TikZ for LaTeX

Mechanics figures for LaTeX, as TikZ

Draw the mechanism once in the studio, in the line-art style of a textbook, and export it as TikZ code to paste into your paper, lecture notes or exam. The labels are typeset by LaTeX, so the figure matches the text around it.

Open the studio All the export formats

Atwood machine: two masses over a pulley, drawn as black line art on white like a textbook figure

\begin{tikzpicture}[x=0.44pt, y=-0.44pt, >={Stealth}]
  \Ground{(30.6,300.8)}{(750.6,300.8)}{(0,9)}
  \Pulley{(390.6,90.8)}{5.81pt}
  \draw[o2d mass] (377.4,237.84) circle (3.96pt);
  \draw[o2d mass] (403.8,186.76) circle (3.17pt);
  \draw[o2d rope] (377.4,237.84) -- (377.4,90.8) -- …;
  \node[anchor=center] at (341.55,207.37) {$m_{1}$};
  \node[anchor=center] at (437.85,158.08) {$m_{2}$};
  …
\end{tikzpicture}

Part of the TikZ the export wrote for the Atwood machine (Style → Macros). The full figure also has the labels' leader lines and the gravity arrow.

Build it

Bodies, grounds, pins, pulleys, cables, springs, gears and linkages, or a classic problem to start from.

Add the figure's labels

Labels, dimensions, angle arcs, coordinate frames, gravity arrows and free-body diagrams; write a label in LaTeX: \ddot{x}_1, \frac{L}{2}.

Export → TikZ

A live preview, the scale and the label size; copy a tikzpicture or download a standalone document.

The code

Readable TikZ, two styles

Plain paths that reproduce the figure exactly, or Style → Macros: the figure as named pieces, \Ground, \Pulley and \PinSupport, with styles such as o2d mass and o2d spring that you restyle with one \tikzset.

Needs tikz with the arrows.meta and patterns libraries
Compiles with pdflatex, lualatex and xelatex
A comment above the picture describes the figure for readers who cannot see it

Graphs too

pgfplots from the simulation

Any quantity you plot, a position, a force, an energy, exports as a pgfplots axis, so the graph in your document comes from the same run as the figure.

Exams

Exam variants with their answers

Make several variants of a problem with different numbers: the studio simulates each one and writes a LaTeX document of the exam class, every question with its figure in TikZ and its solution, and an answer key.

Other formats

The same figure as SVG, PDF and PNG

The screen and every export use the same drawing code, so what you see is what the TikZ, SVG, PDF and PNG contain.

Start from a classic problem

Open one and press Space

Plans Pro

TikZ and the other exports are part of Pro

The studio is free to try: build and run any scene in the browser, no installation. Pro, from €4.99 a month, adds the figure tools and every export. See the plans.

Free in your browser

Nothing to install; your scenes stay on your computer unless you save them to your account.

Open the studio