Joe’s method works fine, but it makes a set of draggablepoints as a class instead of a single draggablepoint class. I just came across an alternative method to solve the above problem using animation blit techniques. It not only makes the dragging faster and smoother, but also only one point can be dragged. See the following code.
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.patches as patches
class DraggablePoint:
lock = None #only one can be animated at a time
def __init__(self, point):
self.point = point
self.press = None
self.background = None
def connect(self):
'connect to all the events we need'
self.cidpress = self.point.figure.canvas.mpl_connect('button_press_event', self.on_press)
self.cidrelease = self.point.figure.canvas.mpl_connect('button_release_event', self.on_release)
self.cidmotion = self.point.figure.canvas.mpl_connect('motion_notify_event', self.on_motion)
def on_press(self, event):
if event.inaxes != self.point.axes: return
if DraggablePoint.lock is not None: return
contains, attrd = self.point.contains(event)
if not contains: return
self.press = (self.point.center), event.xdata, event.ydata
DraggablePoint.lock = self
# draw everything but the selected rectangle and store the pixel buffer
canvas = self.point.figure.canvas
axes = self.point.axes
self.point.set_animated(True)
canvas.draw()
self.background = canvas.copy_from_bbox(self.point.axes.bbox)
# now redraw just the rectangle
axes.draw_artist(self.point)
# and blit just the redrawn area
canvas.blit(axes.bbox)
def on_motion(self, event):
if DraggablePoint.lock is not self:
return
if event.inaxes != self.point.axes: return
self.point.center, xpress, ypress = self.press
dx = event.xdata - xpress
dy = event.ydata - ypress
self.point.center = (self.point.center[0]+dx, self.point.center[1]+dy)
canvas = self.point.figure.canvas
axes = self.point.axes
# restore the background region
canvas.restore_region(self.background)
# redraw just the current rectangle
axes.draw_artist(self.point)
# blit just the redrawn area
canvas.blit(axes.bbox)
def on_release(self, event):
'on release we reset the press data'
if DraggablePoint.lock is not self:
return
self.press = None
DraggablePoint.lock = None
# turn off the rect animation property and reset the background
self.point.set_animated(False)
self.background = None
# redraw the full figure
self.point.figure.canvas.draw()
def disconnect(self):
'disconnect all the stored connection ids'
self.point.figure.canvas.mpl_disconnect(self.cidpress)
self.point.figure.canvas.mpl_disconnect(self.cidrelease)
self.point.figure.canvas.mpl_disconnect(self.cidmotion)
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(111)
drs = []
circles = [patches.Circle((0.32, 0.3), 0.03, fc="r", alpha=0.5),
patches.Circle((0.3,0.3), 0.03, fc="g", alpha=0.5)]
for circ in circles:
ax.add_patch(circ)
dr = DraggablePoint(circ)
dr.connect()
drs.append(dr)
plt.show()