Pan/zoom events of overlapping axes

Example to illustrate how pan/zoom events of overlapping axes are treated.

The default is the following:

• Axes with a visible patch capture pan/zoom events

• Axes with an invisible patch forward pan/zoom events to axes below

• Shared axes always trigger with their parent axes (irrespective of the patch visibility)

Note: The visibility of the patch hereby refers to the value of ax.patch.get_visible(). The color and transparency of a patch have no effect on the treatment of pan/zoom events!

ax.set_forward_navigation_events(val) can be used to override the default behaviour:

• True: Forward navigation events to axes below.

• False: Execute navigation events only on this axes.

• "auto": Use the default behaviour.

To disable pan/zoom events completely, use ax.set_navigate(False)

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

fig = plt.figure(figsize=(11, 6))
fig.suptitle("Showcase for pan/zoom events on overlapping axes.")

ax = fig.add_axes((.05, .05, .9, .9))
ax.patch.set_color(".75")
ax_twin = ax.twinx()

ax1 = fig.add_subplot(221)
ax1_twin = ax1.twinx()
ax1.text(.5, .5,
         "Visible patch\n\n"
         "Pan/zoom events are NOT\n"
         "forwarded to axes below",
         ha="center", va="center", transform=ax1.transAxes)

ax11 = fig.add_subplot(223, sharex=ax1, sharey=ax1)
ax11.set_forward_navigation_events(True)
ax11.text(.5, .5,
          "Visible patch\n\n"
          "Override capture behavior:\n\n"
          "ax.set_forward_navigation_events(True)",
          ha="center", va="center", transform=ax11.transAxes)

ax2 = fig.add_subplot(222)
ax2_twin = ax2.twinx()
ax2.patch.set_visible(False)
ax2.text(.5, .5,
         "Invisible patch\n\n"
         "Pan/zoom events are\n"
         "forwarded to axes below",
         ha="center", va="center", transform=ax2.transAxes)

ax22 = fig.add_subplot(224, sharex=ax2, sharey=ax2)
ax22.patch.set_visible(False)
ax22.set_forward_navigation_events(False)
ax22.text(.5, .5,
          "Invisible patch\n\n"
          "Override capture behavior:\n\n"
          "ax.set_forward_navigation_events(False)",
          ha="center", va="center", transform=ax22.transAxes)