Constructing a figure showing a ring of connected nodes using TikZ

Question

I want to reproduce this figure (see below) with 7 nodes and 8 nodes, but since I've never constructed a figure in LaTeX so I'm clueless.

Hey, and welcome to tex.stackexchange. Could you post a screenshot instead of the link? It is not so clear what you're looking for, as the link points to google books — sheß, Feb 26 '19 at 16:08
Please insert the figure here. We don't follow external links. For example, I got this after following your link: "You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or ...". — , Feb 26 '19 at 16:08
Welcome to [tex.se]! Usually you should show us what coding you have tried so far. The documentation of tikz / pgf contains several examples close to your problem. So I would suggest you try to follow those, and then ask us again when you run into problems. — Andrew Swann, Feb 26 '19 at 16:18
One purpose of stackexchange is to create a knowledge data base that will be useful for others. This is why it is always appreciated if your question is posed in a way that will render it easy to find for people with similar issues and easy to answer. I'm suggesting and edit for your question that will make sure this is fulfilled. For your next question you can try and pose more clear question yourself. — sheß, Feb 26 '19 at 16:53
Please, see How to generate n points over a circumference and choose label and color and How to generate n points on a circumference and connect all of them while having constraints on the image size? — Claudio Fiandrino, Feb 27 '19 at 09:35

score 4 · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-27T12:39:25.457

4

This is one out of a million ways to do this. You can use polar coordinates. This is the figure you provided, your task now is to reduce the number of edges in each polygon, i.e. do some changes in \foreach loop. This only requires very simple maths, right?

\documentclass[tikz,margin=3mm]{standalone}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\foreach \i in {90,54,...,-234} {
    \draw (\i:2)--({\i-36}:2);
}
\foreach \i in {90,18,...,-198} {
    \draw[fill=black] (\i:2) circle (1mm);
}
\foreach \i in {54,-18,...,-234} {
    \draw[fill=white] (\i:2) circle (1mm);
}
\begin{scope}[xshift=5cm]
\foreach \i in {90,50,...,-230} {
    \draw (\i:2)--({\i-40}:2);
    \draw[fill=black] (\i:2) circle (1mm);
}
\end{scope}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Edit 1:

Is this what you want?

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\begin{document}
\lipsum[1]
\begin{figure}[htbp]
    \centering
    \begin{tikzpicture}
    \foreach \i in {90,54,...,-234} {
        \draw (\i:2)--({\i-36}:2);
    }
    \foreach \i in {90,18,...,-198} {
        \draw[fill=black] (\i:2) circle (1mm);
    }
    \foreach \i in {54,-18,...,-234} {
        \draw[fill=white] (\i:2) circle (1mm);
    }
    \begin{scope}[xshift=5cm]
    \foreach \i in {90,50,...,-230} {
        \draw (\i:2)--({\i-40}:2);
        \draw[fill=black] (\i:2) circle (1mm);
    }
    \end{scope}
    \end{tikzpicture}
    \caption{Some caption}
    \label{my:figure}
\end{figure}
\lipsum[2]
\end{document}

edited Feb 27 '19 at 12:39

answered Feb 26 '19 at 16:58

I like this variant of the many answers provided. as I want this to be a figure, I want it to be centralised, how can I do this? – Math Feb 27 '19 at 12:29
I haven't tried this, but I put [ and ] before \begin{tikzpicture} and after \end{tikzpicture} and it worked but let me try what you suggested – Math Feb 27 '19 at 12:33
this completely is the opposite what I wanted! but thanks for suggesting. if you see what I did you will understand – Math Feb 27 '19 at 12:34
@Math Ok, you should add what you want to the question, and I will have a look at it! – Feb 27 '19 at 12:35
Mhm, but this not what I want. what I want is the image to be central – Math Feb 27 '19 at 12:35
and also if I want to add a label(figure 1.1) beneath the image, what must I add? – Math Feb 27 '19 at 12:36
I shall take note :) – Math Feb 27 '19 at 12:37
@Math I edited my question. – Feb 27 '19 at 12:39
Yup however how I do remove the extra text? – Math Feb 27 '19 at 12:41
and sorry for being picky, is there a way to make the lines on the nodes a tad thicker? – Math Feb 27 '19 at 12:41
@Math Well, delete the lipsum[]s and add your own :) – Feb 27 '19 at 12:41
Let us continue this discussion in chat. – Feb 27 '19 at 12:41

score 2 · Answer 2 · 2019-02-27T09:17:06.350

Using TikZ library shapes.

\documentclass[margin=5mm]{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{shapes}

\tikzset{whitecirc/.style={fill=white,draw=black,thick},
blackcirc/.style={draw=black,thick}
}
\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}
\def\ptsize{1.5pt}   
    \node[draw,regular polygon,minimum height=3cm,minimum width=3cm,regular polygon sides=7](P) {};
    \foreach \t in {1,3,5,7}{
    \fill[whitecirc] (P.corner \t) circle (\ptsize);}
    \foreach \t in {2,4,6}{
    \fill[blackcirc] (P.corner \t) circle (\ptsize);}

    \begin{scope}[xshift=4cm]
    \node[draw,regular polygon,minimum height=3cm,minimum width=3cm,regular polygon sides=8](P) {};
    \foreach \t in {1,2,...,8}{
    \fill[blackcirc] (P.corner \t) circle (\ptsize);}
    \end{scope}
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

@marmot, thank you for (+1). Your suggestion is cool. – Feb 26 '19 at 20:51 — , Feb 26 '19 at 20:51

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 26 '19 at 17:34

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture} %draw 8 nodes with alternating colors
    \foreach[count=\i] \fillc in {black,white,black,white,black,white,black,white} {
            \draw[shorten <=2mm,shorten >=2mm] (\i/8*360:2)-- ({(\i-1)/8*360}:2);
            \node[minimum size=4mm,inner sep=0,circle,draw,fill=\fillc] (point\i) at ({\i/8*360}:2) {};
        }
\end{tikzpicture}

\begin{tikzpicture} %draw 7 nodes, all black
    \foreach[count=\i] \fillc in {black,black,black,black,black,black,black} {
            \draw[shorten <=2mm,shorten >=2mm] (\i/7*360:2)-- ({(\i-1)/7*360}:2);
            \node[minimum size=4mm,inner sep=0,circle,draw,fill=\fillc] (point\i) at ({\i/7*360}:2) {};
        }
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

+1 Maybe a simple \ifodd is a more straightforward way to achieve the alternation. Of course, your way is more general in that you can have arbitrary patterns. — , Feb 26 '19 at 19:00

Constructing a figure showing a ring of connected nodes using TikZ

3 Answers3

Edit 1: