TikZ: shaded cube
August 10th, 2008 by Stefan Kottwitz
With just a few lines of code you can create a drawing of a cube with a 3D impression, though if it’s not really perspective or raytraced:
\begin{tikzpicture}[on grid] \shade[yslant=-0.5,right color=gray!10, left color=black!50] (0,0) rectangle +(3,3); \draw[yslant=-0.5] (0,0) grid (3,3); \shade[yslant=0.5,right color=gray!70,left color=gray!10] (3,-3) rectangle +(3,3); \draw[yslant=0.5] (3,-3) grid (6,0); \shade[yslant=0.5,xslant=-1,bottom color=gray!10, top color=black!80] (6,3) rectangle +(-3,-3); \draw[yslant=0.5,xslant=-1] (3,0) grid (6,3); \end{tikzpicture}
This example uses the positioning tikz library.
Output screenshot:

By adding some slanted numbers we will get a Sudoku 3D cube:

TeX source code and pdf output are provided.
I’ve programmed it to answer a question posted on matheplanet.de. At first I wanted to use the matrix tikz library but it seemed to me that matrices of nodes cannot be slanted, at least I didn’t find a way.
This entry was posted on Sonntag, August 10th, 2008 at 22:38 and is filed under pgf/TikZ. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.





August 11th, 2008 at 09:18
Nice cube! Can I add it to the TikZ and PGF gallery?
August 11th, 2008 at 15:09
Of course, I’d be glad to contribute to your excellent gallery.
August 11th, 2008 at 19:54
Thank you Stefan. Your example is now available at http://www.fauskes.net/pgftikzexamples/sudoku-3d-cube/
August 13th, 2008 at 15:09
Nice example, Stefan! It’s really amazing how you can get such fine graphics in TikZ with just a few lines of code. Now, the real challenge would be to solve this Sudoku puzzle in TikZ