setfigurepos

 function setfigurepos(fig,pos)

 <fig> (optional) is the figure handle.  can be a vector.  default: [gcf].
 <pos> is one of the following:
   (1) the position in normalized units
   (2) a scalar which indicates the scale factor to apply (anchoring the figure at the center)
   (3) the position in points units
   we decide that a case is (3) if any value is greater than 10.

 set the position of <fig> without mangling the 'Units' setting.

 example:
 figure; setfigurepos(1.5);

0001 function setfigurepos(fig,pos)
0002 
0003 % function setfigurepos(fig,pos)
0004 %
0005 % <fig> (optional) is the figure handle.  can be a vector.  default: [gcf].
0006 % <pos> is one of the following:
0007 %   (1) the position in normalized units
0008 %   (2) a scalar which indicates the scale factor to apply (anchoring the figure at the center)
0009 %   (3) the position in points units
0010 %   we decide that a case is (3) if any value is greater than 10.
0011 %
0012 % set the position of <fig> without mangling the 'Units' setting.
0013 %
0014 % example:
0015 % figure; setfigurepos(1.5);
0016 
0017 % input
0018 if nargin==1
0019   pos = fig;
0020   fig = [gcf];
0021 end
0022 
0023 % do it
0024 for p=1:length(fig)
0025   
0026   % store old
0027   prev = get(fig(p),'Units');
0028 
0029   % the scale factor case
0030   if length(pos)==1
0031     set(fig(p),'Units','normalized');
0032     oldpos = getfigurepos(fig(p));
0033     newsize = pos*oldpos(3:4);
0034     set(fig(p),'Position',[oldpos(1:2) - (newsize-oldpos(3:4))/2 newsize]);
0035 
0036   % the points case
0037   elseif any(pos>10)
0038     set(fig(p),'Units','points');
0039     set(fig(p),'Position',pos);
0040 
0041   % the normalized case
0042   else
0043     set(fig(p),'Units','normalized');
0044     set(fig(p),'Position',pos);
0045   end
0046 
0047   % recall old
0048   set(fig(p),'Units',prev);
0049 
0050 end