# How to include arrows in a .tikz file, which is generated with matlab2tikz?

I made a plot with matlab. Then I generated a .tikz file with matlab2tikz. Now i want to insert arrows in the .tikz file and also write something left of the arrow.

I can make arrows and text in the plot, but matlab2tikz don't know the textbox. So this doesn't work.

This is my .tikz file:

% Copyright (c) 2008--2012, Nico SchlÃ¶mer <nico.schloemer@gmail.com>
%
%   http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/22022-matlab2tikz
% where you can also make suggestions and rate matlab2tikz.
%
%
%
\begin{tikzpicture}

\begin{axis}[%
view={0}{90},
width=\figurewidth,
height=\figureheight,
scale only axis,
xmin=257.75, xmax=260.4,
xlabel={[t] = s},
ymin=67.3, ymax=70.5,
ylabel={[v] = km/h},
axis lines=left,
legend style={at={(0.03,0.97)},anchor=north west,nodes=right}]
color=blue,
solid,
line width=1.5pt
]
coordinates{
(257.74,67.3076923076185)(257.75,67.323076923002)(257.76,67.3384615383854)(257.77,67.3538461537689)(257.78,67.3692307691524)(257.79,67.384615384536)(257.8,67.3999999999195)(257.81,67.4153846153031)(257.82,67.4462107691739)(257.83,67.4617649792577)(257.84,67.4774300990224)(257.85,67.4932043665521)(257.86,67.5090860199309)(257.87,67.5250732972429)(257.88,67.5411644365725)(257.89,67.5573576760036)(257.9,67.5736512536205)(257.91,67.5900434075073)(257.92,67.6065323757482)(257.93,67.6231163964273)(257.94,67.6397937076289)(257.95,67.656562547437)(257.96,67.6734211539357)(257.97,67.6903677652094)(257.98,67.7074006193421)(257.99,67.724517954418)(258,67.7417180085212)(258.01,67.7589990197359)(258.02,67.7763592261463)(258.03,67.7937968658364)(258.04,67.8113101768906)(258.05,67.8288973973929)(258.06,67.8465567654274)(258.07,67.8642865190784)(258.08,67.88208489643)(258.09,67.8999501355664)(258.1,67.9178804745717)(258.11,67.9358741515301)(258.12,67.9539294045257)(258.13,67.9720444716427)(258.14,67.9902175909652)(258.15,68.0084470005775)(258.16,68.0267309385636)(258.17,68.0450676430077)(258.18,68.063455351994)(258.19,68.0818923036067)(258.2,68.1003767359298)(258.21,68.1189068870476)(258.22,68.1374809950442)(258.23,68.1560972980038)(258.24,68.1747540340105)(258.25,68.1934494411485)(258.26,68.2121817575019)(258.27,68.2309492211549)(258.28,68.2497500701917)(258.29,68.2685825426964)(258.3,68.2874448767532)(258.31,68.3063353104462)(258.32,68.3252520818596)(258.33,68.3441934290775)(258.34,68.3631575901841)(258.35,68.3821428032636)(258.36,68.4011473064001)(258.37,68.4201693376778)(258.38,68.4392071351808)(258.39,68.4582589369933)(258.4,68.4773229811995)(258.41,68.4963975058835)(258.42,68.5154807491294)(258.43,68.5345709490215)(258.44,68.5536663436438)(258.45,68.5727651710806)(258.46,68.5918656694159)(258.47,68.6109660767341)(258.48,68.6300646311191)(258.49,68.6491595706552)(258.5,68.6682491334265)(258.51,68.6873315575172)(258.52,68.7064050810115)(258.53,68.7254679419934)(258.54,68.7445183785472)(258.55,68.763554628757)(258.56,68.782574930707)(258.57,68.8015775224814)(258.58,68.8205606421642)(258.59,68.8395225278396)(258.6,68.8584614175919)(258.61,68.8773755495051)(258.62,68.8962631616634)(258.63,68.9151224921511)(258.64,68.9339517790521)(258.65,68.9527492604507)(258.66,68.9715131744311)(258.67,68.9902417590774)(258.68,69.0089332524738)(258.69,69.0275858927044)(258.7,69.0461979178533)(258.71,69.0647675660048)(258.72,69.083293075243)(258.73,69.1017726836521)(258.74,69.1202046293161)(258.75,69.1385871503194)(258.76,69.1569184847459)(258.77,69.17519687068)(258.78,69.1934205462056)(258.79,69.2115877494071)(258.8,69.2296967183686)(258.81,69.2477456911741)(258.82,69.2657329059079)(258.83,69.2836566006542)(258.84,69.301515013497)(258.85,69.3193063825206)(258.86,69.3370289458091)(258.87,69.3546809414467)(258.88,69.3722606075174)(258.89,69.3897661821056)(258.9,69.4071959032953)(258.91,69.4245480091707)(258.92,69.4418207378159)(258.93,69.4590123273151)(258.94,69.4761210157525)(258.95,69.4931450412122)(258.96,69.5100826417784)(258.97,69.5269320555353)(258.98,69.5436915205669)(258.99,69.5603592749575)(259,69.5769335567912)(259.01,69.5934126041521)(259.02,69.6097946551245)(259.03,69.6260779477925)(259.04,69.6422607202402)(259.05,69.6583412105518)(259.06,69.6743176568115)(259.07,69.6901882971034)(259.08,69.7059513695117)(259.09,69.7216051121205)(259.1,69.7371477630139)(259.11,69.7525775602763)(259.12,69.7678927419916)(259.13,69.7830915462441)(259.14,69.7981722111179)(259.15,69.8131329746972)(259.16,69.8279720750661)(259.17,69.8426877503088)(259.18,69.8572782385095)(259.19,69.8717417777523)(259.2,69.8860766061213)(259.21,69.9002809617008)(259.22,69.9143530825748)(259.23,69.9282912068276)(259.24,69.9420935725433)(259.25,69.955758417806)(259.26,69.9692839806999)(259.27,69.9826684993092)(259.28,69.9959102117181)(259.29,70.0090073560106)(259.3,70.021958170271)(259.31,70.0347608925833)(259.32,70.0474137610318)(259.33,70.0599150137007)(259.34,70.072262888674)(259.35,70.0844556240359)(259.36,70.0964914578707)(259.37,70.1083686282623)(259.38,70.1200853732951)(259.39,70.1316399310532)(259.4,70.1430305396206)(259.41,70.1542554370817)(259.42,70.1653128615204)(259.43,70.1762010510211)(259.44,70.1869182436678)(259.45,70.1974626775447)(259.46,70.207832590736)(259.47,70.2180262213258)(259.48,70.2280418073983)(259.49,70.2378775870376)(259.5,70.247531798328)(259.51,70.2570026793534)(259.52,70.2662884681982)(259.53,70.2753874029465)(259.54,70.2842977216824)(259.55,70.2930176624901)(259.56,70.3015454634537)(259.57,70.3098793626574)(259.58,70.3180175981854)(259.59,70.3259584081218)(259.6,70.3337000305507)(259.61,70.3412407035564)(259.62,70.348578665223)(259.63,70.3557121536346)(259.64,70.3626394068754)(259.65,70.3693586630296)(259.66,70.3758681601814)(259.67,70.3821661364148)(259.68,70.388250829814)(259.69,70.3941204784632)(259.7,70.3997733204466)(259.71,70.4052075938482)(259.72,70.4104215367524)(259.73,70.4154133872431)(259.74,70.4201813834047)(259.75,70.42472376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};

\addlegendentry{$\text{v}_{\text{ang}}$};

color=green!50!black,
solid,
line width=1.5pt
]
coordinates{
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};

\addlegendentry{$\text{v}_{\text{soll}}$};

\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
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Welcome to TeX.SX. A tip: If you indent lines by 4 spaces, then they're marked as a code sample. You can also highlight the code and click the "code" button ({}). Note that you don't have to sign with your name since it automatically appears in the lower right corner of your post. –  Claudio Fiandrino Aug 29 '12 at 7:41
What do you mean it doesn't know text box? Where do you want to draw the arrow? You can use directly TikZ commands after your plot. –  percusse Aug 29 '12 at 8:07

As you can read in README file at matlab2tikz github place what matlab2tikz produces is a file to be included into a tex file. In your case you have decided not to fix figure dimensions and you need to declare and set \figurewidth and \figureheight in the external file. That's what I've done in next code

\documentclass[border=2mm,tikz]{standalone}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{pgfplots}

\pgfplotsset{plot coordinates/math parser=false}
\newlength\figureheight %declares new dimensions
\newlength\figurewidth
\begin{document}
% Setting the figure dimensions is optional (see above).
\setlength\figureheight{4cm} %fixes figure dimensions
\setlength\figurewidth{6cm}
\input{myplot.tikz} %your plot is into file 'myplot.tikz'
\end{document}

which produces

Now second question is how to draw something over your plot. One possibility would be to add new TiKZ commands into .tikz file, but then you will need to redo your modifications every time you want to change your original plot (from matlab).

Another possibility is provided in Drawing on an image with TikZ. This way, myplot.tikz is included into a TiKZ node and your arrows are drawn over it. Next code shows how to use Caramdir's and Jake's solutions to your problem.

\documentclass[border=2mm,tikz]{standalone}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{pgfplots}

\pgfplotsset{plot coordinates/math parser=false}
\newlength\figureheight
\newlength\figurewidth
\begin{document}
% Setting the figure dimensions is optional (see above).
\setlength\figureheight{4cm}
\setlength\figurewidth{6cm}
\begin{tikzpicture}
%
%The matlab2tikz plot is drawn as a node
%
\node[anchor=south west,inner sep=0] (myplot) at (0,0) {
\input{myplot.tikz}
};
%
%
\begin{scope}[x={(myplot.south east)}, y={(myplot.north west)}]
%
% Next three lines must be commented to obtain final result
%
\draw[xstep=.1,ystep=.1,help lines,gray!50] (0,0) grid (1,1);
\foreach \x in {0,1,...,9} { \node [anchor=north,font=\tiny] at (\x/10,0) {0.\x}; }
\foreach \y in {0,1,...,9} { \node [anchor=east,font=\tiny] at (0,\y/10) {0.\y}; }
%
% You can add what you want over the plot
%
\draw[<-,thick,red] (.43,.55)--(.7,.7)
node[right,draw=red,rounded corners,
text width=2cm,align=center,text=blue]
{something right of the arrow};
\end{scope}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

The result with help lines is

while the final shows like this

Last remark: I've been using standalone package but everything could be done in any document class.

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