MATLAB Function Reference Volume 1: A - E - Bad Request

While the basic purpose of an axes object is to provide a coordinate system for
plotted data, axes properties provide considerable control over the way
MATLAB displays data.
Stretch-to-Fill
By default, MATLAB stretches the axes to fill the axes position rectangle (the
rectangle defined by the last two elements in the Position property). This
results in graphs that use the available space in the rectangle. However, some
3-D graphs (such as a sphere) appear distorted because of this stretching, and
are better viewed with a specific three-dimensional aspect ratio.
Stretch-to-fill is active when the DataAspectRatioMode,
PlotBoxAspectRatioMode, and CameraViewAngleMode are all auto (the
default). However, stretch-to-fill is turned off when the DataAspectRatio,
PlotBoxAspectRatio, or CameraViewAngle is user-specified, or when one or
more of the corresponding modes is set to manual (which happens
automatically when you set the corresponding property value).
This picture shows the same sphere displayed both with and without the
stretch-to-fill. The dotted lines show the axes Position rectangle.
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0
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−1 −0.8 −0.6 −0.4 −0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Stretch-to-fill active
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−1 −0.5 0 0.5 1
When stretch-to-fill is disabled, MATLAB sets the size of the axes to be as large
as possible within the constraints imposed by the Position rectangle without
introducing distortion. In the picture above, the height of the rectangle
constrains the axes size.
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Stretch-to-fill disabled
axes
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