How to draw a cube with TikZ where all faces have a distinct color?

Question

For each face, to show a distinct color I guess we have to use opacity, but at this point, this problem seemed out of my hand. Could anyone help me out?

My attempt

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}

\definecolor{cof}{RGB}{219,144,71}
\definecolor{pur}{RGB}{186,146,162}
\definecolor{greeo}{RGB}{91,173,69}
\definecolor{greet}{RGB}{52,111,72}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}[thick,scale=3]
    \coordinate (A1) at (0, 0);
    \coordinate (A2) at (0, 1);
    \coordinate (A3) at (1, 1);
    \coordinate (A4) at (1, 0);
    \coordinate (B1) at (0.3, 0.3);
    \coordinate (B2) at (0.3, 1.3);
    \coordinate (B3) at (1.3, 1.3);
    \coordinate (B4) at (1.3, 0.3);

    \draw[very thick] (A1) -- (A2);
    \draw[very thick] (A2) -- (A3);
    \draw[very thick] (A3) -- (A4);
    \draw[very thick] (A4) -- (A1);

    \draw[dashed] (A1) -- (B1);
    \draw[dashed] (B1) -- (B2);
    \draw[very thick] (A2) -- (B2);
    \draw[very thick] (B2) -- (B3);
    \draw[very thick] (A3) -- (B3);
    \draw[very thick] (A4) -- (B4);
    \draw[very thick] (B4) -- (B3);
    \draw[dashed] (B1) -- (B4);

    \draw[fill=yellow,opacity=0.6] (A1) -- (B1) -- (B4) -- (A4);
    \draw[fill=black!20,opacity=0.5] (A1) -- (A2) -- (A3) -- (A4);
    \draw[fill=red,opacity=0.6] (A1) -- (A2) -- (B2) -- (B1);
    \draw[fill=black,opacity=0.6] (B1) -- (B2) -- (B3) -- (B4);
    \draw[fill=blue,opacity=0.6] (A3) -- (B3) -- (B4) -- (A4);
    \draw[fill=green,opacity=0.6] (A2) -- (B2) -- (B3) -- (A3);

\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

enter image description here

Are the examples for Drawing polyhedra using TikZ with semi-transparent and shading effect relevant to your problem? — Jake, Sep 13 '11 at 04:32
@Peter Grill: I would love to, but I really have no idea how to start this. — roxrook, Sep 13 '11 at 04:41
@Peter Grill: Many thanks for your hints. Finally I got it, not pretty but acceptable :D. — roxrook, Sep 13 '11 at 05:47
Nice first attempt. You should use 3 dimensional coordinates for 3 dimensional objects. — Peter Grill, Sep 13 '11 at 05:52
@Peter Grill: Yeah, I should use 3D coordinates. I was influenced by the example. Now TikZ makes more sense ;) Thank you. — roxrook, Sep 13 '11 at 06:03

Peter Grill · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-21T01:42:22.500

To start consider how you would draw a cube on paper, and draw those lines with TikZ. Start with one face and then add the sides, depending on what view you want.

enter image description here

Here is one way to do it:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\begin{document}
\newcommand{\Depth}{2}
\newcommand{\Height}{2}
\newcommand{\Width}{2}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\coordinate (O) at (0,0,0);
\coordinate (A) at (0,\Width,0);
\coordinate (B) at (0,\Width,\Height);
\coordinate (C) at (0,0,\Height);
\coordinate (D) at (\Depth,0,0);
\coordinate (E) at (\Depth,\Width,0);
\coordinate (F) at (\Depth,\Width,\Height);
\coordinate (G) at (\Depth,0,\Height);

\draw[blue,fill=yellow!80] (O) -- (C) -- (G) -- (D) -- cycle;% Bottom Face
\draw[blue,fill=blue!30] (O) -- (A) -- (E) -- (D) -- cycle;% Back Face
\draw[blue,fill=red!10] (O) -- (A) -- (B) -- (C) -- cycle;% Left Face
\draw[blue,fill=red!20,opacity=0.8] (D) -- (E) -- (F) -- (G) -- cycle;% Right Face
\draw[blue,fill=red!20,opacity=0.6] (C) -- (B) -- (F) -- (G) -- cycle;% Front Face
\draw[blue,fill=red!20,opacity=0.8] (A) -- (B) -- (F) -- (E) -- cycle;% Top Face

%% Following is for debugging purposes so you can see where the points are
%% These are last so that they show up on top
%\foreach \xy in {O, A, B, C, D, E, F, G}{
%    \node at (\xy) {\xy};
%}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Adjust the opacity and color of the sides as you wish.

I also left some debugging code in there so you can see where the coordinates are.

Very nice ;). Thanks for the tip for debugging. – roxrook Sep 13 '11 at 05:52 — roxrook, Sep 13 '11 at 05:52
Related Question: TikZ: Drawing this diagram. – Peter Grill Sep 24 '13 at 17:17 — Peter Grill, Sep 24 '13 at 17:17

score 19 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 24 '11 at 08:45

I think the tikz-3dplot package needs more promotion. It makes life much easier.

\documentclass{minimal}
\usepackage{tikz,tikz-3dplot}

\begin{document}
  \tdplotsetmaincoords{70}{115}

  \begin{tikzpicture}[scale=4,tdplot_main_coords]
    \coordinate (O) at (0,0,0);
    \tdplotsetcoord{P}{1.414213}{54.68636}{45}

    \draw[fill=gray!50,fill opacity=0.5] (O) -- (Py) -- (Pyz) -- (Pz) -- cycle;
    \draw[fill=blue,fill opacity=0.5] (O) -- (Px) -- (Pxy) -- (Py) -- cycle;
    \draw[fill=yellow,fill opacity=0.5] (O) -- (Px) -- (Pxz) -- (Pz) -- cycle;
    \draw[fill=green,fill opacity=0.5] (Pz) -- (Pyz) -- (P) -- (Pxz) -- cycle;
    \draw[fill=red,fill opacity=0.5] (Px) -- (Pxy) -- (P) -- (Pxz) -- cycle;
    \draw[fill=magenta,fill opacity=0.5] (Py) -- (Pxy) -- (P) -- (Pyz) -- cycle;
  \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

enter image description here

How to draw a cube with TikZ where all faces have a distinct color?

2 Answers2

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