitsratio recognizes all the unit strings known to the
toolbox.

Interpretation of “Miles” Units has Changed

As of R2007b, the following functions interpret distance units specified as 'miles' as International
Miles, not Statute Miles:

• almanac
• daspectm
• elevation
• mapprofile
• paperscale
• scaleruler

Compatibility Considerations
This will not materially affect the accuracy of results in most cases; the lengths of the two types of
miles only differ by about two parts per million (three millimeters). The distdim function's
interpretation of miles has not changed. However, there are better alternatives to it; see the release
note “Alternatives to the distdim Function” on page 32-3.

New Angle Wrapping Functions

Four new low-level functions have been added that force longitudes, azimuths, or phase angles to
span intervals of [0 360] or [-180 180] degrees or [0 2*pi] or [-pi pi] radians.

• wrapTo180 — Wrap angle in degrees to [-180 180]

• wrapTo360 — Wrap angle in degrees to [0 360]
• wrapToPi — Wrap angle in radians to [-pi pi]
• wrapTo2Pi — Wrap angle in radians to [0 2*pi]

The first two functions work in degrees, the next two in radians. None of them perform argument
checking.

You can use the new wrapping and functions in place of npi2pi and zero22pi for greater efficiency.
The older functions will eventually be removed from the toolbox.

New Function to Unwrap Sequences of Angles

The new unwrapMultipart function unwraps vectors of angles similarly to the function unwrap,
except that it handles vectors that include NaN separators, unwrapping each section separately. Use

32-4
it to remove discontinuities from vectors of longitudes, azimuths, or phase angles that contain NaN-
delimited sequences and as a replacement for the obsolete function smoothlong.

Improvements to Data Trimming in patchm and patchesm

The patchm and patchesm functions now completely trim away polygons and parts of polygons that
fall outside your current map limits. This improvement also affects fillm, which calls patchm.
Previously the patch functions simply shifted coordinates inward so that vertices collected at the
edge of the limits, where they would appear as lines along map borders, unless obscured by the map
frame. This change allows OpenGL to better render the patch objects constructed by patchm and
patchesm, making them more compatible with the use of AlphaData to achieve transparency. See
the release note “Map Axes Now Display Transparent Objects More Easily” on page 32-6 for more
details.

Compatibility Considerations
The more complete trimming in patchm and patchesm means that there are circumstances under
which automatic reprojection can no longer display all the data provided to these functions.
Automatic reprojection causes map objects created with plotm, linem, patchm, patchesm, and
certain other display functions (but not geoshow) to be removed, projected, and redisplayed
whenever a call to setm changes certain map axes properties, including the map limits and projection
type. In the case of patchm, a set of polygons will become unavailable for automatic reprojection if all
of the polygons are trimmed away completely. In the case of patchesm, which constructs a separate
object for each polygon, any polygon that is trimmed away completely will be unavailable for
reprojection, even if it would lie within newly defined map limits. In either of these cases, you should
delete the handle(s) returned by patchm or patchesm, then repeat the original calls after changing
your map axes properties.

Other potential compatibility issues:

• patchm and patchesm exhibit greater sensitivity to incomplete or incorrect polygon topology.
• You might need to manually set the renderer for proper display of some patch data

See the release note “Map Axes Now Display Transparent Objects More Easily” on page 32-6 for
information about rendering and Converting Coastline Data (GSHHG) to Shapefile
Format for an example of a situation where polygon topology necessitates manual setting of the
renderer.

Higher Quality boston.tif GeoTIFF Satellite Image

The original boston.tif GeoTIFF satellite image has been replaced by a higher resolution image,
created by and provided courtesy of GeoEye™. The new image has the same name as the old one,
boston.tif. The new boston.tif file, and an overview image in JPEG format, boston_ovr.jpg,
include material copyright © by GeoEye, all rights reserved. The new image is 2881-by-4481 pixels,
with a ground pixel size of 3.2808333333 U.S. survey feet (one meter). The original image was 720-
by-1120 pixels and had a ground pixel size of four meters. Both images cover the downtown section of
Boston, Massachusetts, the Charles River, and parts of Cambridge. The new image is a “pan-
sharpened” multispectral image with visible red, green, and blue bands, and is stored in RGB form.
The original image was also multispectral, but was a simple composite of red, green, and blue bands,
and it was written to the GeoTIFF file as an indexed-color image. One additional change is that rather
using meters, the new image is spatially referenced to the Massachusetts State Plane Mainland

32-5
R2007b

coordinate system with units of U.S. survey feet. The overview image, boston_ovr.jpg, is
referenced to latitude-longitude, with a ground pixel size of approximately 16 meters. For further
information, refer to the text files boston.txt, boston_ovr.txt, and boston_metadata.txt in
toolbox/map/mapdata.

Compatibility Considerations
Older satellite images of Boston and a demo have been removed from Mapping Toolbox directories.
The new boston.tif and boston_ovr.jpg images replace the images having the same names
previously included in toolbox/map/mapdemos. In addition, several older images related to
boston.tif have been removed:

• boston_red.tif
• boston_green.tif
• boston_blue.tif
• boston_pan.tif
• boston_enhanced_pan.tif

The mapexenhance demo (“Enhancing Multispectral GeoTIFF Images”), which used several of these
images, has also been removed.

Map Axes Now Display Transparent Objects More Easily

It is now much easier to achieve transparency effects from the toolbox by setting the AlphaData
property of an object. Previously, functions axesm, lightm, contourm, and contour3m set the
figure's Renderer property: axesm and lightm set it to 'zbuffer', while contourm and
contour3m set it to 'painters'. You then had to manually reset Renderer to 'opengl' in order
for transparency to take effect.

Now the RendererMode of the figure retains the default MATLAB value of 'auto', causing MATLAB
to select the most appropriate renderer for you; it will use OpenGL when appropriate, given your
AlphaData settings. Using OpenGL not only enables transparency effects, it also can make use of
hardware graphics acceleration capabilities should they be available.

Compatibility Considerations
If you need a particular map display to look the same as it did in Mapping Toolbox Version 2.5
(R2007a), in most cases you can just issue the command

set(gcf,'Renderer','zbuffer')

after you construct your map axes. If you are calling contourm or contour3m, issue the command

set(gcf,'Renderer','painters')

after you call the contouring function.

The consequence of doing this is that you will not be able to use transparency with that map figure
until you reset its renderer to 'opengl' or set its 'RendererMode' back to 'auto', which is its
default state.

32-6
The arcgridread Function Now Imports Noninteger Data Grids
In previous releases of the toolbox, arcgridread could only import data grids that had integer
values (often of meters or feet). This limitation has now been removed, such that input grids can
contain arbitrary values in decimal notation.

Change to avhrrlambert Function Behavior When No Data Is Available

In previous releases of the toolbox, avhrrlambert would error if the quadrangle defined by latlim
and lonlim (when projected to form a polygon in the appropriate Lambert Equal Area Azimuthal
projection) failed to intersect the bounding box of the data in the projected coordinates. In this
release, avhrrlambert does not error when this occurs but returns empty matrices.

Compatibility Considerations
If you depend on avhrrlambert to error when there is no data in your quadrangle, you will need to
change your code.

Enhancements to Mapping Toolbox User's Guide

Several sections of the chapter Understanding Geospatial Geometry have been rewritten and new
material has been added to better explain critical topics such as ellipsoid models, units of and
notations for angles and length, and the conversions that are possible between various units. There is
also a new section, Exporting Vector Geodata, explaining and illustrating how to use the new
kmlwrite and makeattribspec functions.

Functions deg2rad and rad2deg No Longer Convert Complex to Real

In prior versions, when given complex inputs, functions deg2rad and rad2deg issued a warning and
then converted their inputs to real. Now they no longer do either of these things.

Compatibility Considerations
In the unlikely event of complex input, these functions simply scale the imaginary part by the same
factor as the real part. For example, in R2007a and earlier releases, they behave as follows:

>> deg2rad(180i)
Warning: Imaginary parts of complex ANGLE argument ignored
> In deg2rad at 16
ans =
0

Going forward from this release, the result is

>> deg2rad(180i)
ans =
0 + 3.1416i

32-7
R2007b

Degrees-Minutes-Seconds Conversion Functions Are Obsolete and

Error if Used
The following functions, which accepted or produced double scalars to represent degrees, minutes,
and seconds now error when used, and will be removed completely from the toolbox in a future
release:

• deg2dm
• deg2dms
• dms2deg
• dms2dm
• dms2mat
• dms2rad
• mat2dms
• rad2dm
• rad2dms

The scalar DM and DMS encodings are being eliminated from the toolbox because they were never
used for internal computations, and always had the potential to generate serious numerical errors if
passed accidentally to functions that expected normal latitude-longitude tuples. They also made the
functions that accepted them less efficient due to the need to convert from DM or DMS to fractional
latitudes and longitudes before processing the input data.

In every case, an alternative that does not use the old degrees-minutes-seconds scalar encoding
exists. See the following section on compatibility for replacements and “New Functions for Degrees-
Minutes-Seconds Conversions” on page 33-3 in the V2.5 Release Notes for descriptions of
replacement functions, and the compatibility considerations below for descriptions of alternative
syntaxes and expressions you can use for degrees-minutes-seconds conversions.

Compatibility Considerations
DM and DMS representations are widely used in published reports and can occur in geodata that you
want to read into the MATLAB workspace. You can still import and export DM and DMS data, but
Mapping Toolbox functions no longer accepts the old encodings as alternatives to floating-point
representations of latitude and longitude for internal manipulations.

The following functions (which all use scalar DMS encoding) are being retired. They remain in the
product for R2007b, but now generate errors when used. They will be removed completely in the next
version. Use the alternative suggested in lieu of these functions.

• deg2dm — Instead use degrees2dm to convert degrees to degrees-minutes vector.

• deg2dms — Instead use degrees2dms to convert degrees to degrees-minutes-seconds vector.
• dms2deg — Instead use dms2degrees to convert degrees-minutes-seconds vector to degrees.
• dms2dm — Instead combine dms2degrees and degrees2dm, as in
degrees2dm(dms2degrees([-29 42 18.7])) to remove the seconds component from a
degree-minutes-second vector.
• dms2mat — Instead use degrees2dms to convert degrees to degrees-minutes-seconds vector.
• dms2rad — Instead use dms2degrees to convert degrees-minutes-seconds vector to degrees and
call deg2rad or multiply by pi/180.

32-8
• mat2dms — Instead use dms2degrees to convert degrees-minutes-seconds vector to degrees.
• rad2dm — Instead, call rad2deg or multiply input arguments by 180/pi, and then call
degrees2dm.
• rad2dms — Instead, call radtodeg or multiply input arguments by 180/pi, and then call
degrees2dms.

In addition, the axesm and setm functions no longer accept the character vectors 'dms' and 'dm'
for setting either the AngleUnits or LabelUnits properties of a map axes.

Many other Mapping Toolbox functions optionally accept angle character vectors for their units
parameter; the following 57 functions now only accept 'degrees' and 'radians', whereas in prior
versions they would also accept 'dm' and 'dms' as values for units:

angl2str distance histr putpole stdist

angledim eastof imbedm rcurve stdm
antipode elevation interpm reckon timezone
areaint ellipse1 intrplat rhxrh track
areamat epsm intrplon rotatem track1
areaquad eqa2grn mapprofile rsphere track2
axesm gc2sc meanm scaleruler unitstr
azimuth gcxgc meshgrat scircle1 westof
convertlat gcxsc neworig scircle2 zero22pi
crossfix gradientm newpole scxsc
daspectm grn2eqa npi2pi setm
departure hista org2pol smoothlong

These functions now error when provided 'dm' or 'dms' for their units argument.

Time Conversion Functions Are Obsolete and Error if Used

The following functions, which converted time representations, now error when used and will be
removed completely from the toolbox in a future release:

• hms2hm
• hms2hr
• hms2mat
• hms2sec
• hr2hm
• hr2hms
• hr2sec
• mat2hms
• sec2hm
• sec2hms
• sec2hr

32-9
R2007b

• time2str
• timedim

Compatibility Considerations
These functions now raise errors when they are invoked. They will be completely removed in a future
version of the toolbox. No substitutes have been provided, as no operations of the toolbox have ever
depended on them.

cmapui GUI is now Obsolete

cmapui GUI will be completely removed from the next Mapping Toolbox version.

Compatibility Considerations
It now errors if you attempt to use it. Use the MATLAB colormapeditor GUI instead, which
provides better functionality. You can also use the Colormap drop-down menu in the Property Editor
(part of the MATLAB plotting tools and available via the propedit command) to select a built-in
colormap; the custom option on that drop-down menu opens colormapeditor. To set up a colormap
for terrain displays, you can use the demcmap function. To generate an appropriate (but random)
colormap for political maps, use the polcmap function.

Functions tigermif and tigerp Are Obsolete and Error if Used

The following functions error and issue an error message when you attempt to use them:

• tigerp — Read TIGER p and pa thinned boundary files (ArcInfo format)

• tigermif — Read the TIGER MIF thinned boundary file (MapInfo format)

Compatibility Considerations
In place of these format readers, download U.S. Census cartographic boundary files in shapefile
format and use shaperead to import them.

32-10
 33

R2007a

Version: 2.5

New Features

Compatibility Considerations
R2007a

Performance Improvements for los2 and viewshed

This release includes a faster los2 function (which computes intervisibility between locations on or
above a terrain grid). The viewshed function (which computes the portions of a terrain grid that can
be seen from a given viewpoint) has also been accelerated as a result.

Utility Functions for Computing Distance and Position Along Meridians

Two functions that reckon position and distance along a meridian on the ellipsoid are now available:

• meridianarc — Computes distance along a meridian between two latitudes

• meridianfwd — Reckons position along meridian given a starting point and distance

Some GUIs Are No Longer Available from the Command Line

In prior releases, when you typed certain Mapping Toolbox function names with no argument list, a
specialized GUI appeared that enabled you to interactively set parameters related to the function.
This feature was seldom used and sometimes raised errors when users attempted to operate the
GUIs. Starting in this release, a GUI will no longer appear when you issue the following commands:

• comet3m
• cometm
• contourfm
• contour3m
• contourm
• demcmap
• fill3m
• fillm
• lightm
• limitm
• linem
• meshlsrm
• meshm
• patchesm
• patchm
• pcolorm
• plot3m
• plotm
• quiver3m
• quiverm
• scatterm
• stem3m
• surfacem

33-2
• surflm
• surfm
• surflsrm
• symbolm
• textm

Compatibility Considerations
Use the above functions with arguments to avoid raising errors. Their GUIs will continue to be
available via maptool (which places menus on a figure containing map axes), but they are not being
actively supported and will be eliminated in a future release.

New Functions for Degrees-Minutes-Seconds Conversions

Four new functions have been added to convert to and from decimal degrees and degrees-minutes-
seconds (DMS):

• dms2degrees — Convert degrees-minutes-seconds to degrees

• dm2degrees — Convert degrees-minutes to degrees
• degrees2dms — Convert degrees to degrees-minutes-seconds
• degrees2dm — Convert degrees to degrees-minutes

The DMS inputs and outputs of these functions are vectors of one row and three columns for each
row in the decimal degrees input or output. The first column contains the “degrees” element and is
integer-valued. The second column contains the “minutes” element and is integer-valued. The third
column contains the “seconds” element, and may have a nonzero fractional part. Similarly, DM inputs
and outputs are two-column vectors with integer degrees and fractional minutes parts.

The new conversion functions dispense with the DMS encoding used in prior versions of the toolbox.
These represented DMS angles by a single real number, the format of which is dddmm.ss. Such an
encoding is no longer used internally by Mapping Toolbox functions, as it is not self-documenting and
can lead to erroneous computations. For example, two DMS-encoded real numbers cannot be added
to obtain a meaningful result.

Compatibility Considerations
DM and DMS representations are widely used in published reports and can occur in geodata that you
want to read into the MATLAB workspace. You can still import and export DM and DMS data, but
Mapping Toolbox functions no longer accepts the old encodings as alternatives to floating point
representations of latitude and longitude for internal manipulations.

The scalar DM and DMS encodings are being eliminated from the toolbox because they were never
used for internal computations, and always had the potential to generate serious numerical errors if
passed accidentally to functions that expected normal latitude-longitude tuples. They also made the
functions that accepted them less efficient due to the need to convert from DM or DMS to fractional
latitudes and longitudes before processing the input data.

The following existing functions (which all use scalar DMS encoding) are being retired. They remain
available but now issue warnings that they are obsolete when used:

33-3
R2007a

• deg2dm — Instead use degrees2dm to convert degrees to degrees-minutes vector

• deg2dms — Instead use degrees2dms to convert degrees to degrees-minutes-seconds vector
• dms2deg — Instead use dms2degrees to convert degrees-minutes-seconds vector to degrees
• dms2mat — Instead use degrees2dms to convert degrees to degrees-minutes-seconds vector
• dms2rad — Instead use dms2degrees to convert degrees-minutes-seconds vector to degrees and
call deg2rad or multiply by pi/180
• mat2dms — Instead use dms2degrees to convert degrees-minutes-seconds vector to degrees
• rad2dm — Instead, call radtodeg or multiply input arguments by 180/pi, and then call
degrees2dm
• rad2dms — Instead, call radtodeg or multiply input arguments by 180/pi, and then call
degrees2dms

In addition, the axesm and setm functions no longer accept the character vectors 'dms' and 'dm'
for setting either the AngleUnits or LabelUnits properties of a map axes.

Many other Mapping Toolbox functions optionally accept angle character vectors for their units
parameter; the following 57 functions now only accept 'degrees' and 'radians', whereas in prior
versions they would also accept 'dm' and 'dms' as values for units:

angl2str distance histr putpole stdist

angledim eastof imbedm rcurve stdm
antipode elevation interpm reckon timezone
areaint ellipse1 intrplat rhxrh track
areamat epsm intrplon rotatem track1
areaquad eqa2grn mapprofile rsphere track2
axesm gc2sc meanm scaleruler unitstr
azimuth gcxgc meshgrat scircle1 westof
convertlat gcxsc neworig scircle2 zero22pi
crossfix gradientm newpole scxsc
daspectm grn2eqa npi2pi setm
departure hista org2pol smoothlong

These functions now issue warnings when provided 'dm' or 'dms' for their units argument.

Time Conversion Functions to be Removed

The following functions to convert between time units and encodings will be removed from a future
release of the toolbox:

• hms2hr
• hms2hm
• hms2mat
• hms2sec
• hr2hm

33-4
• hr2hms
• hr2sec
• mat2hms
• sec2hm
• sec2hms
• sec2hr
• time2str
• timedim

Compatibility Considerations
These functions remain available, but when they are invoked now issue warnings that they are
obsolete.

33-5
 34

R2006b

Version: 2.4

New Features

Compatibility Considerations
R2006b

Standard Formulations of Five Major Map Projections

New formulations of five conic map projections are provided. The existing implementations remain
available under their old names. The new versions use the same names as the ones they supplement,
appended with “std”:

• Cassini Transverse Cylindrical (cassinistd)

• Albers Equal-Area Conic (eqaconicstd)
• Equidistant Conic (eqdconicstd)
• Lambert Conformal Conic (lambertstd)
• Polyconic (polyconstd)

Computations used for the new versions differ from the old ones only when the latitude origin (the
first element of the origin vector) is nonzero. In this case, the old versions shift the origin off the
equator through a solid body rotation of the sphere (or, for an ellipsoidal earth model, a suitable
auxiliary sphere). This is technically correct, but differs from accepted industry standards for these
projections. The new versions use the standard formulations and give results that are consistent with
projection results from other software packages, regardless of the latitude origin. The old versions
are retained in the toolbox, with no change in behavior, to ensure backward compatibility.

See the Projections Reference documentation for more information.

Two New Geodetic/Geocentric Latitude Conversion Functions

Two new functions provide a more direct route to functionality already available via the convertlat
function:

• geocentric2geodeticlat converts an array of geocentric latitude in radians to geodetic

latitude in radians on a reference ellipsoid given a first eccentricity
• geodetic2geocentriclat converts an array of geodetic latitude in radians to geocentric
latitude in radians on a reference ellipsoid given a first eccentricity.

Accelerated Performance for geoshow, mapshow, and bufferm

Functions geoshow, mapshow, and bufferm run substantially faster in many cases, especially when
vector display is being controlled via symbol specs in mapshow and geoshow.

Changes in Behavior of mapshow and geoshow

In addition to operating faster, the mapshow and geoshow functions now behave slightly differently
regarding their defaults, handles returned, warnings issued, and several other aspects:

Compatibility Considerations
Default Symbols and Colors

• Point marker type changes from 'X' to '+'

• Point marker color changes from 'black' to 'red'
• Line color changes from 'black' to 'blue'

34-2
• Polygon facecolor changes from 'black' to pale yellow

Polygon edgecolor remains 'black'

Contour DisplayType Behavior Changes

• The DisplayType option 'contour' now returns an hggroup handle. The children of the
hggroup are patches. In prior versions, an array of line handles was returned.
• You can specify any contourgroup property as a parameter value pair. In previous versions,
mapshow allowed you to set the LineStyle property, but no other contour properties.
• Both mapshow and geoshow might return a different number of contour levels by default than in
previous versions, in which you could not specify contour intervals; in R2006b, you can control
contour intervals and levels via the LevelStep or LevelList contourgroup properties, among
others.
• In R2006b, when plotting contours on a regular axes (not a map axes), geoshow projects the
contour lines using a Plate Carree projection; in previous versions it simply displayed longitudes
as x and latitudes as y without doing any trimming or longitude wrapping.

Graphic Objects and Return Values for Vector Inputs

• Vector coordinate array input (x-y or latitude-longitude pairs) with a DisplayType of 'Line' or
'Point' now generates an ordinary line object instead of a map graphics line.
• For geostruct input, an hggroup object is constructed; its handle is returned instead of an array of
handles to map graphic objects:

• For polygon geostructs, map graphics polygon objects are still constructed, but become
children of the hggroup.
• For point, multipoint, and line geostructs, the children of the hggroup are ordinary line objects;
map graphics objects are no longer constructed.

In both cases each child of the hggroup, rather than each element in an array of handles,
corresponds to a distinct feature in the geostruct.

Handles Returned for Graphic Objects

• Geostruct inputs result in an hggroup handle containing either line objects (for point, multipoint,
and line inputs) or modified patch objects (for polygon inputs) as their children.
• Coordinate arrays (x,y pairs) displayed as lines now result in ordinary line objects.
• Geostructs containing lines result as ordinary line objects within hggroups.

New Warnings Issued

• mapshow and geoshow now warn when given a geostruct within which the Geometry field differs
from a specified 'DisplayType' parameter.
• mapshow will warn if it is given a geostruct containing Lat and Lon fields instead of X and Y
fields.
• geoshow will warn if it is given a geostruct containing X and Y fields instead of Lat and Lon
fields.

geoshow Supplies Default Projection

geoshow now projects vector and raster inputs using a default projection (Plate Carree) if the parent
axes is not a map axes. The axes itself is unchanged (it is not modified to become a map axes), but the

34-3
R2006b

scale factor of the projection is set such that latitudes and longitudes in degrees can be read directly
from the axes ticks and grid lines.

Duplicate Parameter/Value Pair Inputs Allowed

mapshow no longer errors or warns if given duplicate Parameter/Value pair inputs; in such
circumstances, mapshow now uses the last value (even with SymbolSpecs)

geoshow Supports True Surface Display

geoshow now creates a true 3-D surface if given a 'surface' DisplayType rather than setting the
ZData values to 0.

Texturemap DisplayType Behavior Changes

The 'texturemap' DisplayType now uses the pixel edges to create XData and YData grids rather
than using the pixel centers, which correctly registers the display to map coordinates. The ZData
contains an array of zeros having the same dimensions as the XData and YData arrays, which
exceed the input grid in size by one in both the x and y dimensions.

You should use'texturemap' displays when the attribute being displayed is coded by color (i.e. 2-D
displays); use 'surface' displays when you need to show data with relief (nonzero ZData).

More General Support for Graphics Properties

All patch properties are now supported for polygon inputs.

All line properties are now supported for point and line inputs, except that 'linestyle' is ignored
for point inputs.

Limitations on Referencing Matrices for Geoshow Removed

geoshow is now capable of accepting any referencing matrix. Previously it could only accept those
referencing matrices that were convertible to referencing vectors.

mapshow and geoshow Ignore Empty Inputs Rather than Erroring

In previous versions, mapshow and geoshow would throw errors when provided with empty ([])
arrays. This behavior could be inconvenient when running these functions via scripts. The new
behavior is also more consistent with that of MATLAB plotting functions such as plot, surf, mesh,
and contour.

dted Automatically Fixes Incorrectly Specified Longitude Directions in

DTED Data
Some DTED level 0 files available via the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's (NGA) web
interface may have minor errors. Specifically, Level 0 data for cells just to the east of the prime
meridian may have longitude coordinate character vectors with 'W' substituted for 'E'. The dted
function now detects and automatically corrects this data error.

34-4
 35

R2006a

Version: 2.3

New Features

Compatibility Considerations
R2006a

Full Support for 64-Bit Windows

Version 2.3 adds support for the mex- and library-based functions geotiffinfo, geotiffread,
sdtsinfo, and sdtsdemread on this new MATLAB platform via library upgrades (described below)
and a custom port of STDS++.

Third-Party Library and Code Upgrades

Third-party libraries and software packages have been upgraded to their current versions to ensure
best performance and compatibility with external geospatial data sources and applications software:

• General Polygon Clipper (GPC) upgraded to Version 2.32

• PROJ.4 library upgraded to Version 4.4.9
• SDTS++ library upgraded to Version 1.5.1
• GeoTIFF library upgraded to Version 1.2.2

Support for 32-Bit Floating-Point GeoTIFF Images

The MATLAB function imread can now import TIFF images containing 32-bit floating-point data. As a
result, geotiffread now reads the corresponding variety of GeoTIFF.

Compatibility Considerations
The structure returned by geotiffinfo in V. 2.3 has changed. The following table describes the
differences between the current and previous versions:

Version 2.3 Previous Versions

The TiePoints structure contains two The TiePoints structure contained two [3-
substructures, ImagePoints and WorldPoints. by-1] arrays, ImagePoints and WorldPoints.
ImagePoints contains [1-by-N] arrays Row
and Col; WorldPoints contains [1-by-N]
arrays X and Y.
The CornerCoords structure contains six [1- The CornerCoords structure contained six [4-
by-4] row vectors, respectively, X, Y, Col, Row, by-1] column vectors: PCSX, PCSY, X, Y, LAT,
Lat, and Lon. and LON.
The Zone field contains [] if the UTM zone is not The Zone field contained 32767 if the UTM zone
applicable or was missing from the metadata. was not applicable or was missing from the
metadata.

Utility Functions for NaN-Separated Polygons and Lines

closePolygonParts

Closes all rings in a multipart polygon to ensure proper analysis and rendering.

isShapeMultipart

Boolean-valued function that returns true if a polygon or line has multiple parts.

35-2
removeExtraNanSeparators

Eliminates redundant NaN separators that might exist in polygons and lines.

Standardized Vector Topology in coast.mat

Polygons in the low-resolution coastline sample data file coast.mat now follow the convention used
by geoshow, mapshow, and mapview to display polygons with “holes” (inner rings representing
lakes, inland seas, and islands within them). Outer contours now always run clockwise and inner
contours run counterclockwise. These edits, which reversed the order of vertices in some rings,
enable the display functions to fill outer rings properly while leaving inner rings blank.

Three New Demos

If you are viewing these release notes using the Help browser, clicking any of the demo links below
will open the demo in a browser window. Click the links at the top of that window to view or run the
code for the demo.

Converting Coastline Data (GSHHS) to Shapefile Format

Shows how to extract coastlines from the Global Self-consistent Hierarchical High-resolution
Shorelines (GSHHS) data set, manipulate the polygon features, and save the result to a polygon
shapefile.

Plotting a 3-D Dome as a Mesh Over a Globe

Illustrates how to construct a 3-D feature in a system of local vertical coordinates, then transform and
combine it with a globe display in Earth-Centered, Earth-Fixed (ECEF) coordinates.

Unprojecting a Digital Elevation Model (DEM)

Shows how to unproject a georeferenced terrain elevation grid from Universal Transverse Mercator
(UTM) into a regular latitude-longitude grid having comparable spatial resolution.

35-3
 36

R14SP3

Version: 2.2

New Features

Compatibility Considerations
R14SP3

Geodetic-Geocentric Coordinate Conversion Functions

New three-dimensional coordinate conversion functions (geodetic2ecef, ecef2geodetic,
ecef2lv, lv2ecef) transform 3-D point locations between geodetic (latitude, longitude, height),
geocentric Cartesian (Earth Centered, Earth Fixed), and local vertical Cartesian coordinate systems.

Additional User Control Over Shapefile Content

Function shapewrite now allows user control over field names, lengths, and decimal precision when
writing feature attributes to the DBF file, via a “DBF specification.” The new function makedbfspec
constructs a default DBF specification from a geographic data structure (geostruct2) array. Users can
customize the output and pass it to shapewrite.

Shapefile Read/Write Efficiency Enhanced

Improved implementations of functions shaperead and shapewrite process data substantially
faster (about four times faster for a 10-MB shapefile of major roads in Massachusetts).

Improved Rendering of Polygons with Inner Rings

The Map Viewer (function mapview) and functions mapshow and geoshow now properly render
polygons containing inner rings (e.g., lakes and inland seas within a continent, islands within a pond).
Features in underlying layers “show through” inner rings because they are not obscured by the patch
faces used to render the polygons.

Compatibility Considerations
Polygon Vertex Ordering Is Now Significant for Properly Rendering Filled Polygons

The map display functions geoshow, mapshow, and mapview now require that coordinate vectors
representing polygons have consistent directionality, such that

• Vertices defining outer rings (to be filled) be encoded in a clockwise direction.

• Vertices defining inner rings (often termed “lakes” or “islands,” to be rendered as transparent
holes) be encoded in a counterclockwise direction.

If you have vector map data sets that violate these conditions, the map display functions geoshow,
mapshow, and mapview might not be capable of rendering them as filled polygons. To determine the
directionality of polygon vertices, use the logical function ispolycw, which returns a separate result
for each NaN-delimited polygon in an array of vertices. If you find inner rings which are clockwise or
outer rings which are counterclockwise, use the utility functions poly2ccw or poly2cw, respectively,
to reverse the direction of those rings.

Map Viewer Now Georeferences Images It Saves

When the Map Viewer saves the visible or selected area as a raster map (an image file), it now also
writes a world file to georeference the image.

36-2
TIGER/Line File Support Upgraded
Function tgrline now supports the most recent (2003/2004) TIGER/Line data sets from the U.S.
Bureau of the Census.

36-3
 37

R14SP2

Version: 2.1

New Features

Compatibility Considerations
R14SP2

New Function Reads Both 5-Minute and 2-Minute ETOPO Data

The new function etopo reads from either the 5-minute (ETOPO5) or the 2-minute (ETOPO2) global
terrain data set. This function supersedes function etopo5 and fixes several significant bugs.

Function gshhs Now Returns a Version 2 Geostruct

Function gshhs, which reads the Global Self-consistent Hierarchical High-resolution Shoreline data
set, has been upgraded. It now returns a Version 2 geographic data structure (geostruct2) array
instead of a Version 1 geostruct. Polygons returned from gshhs now follow the shapefile vertex-
ordering convention (supported by functions polybool, shaperead, and shapewrite, for example).
Under this convention the coordinates of outer rings (e.g., continent outlines) are given in clockwise
order, while counterclockwise ordering is used for inner rings (e.g., lakes and inland seas within a
continent). Note that function gshhs does not yet support Version 1.3 of the data set, released on
Sept. 27, 2004.

Geodata Can Now Be Exported in Shapefile Format

The new function shapewrite writes a geographic data structure to a shapefile. It exports a Version
2 geographic data structure array (geostruct2), creating .shp, .shx, and .dbf files. Like
shaperead, the function supports the Point, MultiPoint, PolyLine, and Polygon shape types. The
contents of character vector-valued attribute fields and scalar numerical attribute fields are written
to the dBase (.dbf) file.

Accessing Geodata Resources on the Internet

Links and URLs to documentation and data files for various Internet sources of digital map data are
now collected in the following technical note on the MathWorks Web site:

https://www.mathworks.com/support/tech-notes/2100/2101.html

This technical note replaces many individual links formerly scattered across the User's Guide,
reference pages, and MATLAB function help. Collecting this information on a Web page rather than
on product CDs or printed documentation should substantially mitigate recurrent problems with stale
links. Please report any stale links that you might find in the technical note to MathWorks Technical
Support (https://www.mathworks.com/contact_TS.html), so that it can be updated promptly.

Changes to Atlas Data and Associated Functions

Through Version 2.0.3, the toolbox included a set of atlas data with global geopolitical data embedded
as MATLAB arrays in four MAT-files: worldlo, worldhi, worldmtx, and worldmtxmed. However,
geopolitical data is difficult to keep current, and is subject to inaccuracies and interpretations that
can cause contention. Therefore, starting with Version 2.1, Mapping Toolbox demo data now excludes
geopolitical data that would specify national sovereignty over specific regions of the Earth. The only
exceptions are the boundaries of the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

Compatibility Considerations
This change means that the worldlo, worldhi, worldmtx, and worldmtxmed MAT-files are no
longer part of the toolbox. However, the nonpolitical data on global coastlines, major lakes and inland

37-2
seas, major rivers, and major cities and populated places that was in worldlo.mat has been retained
in the toolbox and transformed into shapefile format. This includes the addition of name attributes for
many previously unnamed features. There are four new shapefiles in this category: landareas.shp,
worldlakes.shp, worldrivers.shp, and worldcities.shp.

For consistency, the atlas data for the United States that was originally stored in the usalo and
usahi MAT-files has also been transformed, although none has been removed. These data sets now
reside in the following shapefiles and MAT-files: usastatelo.shp, usastatehi.shp, conus.mat,
and greatlakes.mat.

The toolbox originally included four functions dedicated to extracting data from the atlas data MAT-
files: worldlo, worldhi, usalo, and usahi. With the data removal/transformation described above,
these functions are no longer needed and have been removed from the toolbox in Version 2.1. You can
easily access the new shapefiles using the shaperead function, which includes powerful and flexible
options for selecting features and even controlling which attributes are read. In addition, function
country2mtx, whose sole purpose was to rasterize the country boundary polygons in worldlo.mat,
has been removed.

Related changes extend to the worldmap function, which formerly combined two purposes:

• Select an appropriate map projection and parameters with which to display a given latitude-
longitude area.
• Automatically display atlas data for that area.

In Version 2.1, worldmap supports only the first of these actions. A call to worldmap constructs a
map axes object and can easily be followed with a variety of Mapping Toolbox commands to display
the map data of your choice. Because the usamap function is so similar to worldmap, corresponding
changes have been made there as well.

To help those who have relied heavily on worldmap and usamap to plot base maps with automatically
selected vector map data, examples throughout the User's Guide, reference pages, and MATLAB
function help entries have been updated to illustrate the new behavior of worldmap and usamap, and
to show how to create maps including vector shapefile data layers. These examples cover a wide
variety of ways to read and subset data with shaperead and display data with geoshow and other
Mapping Toolbox display functions. A good place to start is with the examples for the worldmap and
usamap functions. Also see example code in “Changes to worldmap and usamap” on page 37-3.

To help you update commands, scripts, and data for constructing and maintaining base maps, a
recently published technical note on the MathWorks Web site provides links to data and
documentation for many sources of vector and raster digital map data that you can access over the
Internet:

https://www.mathworks.com/support/tech-notes/2100/2101.html

Changes to worldmap and usamap

worldmap and usamap have been simplified to construct appropriate map axes for a given area
without displaying any map data.

In all cases, map frames, latitude-longitude grid lines, meridian labels, and parallel labels are turned
on. You can use the following command sequence to remove them:

framem off; gridm off; mlabel off; plabel off

37-3
R14SP2

Other changes include the following:

• usamap now accepts two-letter U.S. Postal Service abbreviations for state names (e.g., AL, AK, AR,
etc.).
• worldmap and usamap functions no longer support the type input argument.

Changes to worldmap and usamap Display Types

As of this release, the worldmap and usamap functions no longer support the type input argument.
This argument provided an easy way to control display behavior.

The type option in worldmap was a single argument that could be one of the following strings:
'none', 'line', 'lineonly', 'patch', 'patchonly', 'mesh', 'meshonly', 'dem',
'demonly', 'dem3d', 'dem3donly', 'lmesh3d', 'lmesh3donly', 'ldem3d', and
'ldem3donly'. In usamap, type was a subset of the above names (the 3-D options were not
supported).

In the current release, the various type display options can be simulated by following a call to
worldmap or usamap with an appropriate set of Mapping Toolbox commands. The following table
specifies how you can achieve the effects of the old worldmap type argument using such auxiliary
methods:

Mapping 1.x to 2.0.x Mapping 2.1 Usage

Usage
load topo load topo

worldmap(topo,topoleg worldmap(topo,topolegend)
end,'dem')
meshm(topo,topolegend)

demcmap(topo)

land = shaperead('landareas.shp','UseGeoCoords',true);

geoshow([land.Lat], [land.Lon])
load topo load topo

worldmap(topo,topoleg worldmap(topo,topolegend)
end,'demonly')
meshm(topo,topolegend)

demcmap(topo)

37-4
Mapping 1.x to 2.0.x Mapping 2.1 Usage
Usage
load topo load topo

worldmap(topo,topoleg worldmap(topo,topolegend)
end,'dem3d')
meshm(topo,topolegend,size(topo),topo)

da = daspect;

pba = pbaspect;

da(3) = 7.5*pba(3)/da(3);

daspect(da);

demcmap(topo)

land = shaperead('landareas.shp','UseGeoCoords',true);

geoshow([land.Lat], [land.Lon])
load topo load topo

worldmap(topo,topoleg worldmap(topo,topolegend)
end,'dem3donly')
meshm(topo,topolegend,size(topo),topo)

demcmap(topo)
load korea load korea

worldmap(map,refvec,' worldmap(map,refvec)
mesh')
meshm(map,refvec)

land = shaperead('landareas.shp','UseGeoCoords',true);

geoshow([land.Lat], [land.Lon])

(Text North Korea and South Korea will be missing)

load korea load korea

worldmap(map,refvec,' worldmap(map,refvec)
meshonly')
meshm(map,refvec)

37-5
R14SP2

Mapping 1.x to 2.0.x Mapping 2.1 Usage

Usage
load topo load topo

worldmap(topo,topoleg worldmap(topo,topolegend)
end,'mesh3d')
meshm(topo,topolegend,size(topo),topo)

da = daspect;

pba = pbaspect;

da(3) = 7.5*pba(3)/da(3);

daspect(da);
load topo load topo

worldmap(topo,topoleg worldmap(topo,topolegend)
end,'mesh3donly')
meshm(topo,topolegend,size(topo),topo)
load topo load topo

worldmap(topo,topoleg worldmap(topo,topolegend)
end,'ldem3d')
meshm(topo,topolegend,size(topo),topo)

da = daspect;

pba = pbaspect;

da(3) = 7.5*pba(3)/da(3);

daspect(da);

demcmap(topo)

camlight(90,5);

camlight(0,5);

lighting phong

material([0.25 0.8 0])

37-6
Mapping 1.x to 2.0.x Mapping 2.1 Usage
Usage
load topo load topo

worldmap(topo,topoleg worldmap(topo,topolegend)
end,'ldem3donly')
meshm(topo,topolegend,size(topo),topo)

da = daspect;

pba = pbaspect;

da(3) = 7.5*pba(3)/da(3);

daspect(da);

demcmap(topo)
load topo load topo

worldmap(topo,topoleg worldmap(topo,topolegend)
end,'lmesh3d')
meshm(topo,topolegend,size(topo),topo)

da = daspect;

pba = pbaspect;

da(3) = 2*pba(3)/da(3);

daspect(da);

camlight(90,5);

camlight(0,5);

lighting phong

material([0.25 0.8 0])

load topo load topo

worldmap(topo,topoleg worldmap(topo,topolegend)
end,'lmesh3donly')
meshm(topo,topolegend,size(topo),topo)

da = daspect;

pba = pbaspect;

da(3) = 2*pba(3)/da(3);

daspect(da);

37-7
R14SP2

Mapping 1.x to 2.0.x Mapping 2.1 Usage

Usage
load korea load korea

worldmap(map, refvec) worldmap(map,refvec)

land = shaperead('landares.shp','UseGeoCoords',true)

geoshow([land.Lat], [land.Lon])

(Text North Korea and South Korea will be missing. Land area
boundaries resolution is lower.)
load korea load korea

worldmap(map,refvec,' worldmap(map,refvec)
lineonly')
land = shaperead('landareas.shp','UseGeoCoords',true);

geoshow([land.Lat], [land.Lon])
load korea load korea

worldmap(map,refvec,' worldmap(map,refvec)
none')
load korea load korea

worldmap(map,refvec,' worldmap(map,refvec)
patch')
land = shaperead('landareas.shp','UseGeoCoords',true);

faceColors = makesymbolspec('Polygon',{'INDEX',[1
numel(land)],'Facecolor',polcmap(numel(land))});

geoshow(land,'SymbolSpec',makesymbolspec('Polygon',fac
eColors))

(Text North Korea and South Korea will be missing. Country coloring
will be missing.)
load korea load korea

worldmap(map, worldmap(map,refvec)
refvec,'patchonly')
land = shaperead('landareas.shp','UseGeoCoords',true);

faceColors = {'INDEX',[1
numel(land)],'FaceColor',polcmap(numel(land))};

geoshow(land,'SymbolSpec',faceColors)

(Country coloring will be missing.)

37-8
Compatibility Considerations
• The following input options are now obsolete (if used, a warning is issued):

• A first argument equal to 'lo' or 'hi'.

• The regiononly and stateonly syntax: a state or country name with the character vector
'only' appended.
• All type options are now obsolete. The new behavior matches the 'none' option.

Data Files Added in This Release

The following files were added to the mapdemos directory, for use in toolbox demos and examples:

• landareas — Polygon shapefile: global coastlines, both exterior and interior, including names for
larger land masses
• worldlakes — Polygon shapefile: coastlines and names of major lakes and inland seas worldwide
• worldrivers — PolyLine shapefile: major world rivers and their names
• worldcities — Point shapefile: locations and names of major cities and populated places
worldwide
• usastatelo — Polygon shapefile: low-resolution outlines and names of the 50 U.S. states plus
D.C.
• usastatehi — Polygon shapefile: moderate-resolution outlines and names of the 50 U.S. states
plus D.C.
• conus — MAT-file: Low-resolution latitudes and longitudes, in degrees, for the perimeter of the
conterminous United States (CONUS), the Great Lakes, and interstate borders
• greatlakes — MAT-file: A Version 1 geographic data structure (geostruct1) with outlines and
names for the Great Lakes of North America

Atlas Data MAT-Files Removed in This Release

MAT-files containing Atlas Data have been removed in Version 2.1. Some of the data has been
retained in a different form. The disposition of these data sets and variables is described below.

World MAT-File Data

• worldlo.mat, which contained the following variables:

• DNline — Data moved to worldrivers.shp

• DNpatch — Data moved to worldlakes.shp
• POline — Data removed from toolbox
• POtext — Data removed from toolbox
• PPpoint — Data moved to worldcities.shp
• PPtext — Data moved to worldcities.shp
• gazette — Data removed from toolbox
• worldhi.mat — Data removed from toolbox
• worldmtx.mat — Data removed from toolbox

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R14SP2

• worldmtxmed.mat — Data removed from toolbox

United States MAT-File Data

• usalo.mat, which contained the following variables (all retained):

• conus — Data moved to conus.mat

• greatlakes — Data moved to greatlakes.mat
• gtlakelat — Data moved to conus.mat
• gtlakelon — Data moved to conus.mat
• state — Data moved to usastatelo.shp
• stateborder — Data moved to conus.mat
• statelat — Data moved to conus.mat
• statelon — Data moved to conus.mat
• uslat — Data moved to conus.mat
• uslon — Data moved to conus.mat
• usahi.mat — Data moved to usastatehi.shp

Functions Being Removed

Functionality What Happens When Use This Instead Compatibility
You Use This Considerations
Functionality?
etopo5 Still works but issues a etopo Replace instances of
warning etopo5 with etopo.
tigerp Errors shaperead Download U.S. Census
cartographic boundary
files in shapefile format
and use shaperead
instead
tigermif Errors shaperead Download U.S. Census
cartographic boundary
files in shapefile format
and use shaperead
instead
country2mtx Errors N/A Functions that performed
specific operations on
Atlas Data sets have been
removed.
usahi Errors N/A Functions that performed
specific operations on
Atlas Data sets have been
removed.

37-10
Functionality What Happens When Use This Instead Compatibility
You Use This Considerations
Functionality?
usalo Errors N/A Functions that performed
specific operations on
Atlas Data sets have been
removed.
worldhi Errors N/A Functions that performed
specific operations on
Atlas Data sets have been
removed.
worldlo Errors N/A Functions that performed
specific operations on
Atlas Data sets have been
removed.

37-11