Question

Is it possible to re-open a closed figure (i.e., one the user X’d) in matplotlib? The following code shows the naive approach:

In [14]: fig = figure(10)

In [15]: close(fig)

In [16]: fig.show()

Exception in Tkinter callback
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/lib-tk/Tkinter.py", line 1410, in __call__
    return self.func(*args)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/lib-tk/Tkinter.py", line 495, in callit
    func(*args)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/backends/backend_tkagg.py", line 253, in idle_draw
    self.draw()
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/backends/backend_tkagg.py", line 239, in draw
    tkagg.blit(self._tkphoto, self.renderer._renderer, colormode=2)
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.6/lib/python2.6/site-packages/matplotlib/backends/tkagg.py", line 19, in blit
    tk.call("PyAggImagePhoto", photoimage, id(aggimage), colormode, id(bbox_array))
TclError: this isn't a Tk application

I’m trying to create a figure with widgets in it, so a workaround is available (just make a new figure), but I would like to know if the figure instance is totally useless after being closed.

Answer 1

Yes, closing the figure deletes it completely.