Voltage Sign Customization – How to Make Plus/Minus Signs Bolder in Circuit Diagrams with TikZ

circuitikztikz-pgftikz-styles

How can I make the voltage plus/minus signs bolder?

The setting circuitikz/voltage/american font=\boldmath works, but it is not bold enough.
It would be nice if there is something which can be placed and applied whenever I create a new components without having to specify coordinate and place them myself.

(Please check the boldness of the voltage plus/minus signs only in the image below.)

And the plus/minus sign inside the voltage source as well:

\documentclass[tikz, border=1cm]{standalone}
\usepackage[american, siunitx]{circuitikz}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[ ultra thick]
\begin{scope}
 circuitikz/voltage/american font=\boldmath
 \draw (7,0) to [
R=R1, v=V1] ++(3,0) node[right]  {boldmath};
\end{scope}
\draw [yshift=-2cm] (7,0) to [
R=R1, v=V1] ++(3,0) node[right]  {default};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Best Answer

The matter would be to find a font with a suitable boldness for you, and then use the keys to change the default chars.

Otherwise, you can build your symbols with basic TeX rules or, if you like, with picture mode (do not use a tikzpicture though):

\documentclass[tikz, border=1cm]{standalone}
    \usepackage[american, siunitx]{circuitikz}

\newcommand{\pluuus}{%
    \vrule width 8pt height 5pt depth -3pt\relax
    \kern-5pt\vrule width 2pt height 8pt\kern3pt\relax
}
\newcommand{\miiinus}{%
    \vrule width 8pt height 5pt depth -3pt\relax
}
\ctikzset{voltage/american plus=\pluuus}
\ctikzset{voltage/american minus=\miiinus}
\ctikzset{bipoles/vsourceam/inner plus=\pluuus}
\ctikzset{bipoles/vsourceam/inner minus=\miiinus}


\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[thick,
    circuitikz/inductors/thickness=0.5]

    \draw (0,0) to [cute inductor, v^=$V_L$] ++(3,0);
    \draw (0,0) to [V, l=V, invert] ++(0,3);
    % go back to standard, check alignement
    \ctikzset{voltage/american plus=$+$}
    \ctikzset{voltage/american minus=$-$}
    \draw [thin, red, dashed] (0,0) to[cute inductor, v^=$V_L$] ++(3,0);  

\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

The relevant part in the manual is

and for the voltage generator symbol

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Rotate a node but not its content: the case of the ellipse decoration

The source of the difficulty is that ellipses are constructed in a particular way in TikZ. They are paths that start from the x-axis and proceed counter-clockwise around their centre. The vast majority of the time, the exact parametrisation doesn't matter. You appear to have found the one situation where it does!

In the actual question, you only want to be able to mirror the ellipse, and so draw it starting from the negative x-axis (the title of the question suggests a more flexible approach). That's actually not too hard since we can exploit the symmetry of the ellipse. The key is to provide it with a negative x-radius, since then it will start from the negative x-axis (and proceed clockwise, but we could correct for that by negating the y-radius as well). To do this, we interrupt the call from the node shape to the drawing command and flip the sign of the x-radius. The simplest way to do this is to redefine the \pgfpathellipse macro to do the negation and then call the original macro. The following code does this.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{decorations,shapes,decorations.markings}
\makeatletter
\let\origpgfpathellipse=\pgfpathellipse
\def\revpgfpathellipse#1#2#3{%
  #2%
  \pgf@xa=-\pgf@x
  \origpgfpathellipse{#1}{\pgfqpoint{\pgf@xa}{0pt}}{#3}}
\makeatother

\tikzset{
  reversed ellipse/.style={
    ellipse,
    reverse the ellipse%
  },
  reverse the ellipse/.code={
    \let\pgfpathellipse=\revpgfpathellipse
  }
}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node[ellipse,
  draw,
  postaction={
    decorate,
    decoration={
      markings,
      mark=at position 1 with {
        \arrow[line width=5pt,blue]{>}
      }
    }
  }
] at (0,0) {hello world};

\node[reversed ellipse,
  draw,
  postaction={
    decorate,
    decoration={
      markings,
      mark=at position 1 with {
        \arrow[line width=5pt,blue]{>}
      }
    }
  }
] at (0,-2) {hello world};
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

Here's the result:

rotated ellipse

(the arrow got clipped, but you can see where it lies)

[Tex/LaTex] How to define the default vertical distance between nodes

I don't really get the question so I hope this is what you wanted. If you include a full document (such that we copy paste and see the problem on our systems) things are much more easier.

Here, you can change the default setting within a scope but your block style had a node distance which was resetting every time it is issued. I've made it 2mm such that we can see the difference easier.

\documentclass[tikz]{standalone}
\usetikzlibrary{arrows,shapes.geometric,positioning}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[decision/.style={diamond, draw, text width=4.5em, text badly centered, node distance=3.5cm, inner sep=0pt},
                    block/.style   ={rectangle, draw, text width=6em, text centered, rounded corners, minimum height=4em, minimum height=2em},
                    cloud/.style   ={draw, ellipse, minimum height=2em},
                    line/.style    ={draw,-latex'},
                    node distance = 1cm, 
                    auto]
    \node [block] (1st) {1st};
    \node [block, right= of 1st]  (2nd1) {2nd1};
\begin{scope}[node distance=2mm and 10mm]%Here we change it for everything inside this scope
    \node [block, above= of 2nd1] (2nd2) {2nd2};
    \node [block, below= of 2nd1] (2nd3) {2nd3};
    \node [block, right= of 2nd1] (3rd1) {3rd1};
    \node [block, above= of 3rd1] (3rd2) {3rd2};
    \node [block, above= of 3rd2] (3rd3) {3rd3};
\end{scope}
    \node [block, below= of 3rd1] (3rd4) {3rd4};
    \node [block, below= of 3rd4] (3rd5) {3rd5};

    \path [line] (1st) -- (2nd1);
    \path [line] (2nd1) -- (2nd2);
    \path [line] (2nd1) -- (2nd3);
    \path [line] (2nd2) -- (3rd3);
    \path [line] (2nd1) -- (3rd1);
    \path [line] (1st) -- (2nd1);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

enter image description here

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Rotate a node but not its content: the case of the ellipse decoration

[Tex/LaTex] How to define the default vertical distance between nodes

Related Question