Trouble including a Matlab surf plot (pdf or png) with pgfplots

Question

I have successfully used \addplot graphics before. Now I have a surf plot in Matlab, which I exported as png and pdf and I would like to include the image with \addplot3 graphics. I found some questions on the topic here, here, and here, all of which did not help me. I tried several times to get a correct set of points from pgfplotscsconversion, but either my figure looks something like in the first link or the size is simply srewed up - no matter which format I use. I followed the conversion instructions in the second link, which was supposed to give the correct figure size, but it seems the axis box is simply too small (or the image too large). This is my MWE:

\documentclass[a4paper,10pt]{scrartcl}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{pgfplots}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[3d box,xmin=0,xmax=1,ymin=0,ymax=1,zmin=1,zmax=3]
\addplot3
graphics [
points={
  (0.42545,0.84598,3) => (165.418,269.808)
  (0.62718,0.73739,3) => (221.628,273.02)
  (0.36528,0.67204,1.8154) => (179.872,164.615)
  (0.81564,0.23471,1) => (334.851,96.36)
}]
{../matlabout.png};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

Without the min/max values, it looks even worse. I fear it is related to the third post, but I'm hoping that there is a solution without fiddling around manually...

Edit: Here is an image:

Answer 1

How about using matlab2tikz? That's always been my best bet for these things. You create your plot in matlab as normal and then, having downloaded the package matlab2tikz to your current working directory type >>matlab2tikz('filename.tex') and a file is created written in tikz commands.

Example

% This file was created by matlab2tikz v0.3.2.
% Copyright (c) 2008--2013, Nico Schlömer <nico.schloemer@gmail.com>
% All rights reserved.
%
% The latest updates can be retrieved from
%   http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/22022-matlab2tikz
% where you can also make suggestions and rate matlab2tikz.
%
%
%
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz,pgfplots}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}

\begin{axis}[%
width=4.52083333333333in,
height=3.378125in,
scale only axis,
xmin=0.5, xmax=2.5,
xtick={\empty},
ymin=-0.872306147353593, ymax=16.8315076281438,
ylabel={Normalised cfu (Y) values}
]
\addplot [
color=black,
dashed,
forget plot
]
table{
1 1.12905875646794
1 2.78718445646597
};
\addplot [
color=black,
dashed,
forget plot
]
table{
2 1.36133715554353
2 3.39777143317797
};
\addplot [
color=black,
dashed,
forget plot
]
table{
1 0
1 0
};
\addplot [
color=black,
dashed,
forget plot
]
table{
2 0
2 0
};
\addplot [
color=black,
solid,
forget plot
]
table{
0.925 2.78718445646597
1.075 2.78718445646597
};
\addplot [
color=black,
solid,
forget plot
]
table{
1.925 3.39777143317797
2.075 3.39777143317797
};
\addplot [
color=black,
solid,
forget plot
]
table{
0.925 0
1.075 0
};
\addplot [
color=black,
solid,
forget plot
]
table{
1.925 0
2.075 0
};
\addplot [
color=blue,
solid,
forget plot
]
table{
0.85 0
0.85 1.12905875646794
1.15 1.12905875646794
1.15 0
0.85 0
};
\addplot [
color=blue,
solid,
forget plot
]
table{
1.85 0
1.85 1.36133715554353
2.15 1.36133715554353
2.15 0
1.85 0
};
\addplot [
color=red,
solid,
forget plot
]
table{
0.85 0
1.15 0
};
\addplot [
color=red,
solid,
forget plot
]
table{
1.85 0
2.15 0
};
\addplot [
color=blue,
only marks,
mark=+,
mark options={solid,draw=red},
forget plot
]
table{
1 2.86116610278157
1 2.95124846970011
1 2.96462408742799
1 2.97672923606257
1 2.97796965154811
1 2.99660242862322
1 3.0037675940822
1 3.01411361097206
1 3.02378221975569
1 3.03465537879915
1 3.05104691875102
1 3.0524887902421
1 3.054698367375
1 3.06946423244171
1 3.123401396294
1 3.18701681450716
1 3.22331347185298
1 3.26431457826656
1 3.26575600527331
1 3.28891193278492
1 3.29126780809468
1 3.29994977231928
1 3.30151454616189
1 3.51369680474291
1 3.55594005913051
1 3.580267849604
1 3.62139284445829
1 3.63331706393713
1 3.69712860434564
1 3.71789360239462
1 3.73137135176868
1 3.73793814785515
1 3.74613321323258
1 3.74713290237321
1 3.75915881837724
1 3.77368294360208
1 3.78414412300685
1 3.84867955908334
1 3.90365624369993
1 3.90753006730174
1 3.91592893219147
1 3.97164083228678
1 3.98212699077419
1 3.99994581987529
1 3.99996287392214
1 4.00373730182012
1 4.02157837509262
1 4.02822619449464
1 4.05222199937739
1 4.18447335976829
1 4.18677023062065
1 4.29946448151493
1 4.31505394260622
1 4.32393762989871
1 4.34436165598829
1 4.35944927796665
1 4.39399815332052
1 4.46042061381864
1 4.46382363320185
1 4.49589099528811
1 4.52114499865807
1 4.52742866833533
1 4.59350844545217
1 4.59496487831338
1 4.61146788071285
1 4.63334374533791
1 4.78194759348968
1 4.83985818575815
1 4.85513436268938
1 4.92123603955527
1 4.93285176189552
1 5.05004769917023
1 5.16969391058426
1 5.22313998874544
1 5.29553454518465
1 5.33766965745357
1 5.36644047293616
1 5.52122597723003
1 5.56570565964821
1 5.60712009690023
1 5.66300423208743
1 5.66514259686913
1 5.67534726927919
1 5.81240592380042
1 5.92522478062696
1 5.93381941413441
1 5.98427109770311
1 5.98565402583205
1 6.05515692299313
1 6.05809430218476
1 6.09131101441445
1 6.11965752158963
1 6.13042419196115
1 6.28887153147068
1 6.32977252857695
1 6.33808014284925
1 6.45676918355347
1 6.48502196897216
1 6.59035226484124
1 6.59884332318236
1 6.60336173876099
1 6.67009552407771
1 6.73110910942222
1 6.75296641706414
1 6.77094593491614
1 6.95828178345678
1 6.99917574058471
1 7.18124875343567
1 7.2160622220336
1 7.25184300053345
1 7.27072859615507
1 7.53978854529375
1 7.62683747307804
1 8.30937998979063
1 8.83438781965087
1 9.22480466629532
1 10.6774780199582
1 11.2782346683741
1 11.3395674314469
1 11.8331754433414
1 13.3372479331164
1 13.3668568887691
1 14.4998735338549
1 15.4828226776902
1 15.6170772950205
1 16.0267888201666
};
\addplot [
color=blue,
only marks,
mark=+,
mark options={solid,draw=red},
forget plot
]
table{
2 3.41321096568804
2 3.42441728383389
2 3.47006454701832
2 3.5083260493326
2 3.50993022181865
2 3.5224280440296
2 3.53097156483447
2 3.53199517316025
2 3.53271118180697
2 3.54044801269578
2 3.57635424914675
2 3.5896987787456
2 3.64453768214226
2 3.65919183094817
2 3.66146964549055
2 3.67456647665076
2 3.7169973585756
2 3.73419637021325
2 3.73904009252507
2 3.77120490977482
2 3.77272560202542
2 3.77497681063978
2 3.79225323954729
2 3.79298102605436
2 3.80760997040253
2 3.81147340948309
2 3.81908053833612
2 3.96875014304215
2 3.99485534417404
2 4.01731506252257
2 4.06765568544008
2 4.0873257520362
2 4.11331236080408
2 4.13325633569113
2 4.26661484034241
2 4.36772600865394
2 4.40303481390946
2 4.40607151364257
2 4.46600165504838
2 4.47111977439536
2 4.49622909097077
2 4.53094088464027
2 4.54231297219618
2 4.57118373068546
2 4.6446735402234
2 4.6647201051236
2 4.71154608850202
2 4.80403096612948
2 4.82138190204484
2 4.96852570578322
2 5.07419215874747
2 5.08033573542001
2 5.10684604665064
2 5.14377910249464
2 5.17463377309759
2 5.17667049399468
2 5.36212407214132
2 5.40448313210525
2 5.41350356223682
2 5.41626341824251
2 5.41817161403
2 5.53622130790774
2 5.61664680822599
2 5.71410241240439
2 5.73419059729061
2 5.76038943550156
2 5.81282928328695
2 5.85167879792264
2 5.88710771337601
2 5.95097380392967
2 5.99247085551671
2 6.01852287751298
2 6.12793948220513
2 6.13691798442411
2 6.1524157717636
2 6.15824150074784
2 6.18114223490642
2 6.21273886630019
2 6.31339722911058
2 6.34381711049789
2 6.52578119369999
2 6.59982567229256
2 6.62614371942598
2 6.89054180919679
2 6.90561121762275
2 6.9983257531296
2 7.00336367711781
2 7.24601684774342
2 7.46677804595626
2 7.474430435742
2 7.5054467862249
2 7.74350903028379
2 7.87327847780469
2 8.01233531618229
2 8.02823255086298
2 8.27567062753628
2 8.57461049625301
2 8.74788905030809
2 8.93719593956683
2 9.30958954675193
2 9.94300146504975
2 9.98413037495241
2 11.0057097811966
2 11.084099718654
2 11.7427852334254
2 12.4827210667149
};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}%
\end{document}