Hidden line

In mathematics, a hidden line is a geometric edge line[1] that is not visible from an observer's view of a shape or object.

Cubes with hidden lines: dotted, dashed, and thin lines. Cubes with no hidden lines, and a cube with dotted lines to give 3 dimensional reference

A common practice is to draw the visible edges as solid lines and the hidden lines as dotted lines, dashed lines,[2] or thinner lines than the visible lines.

Hidden lines can help visualize geometric objects in three-dimensional space. Hidden lines add geometric information about the unseen sides of an object.

Sample rendering of a wire-frame cube, icosahedron, and sphere

A three-dimensional object drawn with solid visible and hidden lines is a wire-frame model of the object.

  1. ^ Weisstein, Eric W. "Polytope Edge". From Wolfram MathWorld.
  2. ^ TeX software(TeX), Draw cube with dashed hidden lines. From TeX StackExchange.