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When I compile this minimal example using Tikz 3D Plot with pdflatex, version pdfTeX 3.141592653-2.6-1.40.25 (TeX Live 2023/Arch Linux), I end up with a series of "Missing Character: There is no in nullfont". Here is the minimal example:

\documentclass[]{article}
\usepackage{tikz,tikz-3dplot}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}
\tdplotsetmaincoords{70}{110}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
  \node (P1) at (-5.0, -1.0) {};
  \node (P2) at (5.0, 1.0) {};
  \clip (P1) rectangle (P2);
  \shade[ball color=blue] (0, 0) circle (1);
  \pgfmathsetmacro{\rt}{10}
  \pgfmathsetmacro{\start}{(90/32)(-16)}
  \pgfmathsetmacro{\angle}{(90/32)(\rt-16)}
  \pgfmathsetmacro{\cstart}{cos(\start)}
  \pgfmathsetmacro{\sstart}{sin(\start)}
  \pgfmathsetmacro{\cangle}{cos(\angle)}
  \pgfmathsetmacro{\sangle}{sin(\angle)}
  \begin{scope}[tdplot_main_coords]
    \tdplotdefinepoints(0,0,0)(\cstart,\sstart,0)(\cangle,\sangle,0)
    % FIXME: This is not working for some bizarre reason. It used to work in an older version!
    \tdplotdrawpolytopearc[red, thick]{1}{}{}
  \end{scope}
\end{tikzpicture}

The errors dumped to the terminal are:

Missing character: There is no - in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no - in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no + in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no + in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no ( in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no 0 in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no . in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no 0 in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no , in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no 0 in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no . in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no 0 in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no , in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no 0 in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no . in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no 4 in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no 7 in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no 1 in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no 3 in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no 9 in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no ) in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no ; in font nullfont!
angles for cross product: phi: 0theta: 0.0

This used to work smoothly in a previous version of PDFLaTeX without these errors. The rendered image looks okay, though.

Any idea how to fix it?

kstar
  • 121
  • well it is not new, you perhaps didn't see it as in older tex systems this messages were hidden in the log. Imho it is harmless, in the style a debug line has not be commented correctly and now prints stray characters in the null font. – Ulrike Fischer Jan 26 '24 at 23:21
  • In general, you can follow https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/147736/107497 and temporarily add \font\nullfont=cmr10 to see the offending characters to possibly track down where they're coming from. That might not help in this case, since it appears to be a package bug. – Teepeemm Jan 26 '24 at 23:36

1 Answers1

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It is imho harmless. In tikz-3dplot.sty a comment char has been forgotten:

    %DEBUG: show the cross product
    %\draw[->,blue] (\tdplotvertexx,\tdplotvertexy,\tdplotvertexz) 
        -- ++(\tdplotresx,\tdplotresy,\tdplotresz); %<------------- here

The last line should be commented, instead it now prints some chars in nullfont which leads to the message.

Ulrike Fischer
  • 327,261