Circle drawing with SVG’s arc path

drawinggeometric-arcgeometrysvgvml

Short question: using SVG path, we can draw 99.99% of a circle and it shows up, but when it is 99.99999999% of a circle, then the circle won't show up. How can it be fixed?

The following SVG path can draw 99.99% of a circle: (try it on http://jsfiddle.net/DFhUF/1381/ and see if you see 4 arcs or only 2 arcs, but note that if it is IE, it is rendered in VML, not SVG, but have the similar issue)

M 100 100 a 50 50 0 1 0 0.00001 0

But when it is 99.99999999% of a circle, then nothing will show at all?

M 100 100 a 50 50 0 1 0 0.00000001 0

And that's the same with 100% of a circle (it is still an arc, isn't it, just a very complete arc)

M 100 100 a 50 50 0 1 0 0 0

How can that be fixed? The reason is I use a function to draw a percentage of an arc, and if I need to "special case" a 99.9999% or 100% arc to use the circle function, that'd be kind of silly.

Again, a test case on jsfiddle using RaphaelJS is at http://jsfiddle.net/DFhUF/1381/
(and if it is VML on IE 8, even the second circle won't show… you have to change it to 0.01)

Update:

This is because I am rendering an arc for a score in our system, so 3.3 points get 1/3 of a circle. 0.5 gets half a circle, and 9.9 points get 99% of a circle. But what if there are scores that are 9.99 in our system? Do I have to check whether it is close to 99.999% of a circle, and use an arc function or a circle function accordingly? Then what about a score of 9.9987? Which one to use? It is ridiculous to need to know what kind of scores will map to a "too complete circle" and switch to a circle function, and when it is "a certain 99.9%" of a circle or a 9.9987 score, then use the arc function.

Best Answer

I know it's a bit late in the game, but I remembered this question from when it was new and I had a similar dillemma, and I accidently found the "right" solution, if anyone is still looking for one:

<path 
    d="
    M cx cy
    m -r, 0
    a r,r 0 1,0 (r * 2),0
    a r,r 0 1,0 -(r * 2),0
    "
/>

In other words, this:

<circle cx="100" cy="100" r="75" />

can be achieved as a path with this:

  <path 
        d="
        M 100, 100
        m -75, 0
        a 75,75 0 1,0 150,0
        a 75,75 0 1,0 -150,0
        "
  />

The trick is to have two arcs, the second one picking up where the first left off and using the negative diameter to get back to the original arc start point.

The reason it can't be done as a full circle in one arc (and I'm just speculating) is because you would be telling it to draw an arc from itself (let's say 150,150) to itself (150,150), which it renders as "oh, I'm already there, no arc necessary!".

The benefits of the solution I'm offering are:

  1. it's easy to translate from a circle directly to a path, and
  2. there is no overlap in the two arc lines (which may cause issues if you are using markers or patterns, etc). It's a clean continuous line, albeit drawn in two pieces.

None of this would matter if they would just allow textpaths to accept shapes. But I think they are avoiding that solution since shape elements like circle don't technically have a "start" point.

jsfiddle demo: http://jsfiddle.net/crazytonyi/mNt2g/

Update:

If you are using the path for a textPath reference and you are wanting the text to render on the outer edge of the arc, you would use the exact same method but change the sweep-flag from 0 to 1 so that it treats the outside of the path as the surface instead of the inside (think of 1,0 as someone sitting at the center and drawing a circle around themselves, while 1,1 as someone walking around the center at radius distance and dragging their chalk beside them, if that's any help). Here is the code as above but with the change:

<path 
    d="
    M cx cy
    m -r, 0
    a r,r 0 1,1 (r * 2),0
    a r,r 0 1,1 -(r * 2),0
    "
/>
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