[Tex/LaTex] Technical drawing in LaTeX

technical-drawingtikz-pgf

I am aware of some questions regarding technical drawings in LaTeX, e.g.,

that address only parts, but not all aspects of my question.

My applications when teching the very basics of technical drawing are rather simple. Consider the MWE

\documentclass[a4paper, landscape]{article}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{geometry}

\usetikzlibrary{arrows.meta}
\usetikzlibrary{patterns}

\geometry{margin=0mm}
\pagestyle{empty}

\makeatletter

\newlength{\td@FullWidth}
\newlength{\td@HalfWidth}
\newlength{\td@TextSizeL}
\newlength{\td@TextSizeM}

\setlength{\td@FullWidth}{0.50mm}
\setlength{\td@HalfWidth}{0.25mm}
\setlength{\td@TextSizeL}{3.50mm}
\setlength{\td@TextSizeM}{2.50mm}
\def\td@RuleDist{5.00mm}
\def\td@ArrowLength{2.50mm}
\def\td@ArrowWidth{0.669873mm}

\tikzstyle{tdEdge}   = [line width=\td@FullWidth]
\tikzstyle{tdHidden} = [line width=\td@HalfWidth, dash pattern=on 2.50mm off 1.00mm]
\tikzstyle{tdSym}    = [line width=\td@HalfWidth, dash pattern=on 2.50mm off 0.50mm on 0.25mm off 0.50mm]
\tikzstyle{tdHelp}   = [line width=\td@HalfWidth]
\tikzstyle{tdDim}    = [line width=\td@HalfWidth, <->, >={Triangle[length=\td@ArrowLength, width=\td@ArrowWidth]}]

\pgfdeclarepatternformonly{tdRuled}
  {\pgfqpoint{-1pt}{-1pt}}
  {\pgfqpoint{\td@RuleDist}{\td@RuleDist}}
  {\pgfqpoint{\td@RuleDist}{\td@RuleDist}}
  {
    \pgfsetlinewidth{\td@HalfWidth}
    \pgfsys@rectcap
    \pgfpathmoveto{\pgfqpoint{0mm}{0mm}}
    \pgfpathlineto{\pgfqpoint{\td@RuleDist}{\td@RuleDist}}
    \pgfusepath{stroke}
  }

\makeatother

\begin{document}

\begin{center}
\begin{tikzpicture}[x=1mm, y=1mm]
\sffamily
\draw[color=white] (0, 0) -- (296.8, 0) -- (296.8, 209.8);

\begin{scope}[shift={(5, 5)}]

  \draw[tdEdge] (0, 0) -- (287, 0) -- (287, 200) -- (0, 200) -- (0, 0);
  \draw[tdEdge] (112, 0) -- (112, 15) -- (287, 15);
  \node[anchor=west] at (117, 7.5) {\textbf{Description}};

  \small

  \begin{scope}[shift={(40, 180)}]
    \draw[tdEdge] (0, 0) -- (20, 0) -- (20, -40) -- (40, -40) -- (40, -60) -- (0, -60) -- (0, -50) -- (10, -50) -- (10, -15) -- (0, -15) -- (0, 0);
    \draw[tdHelp] (0, 0) -- (-12, 0);
    \draw[tdHelp] (0, -60) -- (-12,-60);
    \draw[tdDim] (-10, 0) -- (-10, -60); \node[anchor=east] at (-10, -30) {\rotatebox{90}{60}};
  \end{scope}

  \begin{scope}[shift={(120, 180)}]
    \draw[tdEdge] (0, 0) -- (30, 0) -- (30, -60) -- (0, -60) -- (0, 0);
    \draw[tdHidden] (0, -15) -- (30, -15);
    \draw[tdEdge] (0, -40) -- (30, -40);
    \draw[tdHidden] (0, -50) -- (30, -50);
    \draw[tdHelp] (30, 0) -- (42, 0);
    \draw[tdHelp] (30, -15) -- (42, -15);
    \draw[tdHelp] (30, -40) -- (42, -40);
    \draw[tdHelp] (30, -50) -- (42, -50);
    \draw[tdHelp] (30, -60) -- (42, -60);
    \draw[tdDim] (40, 0) -- (40, -15); \node[anchor=east] at (40, -7.5) {\rotatebox{90}{15}};
    \draw[tdDim] (40, -40) -- (40, -50); \node[anchor=east] at (40, -45) {\rotatebox{90}{10}};
    \draw[tdDim] (40, -50) -- (40, -60); \node[anchor=east] at (40, -55) {\rotatebox{90}{10}};
  \end{scope}

  \begin{scope}[shift={(40, 80)}]
    \draw[tdEdge] (0, 0) -- (40, 0) -- (40, -30) -- (0, -30) -- (0, 0);
    \draw[tdHidden] (10, 0) -- (10, -30);
    \draw[tdEdge] (20, 0) -- (20, -30);
    \draw[tdHelp] (0, -30) -- (0, -42);
    \draw[tdHelp] (10, -30) -- (10, -42);
    \draw[tdHelp] (20, -30) -- (20, -42);
    \draw[tdHelp] (40, -30) -- (40, -42);
    \draw[tdDim] (0, -40) -- (10, -40); \node[anchor=south] at (5, -40) {10};
    \draw[tdDim] (10, -40) -- (20, -40); \node[anchor=south] at (15, -40) {10};
    \draw[tdDim] (20, -40) -- (40, -40); \node[anchor=south] at (30, -40) {20}; 
    \draw[tdHelp] (0, 0) -- (-12, 0);
    \draw[tdHelp] (0, -30) -- (-12, -30);
    \draw[tdDim] (-10, 0) -- (-10, -30); \node[anchor=east] at (-10, -15) {\rotatebox{90}{30}};
  \end{scope}

\end{scope}

\end{tikzpicture}
\end{center}

\end{document}

which leads to the following output.

In general, the best way may be to use an external CAD tool for creating such technical drawings and to embed them as PDF files into a document to be created with LaTeX. However, when dealing with a lot of very small and simple drawings, e.g., in worksheets for students, I would prefer to have everything in one LaTeX file instead of switching between applications.

Therefore, I would like to ask the following questions:

Is there any free font that fulfills EN ISO 3098 and that can be used within LaTeX?
Is there any package that helps to create simple technical drawings according to the DIN/EN ISO standards applicable by defining more powerful commands, e.g., for introducing the dimensioning?
Do you see one or the other approach to improve and/or simplify the above code with minimum effort?

Best Answer

Taking some of the information from the comments and adding some more information to it:

There is an open font that resembles EN ISO 3098 available from https://github.com/hikikomori82/osifont and with XeTeX or LuaTeX it would be as easy as saying

\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{osifont-lgpl3fe.ttf}

to use it, conversion to pdfLaTeX is possible with the lcdf-tools or autoinst.

The dimline package as mentiond by @Ross might be of help https://ctan.org/pkg/tikz-dimline?lang=en but besides that I am not aware of any specific helpers

Simplifications I would recommend include the use of |- and -| as well as using the ++() syntax and cycle. Defining parameters for the dimension line distances, such as \def\tdHelp{12} or \def\tdDim{10} might help as well. You can also make more use of saving coordinates into names, as I did in the full example below, just check what you like.

This is the result:

And this is the code:

\documentclass[a4paper, landscape]{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{osifont-lgpl3fe.ttf}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{geometry}

\usetikzlibrary{arrows.meta}
\usetikzlibrary{patterns,calc}

\geometry{margin=0mm}
\pagestyle{empty}

\makeatletter

\newlength{\td@FullWidth}
\newlength{\td@HalfWidth}
\newlength{\td@TextSizeL}
\newlength{\td@TextSizeM}

\setlength{\td@FullWidth}{0.50mm}
\setlength{\td@HalfWidth}{0.25mm}
\setlength{\td@TextSizeL}{3.50mm}
\setlength{\td@TextSizeM}{2.50mm}
\def\td@RuleDist{5.00mm}
\def\td@ArrowLength{2.50mm}
\def\td@ArrowWidth{0.669873mm}

\tikzstyle{tdEdge}   = [line width=\td@FullWidth]
\tikzstyle{tdHidden} = [line width=\td@HalfWidth, dash pattern=on 2.50mm off 1.00mm]
\tikzstyle{tdSym}    = [line width=\td@HalfWidth, dash pattern=on 2.50mm off 0.50mm on 0.25mm off 0.50mm]
\tikzstyle{tdHelp}   = [line width=\td@HalfWidth]
\tikzstyle{tdDim}    = [line width=\td@HalfWidth, <->, >={Triangle[length=\td@ArrowLength, width=\td@ArrowWidth]}]
\tikzstyle{tdDimNode}    = [midway,sloped,above,font=\small]

\pgfdeclarepatternformonly{tdRuled}
{\pgfqpoint{-1pt}{-1pt}}
{\pgfqpoint{\td@RuleDist}{\td@RuleDist}}
{\pgfqpoint{\td@RuleDist}{\td@RuleDist}}
{
    \pgfsetlinewidth{\td@HalfWidth}
    \pgfsys@rectcap
    \pgfpathmoveto{\pgfqpoint{0mm}{0mm}}
    \pgfpathlineto{\pgfqpoint{\td@RuleDist}{\td@RuleDist}}
    \pgfusepath{stroke}
}

\def\tdHelp{12}
\def\tdDim{10}

\makeatother

\begin{document}
    \begin{center}
        \begin{tikzpicture}[x=1mm, y=1mm]
        \useasboundingbox (0, 0) rectangle (297, 210);
        
        \draw[tdEdge] (5, 205) rectangle (292, 5)node(lower_right){};
        \node[text width=175mm,anchor=south east,tdEdge,draw,minimum height=15mm,outer sep=0pt] at (lower_right) {Description};
        
        \begin{scope}[shift={(40, 180)}]
            \draw[tdEdge] (0, 0)coordinate(A) -| (20, -40) -| (40, -60) -- (0, -60)coordinate(B) |- (10, -50) |- (0, -15) -- cycle;
            \draw[tdHelp] (A) -- ++(-\tdHelp,0);
            \draw[tdHelp] (B) -- ++(-\tdHelp,0);
            \draw[tdDim] ($(B)-(\tdDim,0)$) -- ($(A)-(\tdDim,0)$)node[tdDimNode]{60};
        \end{scope}
        
        \begin{scope}[shift={(120, 180)}]
            \draw[tdEdge] (0, 0) -- ++(30,0)coordinate(A) -- (30, -15)coordinate(B) -- (30, -40)coordinate(C) -- ++(0,-10)coordinate(D) -- (30, -60)coordinate(E) -| cycle;
            \draw[tdHidden] (B) -- ++(-30, 0);
            \draw[tdEdge] (C) -- ++(-30, 0);
            \draw[tdHidden] (D) -- ++(-30, 0);
            \draw[tdHelp] (A) -- ++(\tdHelp,0);
            \draw[tdHelp] (B) -- ++(\tdHelp,0);
            \draw[tdHelp] (C) -- ++(\tdHelp,0);
            \draw[tdHelp] (D) -- ++(\tdHelp,0);
            \draw[tdHelp] (E) -- ++(\tdHelp,0);
            \draw[tdDim] ($(B)+(\tdDim,0)$) -- ($(A)+(\tdDim,0)$)node[tdDimNode]{15};
            \draw[tdDim] ($(D)+(\tdDim,0)$) -- ($(C)+(\tdDim,0)$)node[tdDimNode]{10};
            \draw[tdDim] ($(E)+(\tdDim,0)$) -- ($(D)+(\tdDim,0)$)node[tdDimNode]{10};
        \end{scope}
            
        \begin{scope}[shift={(40, 80)}]
            \draw[tdEdge] (0, 0)coordinate(E) -| (40, -30)coordinate(A) -- ++(-20,0)coordinate(B) -- ++(-10,0)coordinate(C) -- ++(-10,0)coordinate(D) -- cycle;
            \draw[tdHidden] (C) -- ++(0, 30);
            \draw[tdEdge] (B) -- ++(0, 30);
            \draw[tdHelp] (A) -- ++(0,-\tdHelp);
            \draw[tdHelp] (B) -- ++(0,-\tdHelp);
            \draw[tdHelp] (C) -- ++(0,-\tdHelp);
            \draw[tdHelp] (D) -- ++(0,-\tdHelp);
            \draw[tdDim] ($(D)+(0,-\tdDim)$) -- ($(C)+(0,-\tdDim)$)node[tdDimNode]{10};
            \draw[tdDim] ($(C)+(0,-\tdDim)$) -- ($(B)+(0,-\tdDim)$)node[tdDimNode]{10};
            \draw[tdDim] ($(B)+(0,-\tdDim)$) -- ($(A)+(0,-\tdDim)$)node[tdDimNode]{20};
            \draw[tdHelp] (D) -- ++(-\tdHelp,0);
            \draw[tdHelp] (E) -- ++(-\tdHelp,0);
            \draw[tdDim] ($(D)+(-\tdDim,0)$) -- ($(E)+(-\tdDim,0)$)node[tdDimNode]{30};
        \end{scope}
        
        \end{tikzpicture}
    \end{center}
    
\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Dimensioning of a technical drawing in TikZ

enter image description here

-- New -- Horizontal and vertical cotations.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xparse,tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}

\RequirePackage{pdftexcmds}
\makeatletter
\let\pdfstrcmp\pdf@strcmp
\let\pdffilemoddate\pdf@filemoddate

\tikzset{%
    Cote node/.style={%
        midway,
        %sloped,
        fill=white,
        inner sep=1.5pt,
        outer sep=2pt
    },
    Cote arrow/.style={%
        <->,
        >=latex,
        very thin
    }
}

\makeatletter
\NewDocumentCommand{\Cote}{%
    s       % cotation avec les flèches à l'extérieur
    D<>{1.5pt} % offset des traits
    O{.75cm}    % offset de cotation
    m       % premier point
    m       % second point
    m       % étiquette
    D<>{o}  % () coordonnées -> angle
            % h -> horizontal,
            % v -> vertical
            % o or what ever -> oblique
    O{}     % parametre du tikzset
    }{%

    {\tikzset{#8}

    \coordinate (@1) at #4 ;
    \coordinate (@2) at #5 ;

    \if #7H % Cotation traits horizontaux
        \coordinate (@0) at ($($#4!.5!#5$) + (#3,0)$) ; 
        \coordinate (@5) at ($#5+(#3,0)$) ;
        \coordinate (@4) at ($#4+(#3,0)$) ;
    \else
    \if #7V % Cotation traits verticaux
        \coordinate (@0) at ($($#4!.5!#5$) + (#3,0)$) ; 
        \coordinate (@5) at ($#5+(0,#3)$) ;
        \coordinate (@4) at ($#4+(0,#3)$) ;
    \else
    \if #7v % Cotation verticale
        \coordinate (@0) at ($($#4!.5!#5$) + (#3,0)$) ; 
        \coordinate (@4) at (@0|-@1) ;
        \coordinate (@5) at (@0|-@2) ;
    \else
    \if #7h % Cotation horizontale
        \coordinate (@0) at ($($#4!.5!#5$) + (0,#3)$) ; 
        \coordinate (@4) at (@0-|@1) ;
        \coordinate (@5) at (@0-|@2) ;
    \else % cotation encoche
    \ifnum\pdfstrcmp{\unexpanded\expandafter{\@car#7\@nil}}{(}=\z@
        \coordinate (@5) at ($#7!#3!#5$) ;
        \coordinate (@4) at ($#7!#3!#4$) ;
    \else % cotation oblique    
        \coordinate (@5) at ($#5!#3!90:#4$) ;
        \coordinate (@4) at ($#4!#3!-90:#5$) ;
    \fi\fi\fi\fi\fi

    \draw[very thin,shorten >= #2,shorten <= -2*#2] (@4) -- #4 ;
    \draw[very thin,shorten >= #2,shorten <= -2*#2] (@5) -- #5 ;

    \IfBooleanTF #1 {% avec étoile
    \draw[Cote arrow,-] (@4) -- (@5)
        node[Cote node] {#6\strut};
    \draw[Cote arrow,<-] (@4) -- ($(@4)!-6pt!(@5)$) ;   
    \draw[Cote arrow,<-] (@5) -- ($(@5)!-6pt!(@4)$) ;   
    }{% sans étoile
    \ifnum\pdfstrcmp{\unexpanded\expandafter{\@car#7\@nil}}{(}=\z@
        \draw[Cote arrow] (@5) to[bend right]
            node[Cote node] {#6\strut} (@4) ;
    \else
    \draw[Cote arrow] (@4) -- (@5)
        node[Cote node] {#6\strut};
    \fi
    }}
    }

\makeatother

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\small
\draw[thick,blue,fill=blue!25]
        (0,1) coordinate (A)
    --  (3,1) coordinate (B)
    --  (5,2) coordinate (C)
    --  (5,4) coordinate (D)
    --  (3,4) coordinate (E)
    --  (2.5,3) coordinate (F)
    --  (2,4) coordinate (G)
    --  (0,4) coordinate (H)
    --cycle ;

\draw[red,fill=red!25] (2.5,3.9) circle (.39) ;

\Cote{(A)}{(B)}{1}

\Cote{(B)}{(C)}{2}[red]

\Cote[.3cm]{(B)}{(C)}{2}[%
    red,Cote node/.append style={sloped}]]

\Cote{(B)}{(C)}{2 bis}<h>[Cote node/.append style={fill=blue!25}]

\Cote[.3cm]{(C)}{(D)}{3 bis}[%
        Cote node/.append style={rotate=-90}]
\Cote[.7cm]{(C)}{(D)}{3}
\Cote[1.1cm]{(C)}{(D)}{3 ter}[%
            Cote node/.append style={right}]

\Cote[2cm]{(G)}{(E)}{?$^\circ$}<(F)>

\Cote*[1.2cm]{(2.11,3.9)}{(2.89,3.9)}{4}[%
    Cote node/.append style={left=.6cm,fill=blue!25}]

\Cote[-2cm]{(A)}{(2.5,4.29)}{5}<v>

\end{tikzpicture}

\bigskip

\begin{tikzpicture}
    \draw[thick,blue,fill=blue!25]
        (0,0) coordinate (A)
    --  (2,2) coordinate (B)
    --  (2,4) coordinate (C)
    --  (0,2) coordinate (D)
    --cycle ;

\Cote[.5]{(A)}{(B)}{5}<H>
\Cote[.5]{(D)}{(C)}{5}<V>
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

[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)

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Dimensioning of a technical drawing in TikZ

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

Related Question