Text Annotation Disappears in Wrapped 3D Graphics

Question

In a 3D graphic, if I wrap a figure, for example,

imagewrapped = 
 With[{Lx = 10, Ly = 10, Nx = 5, Ny = 5, r0 = 2, ftsz = 12}, 
  Graphics3D[{Table[{Sphere[{ix Lx, iy Ly, 0}, r0]}, {ix, 1, Nx}, {iy,
       1, Ny}], Red, 
    Table[Text[Style[ix, ftsz, Bold], {ix Lx, 0, 0}], {ix, 1, Nx}], 
    Cyan, Table[
     Text[Style[iy, ftsz, Bold], {0, iy Ly, 0}], {iy, 1, Ny}]}, 
   Boxed -> False, Lighting -> Automatic, ViewPoint -> {1, 1, 1}, 
   ImageSize -> {Automatic, 100}, Method -> {"ShrinkWrap" -> True}]]

image wrapped

some text disappear. How can I wrap the figure without loosing information?

Why did you decide to shrinkwrap the figure? It seems to look ok when shrinkwrap is False. — DavidC, Mar 15 '13 at 16:21
@ David, actually, I have other primitives in my final figure. It will have huge white margins, that's why I need to wrap it. — Tony Dong, Mar 15 '13 at 16:34

score 6 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:55

Among the answers linked by Mr. Wizard, there's also my label3D function. Looking at that, I think in your case it would work as a replacement for Text as well. In that answer, I set a HoldFirst attribute, but I think it's not that convenient here. So I would suggest executing the definition for label3D in the linked answer, followed by

ClearAttributes[label3D, HoldFirst]

imagewrapped = 
 With[{Lx = 10, Ly = 10, Nx = 5, Ny = 5, r0 = 2, ftsz = 12}, 
  Graphics3D[{Table[{Sphere[{ix Lx, iy Ly, 0}, r0]}, {ix, 1, Nx}, {iy,
       1, Ny}], Glow[Red], 
    Table[label3D[
      Style[ix, ftsz, Red, Bold], {ix Lx, 0, 0}, {-5, 0, 0}, 0], {ix, 
      1, Nx}], Glow[Cyan], Table[
     label3D[Style[iy, ftsz, Cyan, Bold], {0, iy Ly, 0}, {0, 5, 0}, 
      0], {iy, 1, Ny}]}, Boxed -> False, Lighting -> Automatic, 
   ViewPoint -> {1, 1, 1}, ImageSize -> {Automatic, 100}, 
   Method -> {"ShrinkWrap" -> True}]]

3d labels

This seems to be treated correctly by ShrinkWrap. To make the labels look as much like the Text labels, I gave them a Glow to prevent them to display with shading.

score 3 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:56

The text seems to be laid on after the ShrinkWrapped size is determined. One simple suggestion is to include an almost transparent (Opacity[1/255]) sphere at the position of each letter to prevent clipping. This is less than ideal for several reasons, among them:

The spheres change size along with the graphic while the text remains an absolute size.
The spheres as subject to perspective scaling while the text is not.
Even when carefully sized the edges of the spheres do not perfectly align with the text so the wrapping will be inexact.

A better approach might be to create actual 3D text as Mark did here. That should be respected by the ShrinkWrap algorithm along with the other 3D primitives.

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 15 '13 at 21:44

As a variant of Mr.Wizard's suggestion, you might place an essentially clear cuboid around the figure with text. The following is inserted into Graphics3D[{...}]

{Opacity[0.01], EdgeForm[], Cuboid[{-2, -2, -2}, {50, 50, 2}]}

EdgeForm[] prevents the edges from being displayed.

Mathematica graphics

Text Annotation Disappears in Wrapped 3D Graphics

3 Answers3

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