Customized 3D vector representation

Hello everyone

I was wondering if it would be possible to customize the way in which the directionality of a three-dimensional vector is represented in MatLab, in such a way that the arrow has volume and presents a sphere at half its length, as in this image, which is shown can be found in the paper Domain wall dynamics in two-dimensional van der Waals ferromagnets

and that if I recall correctly has been done with povray.

Answer 1

[Matt J]

The graphical element you describe can be created from a combination of a cylinder (the shaft of the arrow), a cone (the head of the arrow) and a sphere. All 3 can be co-plotted using a very simple interface with this FEX package:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/87584-object-oriented-tools-to-fit-plot-conics-and-quadrics

Below is an example specific to your goals. Note that once you have the vector H of graphics handles, you can use hgtransform to re-position, resize, and re-orient the arrow to your liking.

[shaftCenter,shaftRadius,shaftHeight]=...
                 deal([0 0 0], 0.2, 10);  %Arrow shaft parameters

[headTip,headAngle,headHeight]=...
                 deal([1.1*shaftHeight/2,0,0], 30, shaftHeight/6);  %Arrow head parameters

[sphereCenter,sphereRadius]=deal([0,0,0], shaftHeight/12);   %Sphere parameters

        
Shaft=cylindricalFit.groundtruth([],shaftCenter,shaftRadius,shaftHeight,[0,0]); %Data-less ground truth objects
Head=rightcircularconeFit.groundtruth([],headTip,headAngle,headHeight,[180,0]);  
Sphere=sphericalFit.groundtruth([], sphereCenter,sphereRadius);


figure
 hold on
 H(1)=plot(Shaft,{'FaceAlpha',1});
 H(2)=plot(Head,{'FaceAlpha',1});
 H(3)=plot(Sphere,{'FaceAlpha',1}); 
 view(-50,30)
 hold off

[Richard Wood]

Hi @Matt J. Thank you very much for your answer! I will try what you suggest. I have found this interesting arrow format example: magnetic skyrmion visualization. Get rid off the sphere sounds reasonable, given the very good output.