Reproducing image of a spiral using TikZ

Question

I'm trying to reproduce the spiral shape in the picture below in TikZ, I'm not interested in the atoms and the text, just the spiral. I want the spiral to be coloured green like in the image.

picture to reproduce

I was considering somehow putting together several sinus curves, however that seems like a really inefficient way to do this, and I don't know how I would colour the shape using that method.

score 43 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 11 '14 at 12:19

Here is a possible solution:

enter image description here

\documentclass[tikz]{standalone}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
  \colorlet{color 2}{lime!50!gray}
  \colorlet{color 1}{white}
  \foreach \dx in {0,2,4}{
    \begin{scope}[xshift=\dx cm]
      \draw[draw=gray,top color=color 2,bottom color=color 1]
      (0,0) -- ++(1,0) cos ++(.5,1) sin ++(.5,1) -- ++(-1,0) cos ++(-.5,-1) sin ++(-.5,-1) -- cycle;
    \end{scope}
  }
  \foreach \dx in {0,2,4}{
    \begin{scope}[xshift=1cm + \dx cm]
      \draw[draw=gray,top color=color 1,bottom color=color 2]
      (0,2) -- ++(1,0) cos ++(.5,-1) sin ++(.5,-1) -- ++(-1,0) cos ++(-.5,1) sin ++(-.5,1) -- cycle;
    \end{scope}
  }
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Your colors are upside down ;) – Cole Tobin Dec 12 '14 at 00:59 — Cole Tobin, Dec 12 '14 at 00:59
@ColeJohnson Are you sure? Where is the light? ;-) – Paul Gaborit Dec 12 '14 at 05:43 — Paul Gaborit, Dec 12 '14 at 05:43

score 19 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 11 '14 at 13:14

Taking inspiration (and code) from Paul, here is a cramped spiral using in and out angles, just to show another way:

\documentclass[tikz,border=5]{standalone}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[x=3cm,y=0.8cm]
  \colorlet{color 2}{lime!50!gray}
  \colorlet{color 1}{white}
  \foreach \dx in {0,6,12}{
    \begin{scope}[xshift=\dx cm]
      \draw[draw=gray,top color=color 2,bottom color=color 1]
      (0,0) -- ++(1,0) to[out=0,in=180] ++(1,3) -- ++(-1,0) to[out=180,in=0] ++(-1,-3) -- cycle;
    \end{scope}
  }
  \foreach \dx in {0,6,12}{
    \begin{scope}[xshift=3cm + \dx cm]
      \draw[draw=gray,top color=color 1,bottom color=color 2]
      (0,3) -- ++(1,0) to[out=0,in=180] ++(1,-3) -- ++(-1,0) to[out=180,in=0] ++(-1,3) -- cycle;
    \end{scope}
  }
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

enter image description here

Kpym · Answer 3 · 2014-12-11T19:24:53.590

13

Here is the Paul Gaborit's code rewriten with triple foreach to make it shorter ;).

\begin{tikzpicture}
  \colorlet{color 1}{lime!50!gray}
  \colorlet{color -1}{white}
  \foreach \s [evaluate=\s as \w using int(-\s)] in {1,-1} {
    \foreach \t in {0,1,2} {
      \draw[draw=gray,top color=color \s,bottom color=color \w, xshift=2*\t cm, xscale=\s]
      (-1.5,-1) \foreach \i in {1,-1} {cos ++(\i/2,\i) sin ++(\i/2,\i) -- ++(\i,0)};
    }
  }
\end{tikzpicture}

Note: I came to update using the Ignasi suggestion to use the central symetry between (-1.5,-1) cos ++(.5,1) sin ++(.5,1) -- ++(1,0) and cos ++(-.5,-1) sin ++(-.5,-1) -- cycle by introducing a third \foreach.

edited Dec 11 '14 at 19:24

answered Dec 11 '14 at 17:05

Kpym

23,002

1

You can mark your answer as CW if rep point is a concern for yourself. Otherwise no problem. – percusse Dec 11 '14 at 17:09
@percusse sorry what meens CW ? And how to do it ? Thanks in advance for your help. – Kpym Dec 11 '14 at 17:19
It's Community Wiki. Before you post it should be on the lower right corner, a tick box, that you can mark it as a CW. See this for example. – percusse Dec 11 '14 at 17:21
1

@Kpym What about (-1.5,-1) \foreach \i in {1,-1} {cos ++(.5*\i,1*\i) sin ++(.5*\i,1*\i) -- ++(\i,0)} -- cycle; ? – Ignasi Dec 11 '14 at 18:02
@Ignasi I like this ! I'll edit the answer with your code. – Kpym Dec 11 '14 at 18:14
@Ignasi by the way --cycle is usless in this case. – Kpym Dec 11 '14 at 18:21
@Kpym You're right. I've always thought it was necessary to close drawing area even when initial coordinate was also the last one. But I was wrong. – Ignasi Dec 11 '14 at 18:29

Reproducing image of a spiral using TikZ

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