ggb3tikz

ggb3tikz exports a useful subset of GeoGebra 3D .ggb files to TikZ by reading geogebra.xml, projecting 3D coordinates with an explicit camera, and writing ordinary 2D TikZ paths.

It currently supports:

• free 3D points with <coords x="..." y="..." z="..." w="...">
• segments, lines, rays, polygons, pyramids, planes, circles, ellipses, conics, spheres, and angles when their GeoGebra data resolves to supported geometry
• labels, captions, colors, point styles, line thickness, line patterns, fills, opacity, and visibility flags
• hidden objects as TikZ definitions without drawing them
• painter-style depth sorting by average camera depth

Usage

From this repository directory:

python3 -m ggb3tikz input.ggb -o output.tex --view 6,-8,5 --target 0,0,0 --distance 14 --scale 1.2

From the parent directory, include the repository path:

python3 -m ggb3tikz ggb3tikz/input.ggb -o ggb3tikz/output.tex --view 6,-8,5 --target 0,0,0 --distance 14 --scale 1.2

Camera options:

• --view x,y,z: view direction, interpreted as camera position direction from the target.
• --target x,y,z: point the camera looks at.
• --distance d: distance from camera to target.
• --ortho: force orthographic projection.
• --perspective: use perspective projection.
• --up x,y,z: camera up hint.

The output is a standalone LaTeX document by default. Use --fragment to emit only the tikzpicture.

Example

The repository includes 313dode.ggb, a dodecahedron 3D construction with filled faces, a sphere, points, labels, and depth ordering.

From the parent projects directory, generate it with:

python3 -m ggb3tikz ggb3tikz/313dode.ggb -o ggb3tikz/313dode.tex --view 0.16,-0.96,0.2 --target 0,0,0 --distance 14 --scale 2.4

Or, from inside this repository:

python3 -m ggb3tikz 313dode.ggb -o 313dode.tex --view 0.16,-0.96,0.2 --target 0,0,0 --distance 14 --scale 2.4

Compile the result with:

pdflatex 313dode.tex

For very depth-sensitive curves, add --segment-curves-for-depth. That can improve painter ordering for crossing curves, but it intentionally produces much larger TikZ output.

Limitations

This project is an approximate converter, not a full replacement for GeoGebra's own 3D renderer. It is meant to produce a good TikZ starting point for mathematical figures, after which manual adjustment may still be needed.

Known limitations:

• There is no true z-buffer. Objects are sorted with a painter-style depth ordering, so partial occlusion can still be wrong when curves or faces pass in front of and behind each other.
• Transparent surfaces are especially difficult because correct rendering depends on splitting geometry at intersections and compositing fragments in depth order.
• Plane rendering is approximate. Planes are exported as finite patches chosen from the detected scene scale, not as GeoGebra's exact viewport-clipped infinite planes.
• Curves are usually exported as compact smooth TikZ paths. This keeps files readable, but it means a whole curve has one approximate depth. Use --segment-curves-for-depth when depth ordering of curves matters more than output size.
• Some GeoGebra objects may still be unsupported or only partly reconstructed, especially when their XML representation depends on hidden helper objects or app-specific rendering behavior.
• Labels and styles are preserved where practical, but exact font metrics, label placement, and every GeoGebra style detail are not guaranteed.

Future improvements could include better curve/surface intersection splitting, more faithful plane clipping, a richer style model, more GeoGebra command coverage, optional Asymptote or SVG backends, and a visual regression test suite based on small .ggb examples.

Packaging

The package version is stored in pyproject.toml:

version = "0.1.0"

Before publishing a new release, update that version, then build the source and wheel distributions:

python3 -m pip install --upgrade build twine
python3 -m build

Check the generated package metadata:

python3 -m twine check dist/*

Upload to TestPyPI first:

python3 -m twine upload --repository testpypi dist/*

If the TestPyPI package installs and runs correctly, upload to PyPI:

python3 -m twine upload dist/*

The tests are intentionally smoke tests rather than proof of visual perfection: they check that representative .ggb files parse and export without crashing and that expected TikZ structures are present. The final geometry still needs visual inspection because depth ordering, transparency, and labels are rendering problems, not just text-output problems.

Credit

This converter was written with OpenAI Codex in collaboration with the project author. The implementation is intentionally kept as ordinary Python code so it can be inspected, modified, packaged, and improved like any other open-source tool.