TikZ-PGF – Drawing Hex Boards

tikz-pgf

I need to draw a Hex board. I would like to be able to mark each hexagon and mark the size. Being able to control the thickness of the lines would be nice, but it is not something I need to have. Could anyone suggest a simple way of doing this?

Here is a picture of what I had in mind:

EDIT: Cmhughes brought up some pointers on making this post better, so here it goes!

I have found very little material to help me through this. However, I found this on the stackexchange forum. I have tried modifying the code (from the first answer) to fit my needs (as shown in the picture), but every time I change something the graph does some very weird things, like creating a large line of hexagons in what appears to be a random direction.

My problem, then, is that I have no idea how I would modify the code to make it a Hex board, rather than a Hex map.

This is the code I am referring to:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{shapes}

\begin{document}
  \begin{tikzpicture}[
    hexa/.style={ 
      shape=regular polygon,
      regular polygon sides=6,
      minimum size=1cm,
      draw,
      inner sep=0,
      anchor=south,
      fill=lightgray!85!blue,
      rotate=30
    }
  ]
    \foreach \j in {0,...,5}{%
      \pgfmathsetmacro\end{5+\j} 
      \foreach \i in {0,...,\end}{%
        \node[hexa] (h\i;\j) at ({(\i-\j/2)*sin(60)},{\j*0.75}) {};
      }
    }
    \foreach \j in {0,...,4}{%
      \pgfmathsetmacro\end{9-\j} 
      \foreach \i in {0,...,\end}{%
        \pgfmathtruncatemacro\k{\j+6}  
        \node[hexa] (h\i;\k) at ({(\i+\j/2-2)*sin(60)},{4.5+\j*0.75}) {};
      }
    }
    \foreach \k in {0,...,10} {%
      \node[circle,red,minimum size=1cm] at (h3;\k) {3;\k};
    }
    \foreach \k in {0,...,10} {%
      \node[circle,blue,minimum size=1cm] at (h1;\k) {1;\k};
    }
  \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Does anyone have any pointers on how to modify the code?

Further, does anyone know how to mark the sides, like in the picture, and how to create a random-looking marking of the hexagons (although I this may have to simply be a lot of copying and pasting)?

Best Answer

enter image description here

This MWE with Asymptote uses struct hexboard from hexboard.asy module (attached). The board hb is created with the command hexboard hb=hexboard(11,xo); is 11 cells wide, the marks are prepared in the array of strings string[] xo;

Cell nodes and directions are as follows (direction is named after the node of destination):

enter image description here

The thick line is constructed by the start cell, optional prefix and suffix (if the line goes outside the grid), the node number to start with and a sequence of the directions. For example a command

hb.oline((-10,0), prefix=(0,-1),3,4,5,0);

uses the node 3 of the bottom cell (-10,0) as a starting point, prepends it with the line from below point (0,-1) and continue with directions 4,5 and 0 (4 segments in total).

Position of the leftmost cell is (0,0), rightmost cell is (n-1,0) the top is at (0,n-1), and the bottom is at (0,-(n-1)).

%
% hexboard.tex :
%
\begin{filecontents*}{hexboard.asy}
struct hexboard{
  int n;
  string[] xo;
  string xmark,omark;
  real dx,dy;

  pen gridPen;
  pen xCellBg;
  pen oCellBg;

  guide ghex;

  pair hexCenter(int k, int j){ // k= +/-
    return ((j+abs(k)/2)*dx,k*dy);
  }

  pair hexCorner(int k, int j, int a){ 
    return shift(hexCenter(k,j))*point(ghex,a%6);
  }

  void dot(int k, int j, int a, pen p=gridPen){
    dot(hexCorner(k,j,a),p,UnFill);
  }

  void dots(int k, int j, int a, int b, pen p=gridPen){
    for(int i=a;i<=b;++i){
      dot(hexCorner(k,j,i),p,UnFill);
    }
  }

  void oline(explicit pair start, explicit pair prefix=(0,0), explicit pair suffix=(0,0), 
         explicit pen lpen=orange+2bp+opacity(0.8) ... int[]dirs){
    pair p=hexCorner((int)start.x,(int)start.y,dirs[0]);
    guide g=(p+prefix)--p;
    for(int i=1;i<dirs.length;++i){
      p+=dir(150+(dirs[i]%6)*60);
      g=g--p;
    }
    g=g--(p+suffix);
    draw(g,lpen);
  }

  void drawHex(int k, int j){
    pen bg=(substr(xo[n-1-k],j,1)=="x")?xCellBg:oCellBg;
    filldraw(shift((j+abs(k)/2)*dx,k*dy)*ghex,bg,gridPen);
  }

  void markCell(int k, int j, string v){
    if(v=="x")v=xmark;
    if(v=="o")v=omark;
    label(v,hexCenter(k,j));
  }

  void mark(){
    assert(xo.length==2n-1);
    bool b;
    string c;
    int k;
    for(int i=0;i<n;++i){
      assert(length(xo[i])==i+1);
      k=n-1-i;
      for(int j=0;j<i+1;++j){
        c=substr(xo[i],j,1);
        drawHex(k,j);
        markCell(k,j,c);
      }
    }
    for(int i=n;i<2n-1;++i){
      assert(length(xo[i])==2n-1-i);
      k=n-1-i;
      for(int j=0;j<2n-1-i;++j){
        c=substr(xo[i],j,1);
        drawHex(k,j);
        markCell(k,j,c);
      }
    }
  }

  void operator init(int n // board width
      ,string[] xo         // board marks
      ,string xmark="$\times$"
      ,string omark="$\circ$"
      ,pen gridPen=deepblue+0.4bp
      ,pen xCellBg=palered
      ,pen oCellBg=palegreen
    ){
    this.n=n; 
    this.xo=copy(xo);
    this.xmark=xmark; this.omark=omark;
    this.xCellBg=xCellBg; this.oCellBg=oCellBg;
    this.dx=sqrt(3);
    this.dy=1+1/2;
    this.ghex=dir(90)--dir(150)--dir(210)--dir(270)--dir(330)--dir(30)--cycle;
    mark();
  }
}
\end{filecontents*}
%
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[inline]{asymptote}
\usepackage{lmodern}
\begin{document}
\begin{figure}
\centering
\begin{asy}
size(10cm);

// === test hexboard
import hexboard;
string[] xo={
"o",
"xo",
"xxx",
"ooox",
"xxoox",
"xxoooo",
"oxxoxxo",
"xoxooxxx",
"oxooxooox",
"xooxooxooo",
"oxxxoxooxxo",
"oooxoxxoxx",
"xxxoxooxo",
"ooxooxxo",
"xxoooxo",
"ooxxxo",
"xoxoo",
"xoxx",
"oxo",
"xo",
"x",
};

hexboard hb=hexboard(11,xo);

label("$v$",hb.hexCorner(0,0,2)-(1,0),W);
label("$v^\prime$",hb.hexCorner(0,10,5)+(1,0),E);

label("$w$",hb.hexCorner(-10,0,3)-(0,1),S);
label("$w^\prime$",hb.hexCorner(10,0,0)+(0,1),N);

label("$o^\prime$",hb.hexCorner(5,0,1)-(1,0),W);
label("$x^-$",hb.hexCorner(5,5,5)+(1,0),E);

hb.oline((5,0),0,1,2,3,2,3,2,3,4,5,4,5,0,5, 4,5,0,1,0,1,2);
hb.oline((10,0), prefix=(0,1) ,suffix=(1,0)
,0
,3,2,3,2,1,0,5,0,1,2,1,2,3,4,3,4,3,2,3,2,3,4
,3,2,3,2,1,0,5,0,1,0,1,2,3,2,3,4
,3,2,3,4
,3,4,3,2,3);

hb.oline((0,0), prefix=(-1,0),2,3,2,3,4);

hb.oline((-10,0), prefix=(0,-1),3,4,5,0);

hb.dot(9,0,3);
hb.dot(7,1,4);
hb.dots(5,1,0,3);

shipout(bbox(Fill(lightyellow)));

\end{asy}
\caption{Hex Board}
\end{figure}
\end{document}
%
% Process :
%
% pdflatex hexboard.tex    
% asy hexboard-*.asy    
% pdflatex hexboard.tex

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Rotate a node but not its content: the case of the ellipse decoration

The source of the difficulty is that ellipses are constructed in a particular way in TikZ. They are paths that start from the x-axis and proceed counter-clockwise around their centre. The vast majority of the time, the exact parametrisation doesn't matter. You appear to have found the one situation where it does!

In the actual question, you only want to be able to mirror the ellipse, and so draw it starting from the negative x-axis (the title of the question suggests a more flexible approach). That's actually not too hard since we can exploit the symmetry of the ellipse. The key is to provide it with a negative x-radius, since then it will start from the negative x-axis (and proceed clockwise, but we could correct for that by negating the y-radius as well). To do this, we interrupt the call from the node shape to the drawing command and flip the sign of the x-radius. The simplest way to do this is to redefine the \pgfpathellipse macro to do the negation and then call the original macro. The following code does this.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{decorations,shapes,decorations.markings}
\makeatletter
\let\origpgfpathellipse=\pgfpathellipse
\def\revpgfpathellipse#1#2#3{%
  #2%
  \pgf@xa=-\pgf@x
  \origpgfpathellipse{#1}{\pgfqpoint{\pgf@xa}{0pt}}{#3}}
\makeatother

\tikzset{
  reversed ellipse/.style={
    ellipse,
    reverse the ellipse%
  },
  reverse the ellipse/.code={
    \let\pgfpathellipse=\revpgfpathellipse
  }
}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node[ellipse,
  draw,
  postaction={
    decorate,
    decoration={
      markings,
      mark=at position 1 with {
        \arrow[line width=5pt,blue]{>}
      }
    }
  }
] at (0,0) {hello world};

\node[reversed ellipse,
  draw,
  postaction={
    decorate,
    decoration={
      markings,
      mark=at position 1 with {
        \arrow[line width=5pt,blue]{>}
      }
    }
  }
] at (0,-2) {hello world};
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

Here's the result:

rotated ellipse

(the arrow got clipped, but you can see where it lies)

TikZ-PGF – Increase Node Border Thickness in TikZ

The node’s border is a path, you can use the same options for a \path, e.g. ultra thin, thick, very thick, and so on:

\node[circle, draw=blue!80, thick, inner sep=0pt, minimum size=12pt] (1) at (0,0) {1};

The line width key works as well:

\node[circle,draw=blue!80, line width=1mm, inner sep=0pt,minimum size=12pt] (1) at(0,0) {1};

All predefined line widths are

\tikzset{
    ultra thin/.style= {line width=0.1pt},
    very thin/.style=  {line width=0.2pt},
    thin/.style=       {line width=0.4pt},% thin is the default
    semithick/.style=  {line width=0.6pt},
    thick/.style=      {line width=0.8pt},
    very thick/.style= {line width=1.2pt},
    ultra thick/.style={line width=1.6pt}
}

Code

\documentclass[tikz]{standalone}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[
   every node/.append style={circle, draw=blue!80, inner sep=0pt, minimum size=12pt}]
\node                 (1) at (0,0) {1};
\node[thick]          (2) at (1,0) {2};
\node[line width=1mm] (3) at (2,0) {3};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Output

enter image description here

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Rotate a node but not its content: the case of the ellipse decoration

TikZ-PGF – Increase Node Border Thickness in TikZ

Code

Output

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