Define a pic and use it as node

Question

My purpose is draw an horizontal cylinder. I defined the left and the right base with /.pic . Now I would link these bases with \draw, using the bases anchor point .north and .south. Something goes wrong: no output

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
    \centering
    \begin{tikzpicture}
        \tikzset{
            leftbase/.pic={
                code={

                    \def\xR{0.5cm}; %x radius of ellipse
                    \def\yR{1cm};  %y radius of ellipse

                    \draw (-\xR,0) arc(90:270:0.5cm and 1cm);
                    \draw (-\xR,0) arc(90:-90:0.5cm and 1cm);
                }
            },
            rightbase/.pic={
                code={

                    \def\xR{0.5cm}; %x radius of ellipse
                    \def\yR{1cm};  %y radius of ellipse

                    \draw[dotted] (-\xR+1.7in,0) arc(90:270:0.5cm and 1cm);
                    \draw         (-\xR+1.7in,0) arc(90:-90:0.5cm and 1cm);
                }
            }
        }
    node[leftbase] (lb) {};
    node[rightbase] (rb) {};

    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

Any idea?

Will it change, when you draw the nodes which represent the pics? — MS-SPO, Jul 30 '22 at 14:35

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 30 '22 at 15:48

Maybe you're not using pic correctly. Here a slight change that makes your code work:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
    \centering
    \begin{tikzpicture}
        \tikzset{
            leftbase/.pic={
                code={

                    \def\xR{0.5cm}; %x radius of ellipse
                    \def\yR{1cm};  %y radius of ellipse

                    \draw (-\xR,0) arc(90:270:0.5cm and 1cm);
                    \draw (-\xR,0) arc(90:-90:0.5cm and 1cm);
                }
            },
            rightbase/.pic={
                code={

                    \def\xR{0.5cm}; %x radius of ellipse
                    \def\yR{1cm};  %y radius of ellipse

                    \draw[dotted] (-\xR+1.7in,0) arc(90:270:0.5cm and 1cm);
                    \draw         (-\xR+1.7in,0) arc(90:-90:0.5cm and 1cm);
                }
            }
        }
        \pic [local bounding box=lb] at (0,0) {leftbase};
        \pic [local bounding box=rb] at (1,0) {rightbase};
        \draw (lb.north) -- (rb.north);
        \draw (lb.south) -- (rb.south);

    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

Define a pic and use it as node

1 Answers1