# Draw 3D rectangle

I've been searching this for hours, but didn't find a reason for this behaviour:

Here is my example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{3d}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[x={(0.866cm,0.5cm)},y={(-0.866cm,0.5cm)},z={(0cm,1cm)}]
\fill[blue!50,opacity=0.6] (0,0,0) rectangle (2,1,0);
\fill[green!50,opacity=0.6] (0,0,0) -- (2,0,0) -- (2,1,0) -- (0,1,0) -- (0,0,0);
\draw[->] (0,0,0) -- (1,0,0);
\draw[->] (0,0,0) -- (0,1,0);
\draw[->] (0,0,0) -- (0,0,1);

\begin{scope}[xshift=3cm]
\fill[blue!50,opacity=0.6] (0,0,0) circle (1);
\draw[->] (0,0,0) -- (1,0,0);
\draw[->] (0,0,0) -- (0,1,0);
\draw[->] (0,0,0) -- (0,0,1);
\end{scope}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}


I'd expect both rectangles to be painted the same. To be more precise, both should appear like the green one, but the don't.

Obviously, the coordinate of the upper right corner (2,1,0) is correct for both rectangles, but only the green one correctly aligns with the coordinate system's axes.

In comparison to this, the circle correcly uses the modified vectors, since it is drawn as an ellipse.

What do I have to do, to get the blue rectangle painted like the green one?

Edit: I found something interesting in this answer. Apparently the following code works, but I find it a little inconvenient to place all my rectangle into scopes.

Additionally, is canvas is xy plane at z really implemented the wrong way? Why isn't this fixed, then?

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{3d}

\makeatletter
\tikzoption{canvas is xy plane at z}[]{%
\def\tikz@plane@origin{\pgfpointxyz{0}{0}{#1}}%
\def\tikz@plane@x{\pgfpointxyz{1}{0}{#1}}%
\def\tikz@plane@y{\pgfpointxyz{0}{1}{#1}}%
\tikz@canvas@is@plane
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[x={(0.866cm,0.5cm)},y={(-0.866cm,0.5cm)},z={(0cm,1cm)}]
\begin{scope}[canvas is xy plane at z=0,transform shape]
\fill[blue!50,opacity=0.6] (0,0,0) rectangle (2,1,0);
\end{scope}

\fill[green!50,opacity=0.6] (0,0,0) -- (2,0,0) -- (2,1,0) -- (0,1,0) -- (0,0,0);

\draw[->] (0,0,0) -- (1,0,0);
\draw[->] (0,0,0) -- (0,1,0);
\draw[->] (0,0,0) -- (0,0,1);

\begin{scope}[xshift=3cm]
\fill[blue!50,opacity=0.6] (0,0,0) circle (1);
\draw[->] (0,0,0) -- (1,0,0);
\draw[->] (0,0,0) -- (0,1,0);
\draw[->] (0,0,0) -- (0,0,1);
\end{scope}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}


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– Claudio Fiandrino Apr 11 '13 at 13:29
Regarding your question whether canvas is xy plane at z is really implemented the wrong way: Judging by the fact that it doesn't work in its current implementation, but it does with the correction, I would say "yes". It probably hasn't been fixed because no bug report has been posted. – Jake Apr 11 '13 at 14:49
If the canvas is xy plane at z approach works for you in principle: You can define a convenience style using \tikzset{3d/.style={canvas is xy plane at z=0}}. Then you can draw your rectangle using \fill [3d] (0,0) rectangle (2,1);, without the need for a scope. – Jake Apr 11 '13 at 15:04
Thanks, Jake for your answers. They helped me a lot! – Sebastian Schneider Apr 15 '13 at 9:17
@Jake Looks like the question has been sorted out. Could you please post your comments as answer so the OP can accept it? Or, the OP should clarify about aspects of his questions that still remain unanswered. – kan May 4 '13 at 21:19

You don't have to put the commands in a scope, you can pass the options to the commands directly:

\draw[canvas is xy plane at z=0] ...;,

but this greatly increases line length. Instead you can define styles with a parameter to use these:

\tikzset{my style name/.style={canvas is xy plane at z=#1}}

And as a small remark: instead of giving the unit vectors in cartesian form (which is very inconvineant if you want to change them), you can use polar notation:

[x={(0.866cm,0.5cm)}] [x={(-30:1cm)}

## Code

\documentclass[tikz,border=3mm]{standalone}
\usetikzlibrary{3d}

\makeatletter
\tikzoption{canvas is xy plane at z}[]{%
\def\tikz@plane@origin{\pgfpointxyz{0}{0}{#1}}%
\def\tikz@plane@x{\pgfpointxyz{1}{0}{#1}}%
\def\tikz@plane@y{\pgfpointxyz{0}{1}{#1}}%
\tikz@canvas@is@plane
}
\makeatother

\tikzset{xyp/.style={canvas is xy plane at z=#1}}
\tikzset{xzp/.style={canvas is xz plane at y=#1}}
\tikzset{yzp/.style={canvas is yz plane at x=#1}}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[x={(-30:1cm)},y={(210:1cm)},z={(90:1cm)}]
\draw[->] (0,0,0) -- node[pos=1.2] {x} (1,0,0);
\draw[->] (0,0,0) -- node[pos=1.2] {y} (0,1,0);
\draw[->] (0,0,0) -- node[pos=1.2] {z} (0,0,1);
\foreach \n in {-0.1,-0.2,...,-2}
{   \fill[opacity=0.3,yellow,draw=black,xyp=\n] (0-\n/5,0-\n/5) rectangle (2+\n/5,2+\n/5);
\fill[opacity=0.3,red,draw=black,xzp=\n] (0,0) (0-\n/5,0-\n/5) rectangle (2+\n/5,2+\n/5);
\fill[opacity=0.3,blue,draw=black,yzp=\n] (0,0) (0-\n/5,0-\n/5) rectangle (2+\n/5,2+\n/5);
}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}


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