[Tex/LaTex] Draw realistic 3D crystal structures (diamond)

3dasymptotediagramspstrickstikz-pgf

I want to draw a realistic 3D crystal structure, e.g. diamond. The point where I struggle is to draw connecting 3D rods.

Desired result

In the end it should describe the cubic cell of diamond, e.g. like the following picture from Phase Transformations & Complex
Properties Research Group.

Comments

To me it seemed not reasonable at all to use TikZ as the picture gets useless at different view angles as I recognized by asking the question Unordered layers in tikz-3dplot (3d effect).
Even the example in question Help creating solid cylinders along a path in Tikz for crystal lattice diagram using asymptote has unrealistic 3D layers (i.e. all atoms in front of the connecting rods – and the atoms are semitransparent in contrast to the image presented there).

Example

Here is a pstricks example:

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{pstricks}
\usepackage{pst-solides3d}

\begin{document}
 \begin{pspicture}(-4,-4)(14,14)
  \psSolid[object=cylindre, h=6, r=1, fillcolor=yellow](0,0,0)
  \psSolid[object=sphere, r=2, fillcolor=red!25](0,0,0)
  \psSolid[object=sphere, r=2, fillcolor=red!25](0,0,6)
 \end{pspicture}
\end{document}

Result:

Best Answer

Since you included the asymptote tag, I assume you will not object to an Asymptote solution:

%process:
% pdflatex filename.tex
% asy filename-*.asy
% pdflatex filename.tex
\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{asymptote}
\begin{document}
\begin{asy}
import three;
settings.render=8;
settings.prc=false;
size(10cm);

currentprojection = orthographic((3,4,5));

material spherecolor = material(diffusepen=black, ambientpen=gray(0.1), specularpen=white);
material cylcolor = material(diffusepen=white, ambientpen=white);

real cylRadius = 0.1;
real sphereRadius = 0.2;

void drawRod(triple a, triple b) {
  surface rod = extrude(scale(cylRadius)*unitcircle, axis=length(b-a)*Z);
  triple orthovector = cross(Z, b-a);
  if (length(orthovector) > .01) {
    real angle = aCos(dot(Z, b-a) / length(b-a));
    rod = rotate(angle, orthovector) * rod;
  }
  draw(shift(a)*rod, surfacepen=cylcolor);
}

void drawSphere(triple center) {
     draw(shift(center)*scale3(sphereRadius)*unitsphere, surfacepen=spherecolor);
}

triple a = O;
triple b = X;
triple c = 2Z;

drawSphere(a);
drawSphere(b);
drawSphere(c);
drawRod(a,b);
drawRod(b,c);
\end{asy}
\end{document}

gives the output

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Drawing 3D crystal lattice with tikz/pstricks

Here's an Asymptote solution:

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{asymptote}

\begin{document}

\begin{asy}[width=10cm,height=10cm]
import three;

currentprojection=perspective(300,-650,500,center=true);


// define two types of ions
surface iona = scale3(20)*unitsphere;
surface ionb = scale3(25)*unitsphere;

// surface properties and color of the ions
material White = material(diffusepen=gray(0.4),emissivepen=gray(0.6));
material Red = material(diffusepen=red,emissivepen=lightred);

// style of lines connecting ions
pen thick=linewidth(2);

for(int x=-1; x<2; ++x) {
  for(int y=-1; y<2; ++y) {
    for(int z=-1; z<2; ++z) {
      draw(shift(100*(x,y,z))*iona,White);
    }
  }
}

for(int x=-1; x<2; ++x) {
  for(int y=-1; y<2; ++y) {
    for(int z=-1; z<2; ++z) {
      if(x<1) draw(100*(x,y,z)--100*(x+1,y,z),thick);
      if(y<1) draw(100*(x,y,z)--100*(x,y+1,z),thick);
      if(z<1) draw(100*(x,y,z)--100*(x,y,z+1),thick);
    }
  }
}

for(int x=-1; x<2; x+=2) {
  for(int y=-1; y<2; y+=2) {
    for(int z=-1; z<2; z+=2) {
      draw(shift(50*(x,y,z))*ionb,Red);
    }
  }
}
\end{asy}


\end{document}

To compile, first run pdflatex on the file, then asy on the generated .asy file, finally pdflatex once or twice again.

crystal lattice

[Tex/LaTex] Draw a chain of beads

A very simple proof of concept example:

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw[fill] (0,0) circle (.5) -- ++(10:2) circle (.5) -- ++(-20:2) circle (.5);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

enter image description here

Of course one could do some very nice tweaks such as building an own style for the lines and circles, but the code above contains at least everything that is needed to reach your goal.

Depending on what you need exactly, it was also very easily possible to automate the generation of such a chain including for example random angles between the beads.

Here's a version using a \foreach to specify a list of angles:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}
\tikzset{bead/.style={circle,fill=black,inner sep=3pt}}

\draw node[bead] {} (0,0)
\foreach \angle in {10,40,50,-50,0,150,30,-60,45,45,0}
  { -- ++(\angle:1) node[bead] {}};
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

enter image description here

And a version with relative angles (Qrrbrbirlbel suggested this version in chat and I like it more than the one I initially had):

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}
\tikzset{bead/.style={circle,fill=black,inner sep=3pt}}
\def\angle{0}

\draw node[bead] {} (0,0)
\foreach \stepangle[evaluate=\stepangle as \angle using \angle+\stepangle, remember=\angle] in {10,20,-30,-60,135,-20,-30,0}
  { -- ++(\angle:1) node[bead]{}};
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

enter image description here

Desired result

Comments

Example

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Drawing 3D crystal lattice with tikz/pstricks

[Tex/LaTex] Draw a chain of beads

Related Question