I have drawn a truncated cone in TikZ and am generally happy with the result. Here is the output and an MWE:
\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[>=latex]
\fill[fill=gray!50] (1,0) ellipse (0.166 and 0.5);
\fill[fill=gray!50] (4,0) ellipse (0.498 and 1.5);
\fill[fill=gray!50] (1, 0.5) -- (4, 1.5) -- (4, -1.5) -- (1, -0.5) -- (1, 0.5);
\draw[thick,->] (0,0,0) -- (5,0,0) node[anchor=west]{$z$};
\draw[thick,->] (0,0,0) -- (0,2,0) node[anchor=south]{$x$};
\draw[thick,->] (0,0,0) -- (0,0,2) node[anchor=north east]{$y$};
\draw[semithick] (1,0) ellipse (0.166 and 0.5);
\draw[semithick] (4,0) ellipse (0.498 and 1.5);
\draw (1, 0.5) -- (4, 1.5);
\draw (1, -0.5) -- (4, -1.5);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}
However, I think that there is room for improvement. Here are some things that I could not figure out:
- How can we (automatically) dash the z-axis where it should be hidden, as well as part of the ellipse of one of the sides, which should not be visible?
- Would there be a sane way of adding some shading to the drawing, that would add depth?
Can you help me out with these points?
\draw [thick,gray!50,dashed] (0,0,0) -- (5,0,0);
after drawing the axis and then clip it do the shape of the cone.