[Tex/LaTex] Origin and formation to the ERROR ‘Dimension too large’

tex-coretikz-pgf

When I tried to compile:

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw[very thin, red] (0,0) circle (2);
\foreach \i in {0, 1, 2, ..., 46} \draw[very thin, red] ({360 * \i / 100}:1) circle (1);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

I got:

! Dimension too large.
<recently read> \pgfmath@x 

l.6 ...thin, red] ({360 * \i / 100}:1) circle (1);

I can't work with sizes bigger than about 19 feet.
Continue and I'll use the largest value I can.

And if I turn 46 to 45, say \foreach \i in {0, 1, 2, ..., 45}, that code will pass the compiling.

It seems that some value I was trying to calculate is larger than the TeX engine can handle.

After searching TeX.SX for about half an hour, I got this, this and this. These questions have been solved, however, the origin and structure of the problem still remain unclear. Hence, I decide to raise this question: what is the limit (its origin and formation), and how can I avoid it.

Any clues would be appreciated.

Best Answer

TeX dimen arithmetic is fixed point arithmetic, based on integer arithmetic of scaled points sp. 2^{16}sp=65536sp=1pt .

The maximum dimension that may be stored is saved in plain TeX and LaTeX as \maxdimen and is 2^{30}sp = 16384pt ~ 18.9ft.

Basic arithemetic (as implemented by \dimexpr for example) each subterm in the calculation, not just the final answer, needs to be within +/- \maxdimen.

Floating point packages such as fp or l3fp can handle floating point values and larger ranges but do so by avoiding TeX dimen registers and maintaining the values in macros and doing the calculations "by hand".

As well as limiting the absolute value this conversion to integer sp arithmetic limits the accuracy, for example 360/100 will be coded as 360pt/100 is 65536*360sp / 100 which already in integer arithmetic can not be calculated exactly. For use in typesetting measurements rounding error of a few sp are literally invisible to the eye so irrelevant however if TeX arithmetic is used for more extensive calculations these issues can arise, as you found.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Numerical conditional within tikz keys

I am definitely unfamiliar with both beamer and tikz (do not quite get what the \only are supposed to do) but perhaps this could go in the direction you want:

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{chains}
\newcounter{count}

% helper macro:
\long\def\GobToSemiColon #1;{}

\newcommand\myPicture{
\begin{tikzpicture}
  \begin{scope}[start chain = going below]
  \ifnum\value{count}<1 \expandafter\GobToSemiColon\fi
  \ifnum\value{count}>3 \expandafter\GobToSemiColon\fi
  \node[draw, rectangle, on chain] {display only when counter is between
    1 and 3};

  \ifnum\value{count}>-1 \expandafter\GobToSemiColon\fi
  \node[draw, rectangle, on chain] {display only when counter is
    negative}; 

  \ifnum\value{count}<100 \expandafter\GobToSemiColon\fi
  \ifnum\value{count}>200 \expandafter\GobToSemiColon\fi  
  \node[draw, rectangle, on chain] {display only if counter is between
    100 and 200};

  \ifnum\value{count}<3 \expandafter\GobToSemiColon\fi
  \ifnum\value{count}>20 \expandafter\GobToSemiColon\fi
  \node[draw, circle, on chain] {only when counter is in the range 3 to 20};
  \end{scope}
\end{tikzpicture}
}

\begin{document}
\begin{frame}
\only{\setcounter{count}{-3}\myPicture}
\only{\setcounter{count}{105}\myPicture}
\only{\setcounter{count}{39}\myPicture}
\only{\setcounter{count}{2}\myPicture}
\only{\setcounter{count}{5}\myPicture}
\end{frame}
\end{document}

beamer

[Tex/LaTex] TikZ: Drawing an arc from an intersection to an intersection

A solution which allows to draw intersection segments of any two intersections is available as tikz library fillbetween.

This library works as general purpose tikz library, but it is shipped with pgfplots and you need to load pgfplots in order to make it work:

\documentclass{standalone}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usetikzlibrary{fillbetween}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}

\draw [name path=red,red] (120:1.06) circle (1.9);
%\draw [name path=yellow,yellow] (0:1.06) circle (2.12);
\draw [name path=green,green!50!black] (0:0.77) circle (2.41);
\draw [name path=blue,blue] (0:0) circle (1.06);

% substitute this temp path by `\path` to make it invisible:
\draw[name path=temp1, intersection segments={of=red and blue,sequence=L1}];
\draw[red,-stealth,ultra thick, intersection segments={of=temp1 and green,sequence=L3}];

\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

enter image description here

The key intersection segments is described in all detail in the pgfplots reference manual section "5.6.6 Intersection Segment Recombination"; the key idea in this case is to

create a temporary path temp1 which is the first intersection segment of red and blue, more precisely, it is the first intersection segment in the Left argument in red and blue : red. This path is drawn as thin black path. Substitute its \draw statement by \path to make it invisible.
Compute the desired intersection segment by intersecting temp1 and green and use the correct intersection segment. By trial and error I figured that it is the third segment of path temp1 which is written as L3 (L = left argument in temp1 and green and 3 means third segment of that path).

The argument involves some trial and error because fillbetween is unaware of the fact that end and startpoint are connected -- and we as end users do not see start and end point.

Note that you can connect these path segments with other paths. If such an intersection segment should be the continuation of another path, use -- as before the first argument in sequence. This allows to fill paths segments:

\documentclass{standalone}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usetikzlibrary{fillbetween}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}

\draw [name path=red,red] (120:1.06) circle (1.9);
%\draw [name path=yellow,yellow] (0:1.06) circle (2.12);
\draw [name path=green,green!50!black] (0:0.77) circle (2.41);
\draw [name path=blue,blue] (0:0) circle (1.06);

% substitute this temp path by `\path` to make it invisible:
\draw[name path=temp1, intersection segments={of=red and blue,sequence=L1}];
\draw[red,fill=blue,-stealth,ultra thick, intersection segments={of=temp1 and green,sequence=L3}]  
    [intersection segments={of=temp1 and green, sequence={--R2}}]
;

\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

enter image description here

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Numerical conditional within tikz keys

[Tex/LaTex] TikZ: Drawing an arc from an intersection to an intersection

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