Is it possible to draw a 3d cylinder using TikZ-3dplot?

Question

I want to draw a clyinder between two planes. I want to specify the distance between the planes and position and radius of the cylinder.

I would like to use tikz-3dplot, because it allows a free rotation of the Viewpoint if everything is implemented with it.

There are a few Threads in which the creation of 3D bodies in TikZ, Drawing simple 3D cylinders in TikZ and Drawing 3D cylinder have been discussed.

Unfortunately those solution seem not to work with tikz-3dplot, because they all manipulate the 'Viewpoint' themself. This leads to the Problem, that a manipulation of the viewpoint with \tdplotsetmaincoords only rotates all Objects except the Cylinders.

Another User had a very similar question which yielded no answer yet. How to draw a 3d cylinder using TikZ-3dplot?

To summarize: I want to draw a cylinder in 3d using tikz-3dplot. At the Moment i can draw the circle at the end of the cylinder and a line from border to border, which only recognizes rotation around the x-axis. The Question is how can i put the lines correctly at the side of the cylinder.

Example of Code:

\documentclass[convert = false, tikz]{standalone}

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{textcomp}

\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{tikz-3dplot}

\begin{document}

%Configure here Rotation around x and y axis
\pgfmathsetmacro{\x}{60}
\pgfmathsetmacro{\y}{100}

\tdplotsetmaincoords{\x}{\y}

\begin{tikzpicture}[ tdplot_main_coords]

  \coordinate (O) at (0, 0, 0);

    \draw[-latex] (O) -- (-8, 0, 0) node[font = \small, pos = 1.1] {\(x\)};
    \draw[-latex] (O) -- (0, 6, 0) node[font = \small, pos = 1.1] {\(y\)};
    \draw[-latex] (O) -- (0, 0, 6) node[font = \small, pos = 1.1] {\(z\)};

    % define size of planes
    \pgfmathsetmacro{\planesize}{4}

    %plane1
    \filldraw[blue, opacity = .2]
         (0, 0, 0)
          -- (0, \planesize, 0)
          -- (0, \planesize, \planesize)
          -- (0, 0, \planesize)
          -- cycle;


    %Define Plane in which the circles of the cylinder are drawn.
    \tdplotgetpolarcoords{0}{1}{0}
    \tdplotsetthetaplanecoords{\tdplotresphi}

    %\tdplotdrawarc[coordinate system, draw styles]{center}{r}{angle start}{angle end}{label options}{label}
    %circle on first plane
    \pgfmathsetmacro{\radius}{0.5}
    \tdplotdrawarc[tdplot_rotated_coords]{(1,1,0)}{\radius}{0}%
    {360}{}{}

    %circle on second plane  
    \tdplotdrawarc[tdplot_rotated_coords]{(1,1,4)}{\radius}{0}%
    {360}{}{}

    %line from middle to middle
    \draw[tdplot_rotated_coords] (1,1,0) -- (1, 1, 4) node[font = \small, pos = 1.1] {};

    %First Edge of cylinder
     \draw[tdplot_rotated_coords] 
     ({1+sin(\x)*\radius},
      {1+cos(\x)*\radius},0)
       -- 
     ({1+sin(\x)*\radius},
      {1+cos(\x)*\radius},
       4) 
     node[font = \small, pos = 1.1] {};


    %plane2
    \filldraw[blue, opacity = .2]
             (-4, 0, 0)
              -- (-4, \planesize, 0)
              -- (-4, \planesize, \planesize)
              -- (-4, 0, \planesize)
              -- cycle;
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Answer 1

Attempted with pgfplots:

\documentclass[tikz]{standalone}
\usepackage{pgfplots}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}
    \begin{axis}[
    view={45}{30},
    axis equal image,
    axis lines=center,
    xtick=\empty,ytick=\empty,ztick=\empty,
    colormap={white}{color=(white)color=(white)},
    mesh/interior colormap={blue}{color=(blue!20)color=(blue!20)},
    z buffer=sort]
    \addplot3 [domain=0:8,y domain=0:8,surf,opacity=0.6,shader=flat,samples=2] (x,8,y);
    \addplot3 [domain=0:8,y domain=0:2*pi,mesh,black,samples=25] ({4+1*cos(deg(y))},{8},{4+1*sin(deg(y))});
    \addplot3 [domain=0:8,y domain=0:2*pi,surf,shader=interp,samples=25] ({4+1*cos(deg(y))},{x},{4+1*sin(deg(y))});
    \addplot3 [domain=0:8,y domain=0:8,surf,opacity=0.6,shader=flat,samples=2] (x,0,y); 
    \addplot3 [domain=0:8,y domain=0:2*pi,mesh,black,samples=25] ({4+1*cos(deg(y))},{0},{4+1*sin(deg(y))});
    \end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

Result:

Remark:

Commands

\addplot3 [domain=0:8,y domain=0:8,surf,opacity=0.6,shader=flat,samples=2] (x,0,y); 

and

\addplot3 [domain=0:8,y domain=0:8,surf,opacity=0.6,shader=flat,samples=2] (x,8,y); 

draw planes y=0 and y=8. While command

\addplot3 [domain=0:8,y domain=0:2*pi,surf,shader=interp,samples=25] ({4+1*cos(deg(y))},{x},{4+1*sin(deg(y))});{x},{4+1*sin(deg(y))});

drawing a cylinder (a+bcos(y),x,a+bsin(y)), where a=4 and b=1. I also added:

\addplot3 [domain=0:8,y domain=0:2*pi,mesh,black,samples=25] ({4+1*cos(deg(y))},{0},{4+1*sin(deg(y))});
\addplot3 [domain=0:8,y domain=0:2*pi,mesh,black,samples=25] ({4+1*cos(deg(y))},{8},{4+1*sin(deg(y))});

to mark where the cylinder and plane intercept, as pgfplots couldn't handle that automatically.

You can rotate the view point freely by changing the view={...}{...} option. For example, view={60}{30} will give you:

Most of the options of pgfplots are quite self-explanatory, refer to the package document for further detail.

Answer 2

The following answer uses Asymptote rather than TikZ-3dplot, but otherwise does (I think) everything you ask.

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{asymptote}

\begin{document}
\begin{asy}
defaultpen(fontsize(10pt));
settings.render=0;
settings.prc=false;
size(8cm);

import solids;

//currentprojection = obliqueX(angle=55);
currentprojection = orthographic(2X+Y+Z);

path3 xaxis = O -- -6X;
draw(xaxis, arrow=Arrow3);
label(Label("$x$", position=EndPoint), xaxis);

path3 yaxis = O -- 6Y;
draw(yaxis, arrow=Arrow3);
label(Label("$y$", position=EndPoint), yaxis);

path3 zaxis = O -- 6Z;
draw(zaxis, arrow=Arrow3);
label(Label("$z$", position=EndPoint), zaxis);


triple circlecenter = Y+Z;
real radius = 0.5;
triple normal = -X;
// center = Y+Z, radius=0.5, height=4, normal=-X
revolution cylinder = cylinder(circlecenter, radius, 4, normal);

surface plane = surface(O -- 4Y -- 4Y+4Z -- 4Z -- cycle);
material planecolor = material(lightblue+opacity(0.5), emissivepen=lightblue);
draw(shift(-4X) * plane, planecolor);

//Block out everything behind the cylinder.
draw(surface(cylinder), emissive(white));

draw(plane, planecolor);

draw(surface(circle(circlecenter, radius, normal)), emissive(white));

draw(cylinder.silhouette());

\end{asy}
\end{document}

The result:

If you change the projection (by changing which of the two lines starting currentprojection = is commented out), you get the following:

Answer 3

Not sure how to answer the "theoretical" part of your question because I'm not really an expert on this subject. But if you simply wanted a solution to make your cylinder look good, then maybe I found one.

It's not the best and it's actually just a sort of "hack/trick" but it works.

What I changed was to move the cylinder code (the one below) to before the filldraw commands:

\begin{scope}[z={(\xx*1cm,\xy*1cm)},x={(\yx*1cm,\yy*1cm)},y={(\zx*1cm,\zy*1cm)}]
    % This is a x-growing cylinder
    \tdcylxy{0}{0}{2}{0.5}{3} % y z x  r h
\end{scope}

And then repost the same code after the filldraw commands, but this time changing the H value to 0, so that the circle appears in front.

Answer 4

It is important to avoid manual or sophisticated calculation of boundaries when drawing the projected cylinder. To this end, let me show a robust way with tikz-3dplot library (adapted from my other post):

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz,tikz-3dplot}
\begin{document}

\def\rotx{70}
\def\rotz{110}
\tdplotsetmaincoords{\rotx}{\rotz}
\begin{tikzpicture}[tdplot_main_coords][scale=0.75]
\tikzstyle{every node}=[font=\small]
\draw[dashed,-latex] (0,0,0) -- (6,0,0) node[anchor=north east]{$x$};
\draw[dashed,-latex] (0,0,0) -- (0,6,0) node[anchor=north west]{$y$};
\draw[dashed,-latex] (0,0,0) -- (0,0,6) node[anchor=south]{$z$};
\draw [thick](0,0,0) circle (3);
\draw [thick](0,0,4) circle (3);
% manual edges
\draw [dotted](1.9,-2.34,0) -- (1.9,-2.34,4) node[midway, left]{};
\draw [dotted](-1.9,2.35,0) -- (-1.9,2.35,4);
% automatic edges !
\pgfcoordinate{edge1_top}{ \pgfpointcylindrical{\rotz}{3}{4} };
\pgfcoordinate{edge1_bottom}{ \pgfpointcylindrical{\rotz}{3}{0} };
\draw[thick] (edge1_top) -- (edge1_bottom);
\pgfcoordinate{edge2_top}{ \pgfpointcylindrical{\rotz+180}{3}{4} };
\pgfcoordinate{edge2_bottom}{ \pgfpointcylindrical{\rotz+180}{3}{0} };
\draw[thick] (edge2_top) -- (edge2_bottom);
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

This gives us