tikzphysics

tikzphysics is a TikZ-native library for drawing classical-physics diagrams in LaTeX. It adds reusable shapes, styles, keys, and geometric anchors while keeping the normal TikZ workflow: diagrams are still built with \node, \draw, \path, and \tikzset.

Version: 1.1.0 (2026-08-15)

Included modules

• tikzphysics.surface: single-polygon, sharply mitered bent platforms; wedges, ground, ceilings, and walls.
• tikzphysics.ramps: continuous wall–floor–incline ramps and filled circular ramps, with surface, tangent, and normal anchors.
• tikzphysics.mechanics: configurable blocks, spring nodes, and pulleys, plus strings that compute exact pulley tangencies and circular contact arcs.
• tikzphysics.optics: concave and convex mirrors, biconvex and biconcave lenses, slabs, and prisms with named and parametric optical-surface anchors.
• tikzphysics.core: unit-aware dimensions, parametric anchors, and debug tools.

Object-specific controls use concise names where they read naturally, for example wedge height, mirror radius, and prism apex angle. Longer collision-safe forms begin with physics, such as physics mirror radius and physics strip width. Ordinary node sizing uses the familiar TikZ keys minimum width, minimum height, and minimum size; unit-aware physics ... aliases remain available when convenient.

The primary node styles are intentionally concise:

Short style	Collision-safe style	Object
platform	physicsplatform-both	Platform with independently configurable left and right walls
platform-left, platform-right, platform-both	physicsplatform-left, physicsplatform-right, physicsplatform-both	Explicit bent-platform variants
wedge	physicswedge	Inclined plane
ramp, ramp-left	physicsramp	Continuous wall–floor–linear-incline body
curved-ramp, curved-ramp-left	physicscurvedramp	Circular contact ramp with a filled body
ground, ceiling	physicsground, physicsceiling	Horizontal contact strips
wall-left, wall-right	physicswall-left, physicswall-right	Vertical contact strips
block, spring, pulley	physicsblock, physicsspring, physicspulley	Mechanics objects
concave-mirror, convex-mirror	physicsconcavemirror, physicsconvexmirror	Curved reflecting surfaces
convex-lens	physicsconvexlens	Symmetric biconvex lens
concave-lens	physicsconcavelens	Symmetric biconcave lens
slab	physicsslab	Unfilled parallel-sided rectangular slab
prism	physicsprism	Unfilled isosceles triangular prism

TikZ style names are global. If another package or the surrounding document already defines a generic name such as block, use the corresponding physics... form.

Bent-wall directions are continuous. The only excluded directions are a left wall at 0 degrees and a right wall at 180 degrees (modulo 360), because those fold directly back over the floor and have no finite miter.

Requirements

• LaTeX2ε
• PGF/TikZ, including the standard calc, patterns, angles, and decorations.pathmorphing libraries

No shell escape, external program, special font, or platform-specific runtime is required when using the package.

Installation

After publication, install tikzphysics through TeX Live or MiKTeX. For a manual installation, copy these files into a directory searched by TeX:

• tikzphysics.sty
• tikzlibrarytikzphysics.code.tex
• tikzlibrarytikzphysics.core.code.tex
• tikzlibrarytikzphysics.surface.code.tex
• tikzlibrarytikzphysics.ramps.code.tex
• tikzlibrarytikzphysics.mechanics.code.tex
• tikzlibrarytikzphysics.optics.code.tex

For a private TeX tree, a suitable location is tex/latex/tikzphysics/; refresh the filename database afterward if your TeX distribution requires it.

Quick start

Load all modules:

\usepackage{tikzphysics}

Or load only the modules needed by a document:

\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{tikzphysics.ramps, tikzphysics.mechanics}

The following is a complete document. Copy it into a new Overleaf project with the package installed or with the standalone tikzphysics.sty bundle beside the main file:

\documentclass[tikz, border=6mm]{standalone}
\usepackage{tikzphysics}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
  \node[platform, minimum width=5cm, minimum height=2cm]
    (platform) at (0,0) {};

  \node[pulley, minimum size=8mm]
    (pulley) at (platform.north east) {};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Native and convenience sizing can be used side by side:

Shape/property	Native TikZ (preferred)	Package convenience
Block width/height	minimum width, minimum height	physics block width, physics block height
Spring length	minimum width	—
Pulley diameter	minimum size	physics pulley diameter
Platform width/depth	minimum width, minimum height	physics platform width, physics platform depth
Ground or ceiling width/depth	minimum width, minimum height	physics ground ..., physics ceiling ...
Wall thickness/height	minimum width, minimum height	physics wall thickness, physics wall height
Wedge width	minimum width	wedge width
Straight-ramp width	minimum width	—
Slab width/height	minimum width, minimum height	slab width, slab height
Prism width/height	minimum width, minimum height	prism width, prism height

Put the shape style first and the sizing keys after it. If both forms are present, the last value wins. wedge height is deliberately not replaced by minimum height: it selects the wedge's geometry when no angle is given.

The wedge keys also have collision-safe forms:

Concise key	Collision-safe alias
wedge width	physics wedge width
wedge height	physics wedge height
wedge angle	physics wedge angle
wedge right angle at	physics wedge right angle at

Shape-specific controls such as wall angle, strip width, axle styling, and optical geometry use the names documented for their shapes; collision-safe physics ... aliases are available where listed.

Spring nodes

spring is a rotatable node with exact attachment anchors, so it composes like block and pulley instead of being an anonymous decorated line:

\node[spring, minimum width=4cm,
      pre length=5pt, post length=5pt,
      amplitude=4.5pt, segment length=4.5pt,
      aspect=0.5] (S) at (0,0) {};
\draw (wall) -- (S.start);
\draw (S.end) -- (block.west);
\node[above] at (S.coil-mid) {$k$};

The anchors are start, end, coil-start, coil-mid, and coil-end, plus the standard compass anchors. Native TikZ keys control total length and line appearance: minimum width, draw, line width, and rotate. The collision-safe coil-key names are pre length, post length, amplitude, segment length, and aspect; collision-safe aliases begin with physics spring ....

Rare ramp geometries

The ramp objects are true node shapes and each body is one closed path. The straight ramp has a vertical wall, a horizontal floor, and a linear incline with a sharp floor-to-incline corner. minimum width controls its overall horizontal width; ramp run, ramp angle or ramp rise, ramp wall height, ramp wall width, and ramp depth control the remaining geometry. After naming the node, \physicsrampangle{R}{$30^\circ$} draws the dashed reference ray, acute angle arc, and label at that sharp corner.

The curved-ramp contact surface begins with a horizontal floor and joins its circular arc with the same horizontal tangent. Its default floor extends 2cm left of the arc foot; set curved ramp floor length to change it. A 90-degree sweep ends with a vertical tangent. Use curved ramp radius, curved ramp angle, and curved ramp back extension. Both shapes accept ramp direction=left or right; the left-facing convenience styles are ramp-left and curved-ramp-left.

Both ramps provide surface-0 through surface-100 and the shorthand .0 through .100 over the complete contact surface. Curved ramps additionally provide curve-0..100, curve-tangent-before/after-T, and curve-normal-T for the circular portion alone. This places a block on the arc at its exact tangent:

\node[curved-ramp, curved ramp radius=4cm] (R) at (0,0) {};
\path (R.curve-tangent-before-60) -- (R.curve-tangent-after-60)
  node[midway,sloped,block,anchor=south] {$m$};
\draw[->] (R.curve-60) -- (R.curve-normal-60) node[above] {$N$};

For a block-pulley system, use \physicsstringoverpulley{B.east}{P}{H.north}. It computes both tangent contact points and the circular wrap around pulley node P; the string does not rely on approximate compass anchors. The default physics string route=surface-right is intended for a block on a horizontal or rising surface with the mass hanging on the pulley's right. The approaching string remains parallel to the surface and passes over the upper pulley rim. The optional argument also accepts over, under, and shortest, or the individual tangent-solution and wrap keys.

A complete optics composition:

\begin{tikzpicture}
  \node[convex-lens, convex lens radius=3cm,
        convex lens thickness=0.2cm,
        convex lens aperture angle=25] (L) at (0,0) {};
  % Snell-law values for n(lens)/n(air)=1.50 and this fixed geometry.
  \coordinate (Lexit) at ($(L.center)+(0.29194,0.72588)$);
  \coordinate (Lf) at ($(L.center)+(2.93841,0)$);
  \node[slab, minimum width=1.2cm, minimum height=3cm]
    (S) at (5,0) {};
  \node[prism, prism width=3cm, prism apex angle=60]
    (P) at (10,0) {};

  \draw[red,->] ($(L.80)+(-3,0)$) -- (L.80) -- (Lexit) -- (Lf);
  \draw[red,->] (3.2,-0.8) -- (S.30) -- (S.back-65) -- (7,0.8);
  \draw[red,->] (8,-0.4) -- (P.50) -- (P.right-65) -- (12,0.8);
\end{tikzpicture}

The non-axial lens ray changes direction at both interfaces. The package provides the geometry and anchors but does not automatically solve Snell's law; if the lens keys or refractive indices change, recompute the exit and focal coordinates.

For prism, an explicitly supplied prism apex angle derives the height and takes precedence over minimum height or prism height.

Optical nodes also provide shorthand numeric anchors from .0 to .100. For mirrors they mean surface-T; for both lens types and slabs they mean front-T; for prisms they mean left-T. For example, (L.50) is the middle of a lens's front surface and (L.80) is near its upper edge.

Bare dimension values are interpreted as centimetres; explicit TeX units such as 8mm, 12pt, and 1in are preserved by package convenience keys. Native TikZ sizing keys should be given explicit units.

Documentation and examples

The complete user manual is tikzphysics.pdf, built from tikzphysics.tex. Standalone source examples are provided in examples/, including complete bent-platform configuration and key-variant galleries. Start with examples/short-names-platform-pulley.tex for the smallest complete document. Use examples/short-names-wedge-variants.tex for complete angle-, height-, width-, and right-angle-mode examples. Use examples/optics-components.tex for the complete optics gallery and examples/optics-ray-composition.tex for named and numeric surface anchors in ray paths. examples/optics-complete-ray-diagrams.tex contains complete converging and diverging diagrams for both lenses and mirrors. The ramp examples are ramp-straight-system.tex, ramp-curved-system.tex, and ramps-gallery.tex. The pulley examples include horizontal-plane, inclined-plane, bent-platform, two-hanging-mass, and six string-routing arrangements. A terminal quick reference is available through:

./tikzphysics-help
./tikzphysics-help platform

Development

The package uses l3build for regression testing and release packaging:

l3build check
l3build doc
l3build ctan

The regression suite checks fixed platform corners, wall extents, straight and circular ramp endpoints, tangent/normal guides, mirror and lens arc endpoints, shorthand optical anchors, slab and prism surface endpoints, and unit-aware sizing.

License

Copyright (C) 2026 Vaibhav Blayer.

This material is subject to the LaTeX Project Public License version 1.3c or later. The work has LPPL maintenance status maintained; the Current Maintainer is Vaibhav Blayer. See LICENSE for details.