Unable to collect X axes in Patchwork

[skuchukh]

Hello! I'm trying to create a common axes for 4 plots with the same dimentions. The below does not work

(p1 | p2) / (p3 | p4) +
  plot_layout(guides = "collect", 
              axes = "collect_x") 

However below works just fine.

(p1 | p2)  +
  plot_layout(guides = "collect", 
            axes = "collect_x")

Any advice would be most appreciated!

[trekonom]

The issue is most likely due to the nested layout. From my understanding, patchwork will only collect axes on the top level of the patch. A possible workaround would be to use wrap_plots. (Note: If that does not work for you, you might consider providing a minimal reproducible example.)

library(ggplot2)
library(patchwork)

p <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(mpg, hp, color = factor(cyl))) +
  geom_point()

p1 <- p2 <- p3 <- p4 <- p

(p1 | p2) / (p3 | p4) +
  plot_layout(
    guides = "collect",
    axes = "collect_x"
  ) &
  plot_annotation(title = "Does not work")

# Note: plot_layout not required as wrap_plots has guides= and axes= too
wrap_plots(
  p1, p2, p3, p4,
  nrow = 2, ncol = 2,
  guides = "collect",
  axes = "collect_x"
) +
  plot_annotation(title = "Works")

[skuchukh]

Thank yo us much! your suggestion worked perfectly!