{"id":1503,"date":"2024-07-31T08:00:37","date_gmt":"2024-07-31T12:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/graphics-and-apps\/?p=1503"},"modified":"2026-01-30T11:56:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T16:56:06","slug":"creating-a-flight-tracking-dashboard-part-2-developing-an-aircraft-chart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.mathworks.com\/graphics-and-apps\/2024\/07\/31\/creating-a-flight-tracking-dashboard-part-2-developing-an-aircraft-chart\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating a Flight Tracking Dashboard, Part 2: Developing an Aircraft Chart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/td>\nGuest Writer: Ken Deeley<\/a>
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Ken is an application engineer in Cambridge, UK, supporting MathWorks users with their technical computing projects. Ken joined the MathWorks customer training team in 2011 after research work in mathematics with applications to motion planning for autonomous guided vehicle (AGV) robotics. Ken specializes in software development, machine learning, and financial applications, with a particular focus on graphics and app development. He enjoys training MathWorks users on best practices, working with customers on consulting projects, and capturing common customer workflows and requirements to inform future MathWorks development activities.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
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\"Open<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Overview<\/span><\/h1>\n
In the first blog post<\/a> of this series, we saw how to visualize a model of the aircraft together with its current attitude. In this post, we'll see how to encapsulate the 3D graphics and helper functions used to visualize the aircraft in a custom chart.<\/div>\n
Throughout this post, we'll use the term chart<\/span> to refer to a MATLAB class that provides a convenient visualization API for end users. Charts are also more suitable for modular application development, since they can be dynamically updated after creation, and reused between multiple applications. For more information about charts, see the technical article<\/a> [1].<\/div>\n
By the end of this post, we'll have an aircraft chart equipped with the roll<\/span>, pitch<\/span>, and yaw<\/span> functions for setting the attitude of the aircraft.<\/div>\n
\"AircraftRoll.gif\"<\/div>\n
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Table of Contents<\/span><\/div>\n
Create a new chart class.
\n<\/a>Define the setup and update methods.
\n<\/a>Add data to the chart.
\n<\/a>Add graphics objects to the chart.
\n<\/a>Customize the chart's constructor.
\n<\/a>Update the chart's graphics.
\n<\/a>Equip the chart with rotation methods.
\n<\/a>Test the chart.
\n<\/a>Further charts.
\n<\/a>Summary
\n<\/a>References<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Create a new chart class.<\/h2>\n
Since R2019b, MATLAB provides a framework for developing custom charts<\/a>. We'll start by creating a new chart class within this framework, named AircraftChart<\/span>.<\/div>\n
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classdef <\/span>AircraftChart < matlab.graphics.chartcontainer.ChartContainer<\/div>\n
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end<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
In this example, the chart will only contain graphics objects. If you need your chart to contain control objects, such as buttons or check boxes, or if you need to share your chart as a reusable component in App Designer, you should use the ComponentContainer<\/span><\/a> framework (introduced in R2020b). We\u2019ll see some examples of components in part 3 of this blog series.<\/div>\n

Define the setup<\/span> and update<\/span> methods.<\/h2>\n
If we try to create an AircraftChart<\/span> object from our class, we'll get the following error.<\/div>\n
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>> AC = AircraftChart<\/div>\n
Abstract classes cannot be instantiated. Class 'AircraftChart' inherits abstract methods or properties but does not implement<\/span><\/div>\n
them. See the list of methods and properties that 'AircraftChart' must implement if you do not intend the class to be abstract.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
This is because charts derived from ChartContainer<\/span> must implement the following two methods:<\/div>\n