## TikZ: shaded cube

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.

10. August 2008 by stefan
Categories: Uncategorized | 4 comments

### Comments (4)

1. Nice cube! Can I add it to the TikZ and PGF gallery?

2. Of course, I’d be glad to contribute to your excellent gallery.

3. Thank you Stefan. Your example is now available at http://www.fauskes.net/pgftikzexamples/sudoku-3d-cube/

4. 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