[Tex/LaTex] Adjusting edge alignment and positioning of fitted node

fitpositioningtikz-pgf

I would like to achieve the following:

what I want

Namely a top left node, a bottom left node with the same width as the top left node (with possibly different height), and a right node with the total height of two left nodes. The right node must contain multiple things, possibly pictures.

The following code solves this:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning}
\usetikzlibrary{fit}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}

\begin{document}

\newdimen\XCoordA
\newdimen\YCoordA
\newdimen\XCoordB
\newdimen\YCoordB

\newcommand*{\ExtractCoordinateA}[1]{\path (#1); \pgfgetlastxy{\XCoordA}{\YCoordA};}%
\newcommand*{\ExtractCoordinateB}[1]{\path (#1); \pgfgetlastxy{\XCoordB}{\YCoordB};}%

\pgfdeclarelayer{toplayer}%
\pgfdeclarelayer{background}%
\pgfsetlayers{background,toplayer}%
\begin{tikzpicture}[
    block/.style=               {inner sep=10pt, font=\footnotesize, align=center, draw, thick},
    left_block/.style=          {block, minimum width=100pt},
    zerofit_block/.style=       {block, inner sep=0pt},
    inner_text/.style=          {inner sep=0pt, font=\small, align=center},
    inner_text_small/.style=    {inner_text, font=\tiny},
]

\begin{pgfonlayer}{background}

    \node [left_block, fill=green!50!white]
        (block_top_left) {This is\\block\_top\_left};
    \node [left_block, fill=red!50!white, below=0.2 of block_top_left.south west, anchor=north west]
        (block_bottom_left) {block\_bottom\_left};

\end{pgfonlayer}

\begin{pgfonlayer}{toplayer}

    \node [inner_text, below right=-0.7 and 1 of block_top_left]
        (block_right_label) {This is\\block\_right};
    \node [inner_text_small, below=0.1 of block_right_label]
        (block_right_text) {This is\\block\_right's\\text};

\end{pgfonlayer}

\begin{pgfonlayer}{background}

    \ExtractCoordinateA{$(block_top_left.north) - (0,0.4pt)$}; %0.4pt is half of the thick line width
    \ExtractCoordinateB{$(block_right_label)$};
    \coordinate (block_right_north) at (\XCoordB,\YCoordA);
    \ExtractCoordinateA{$(block_bottom_left.south) + (0,0.4pt)$};
    \coordinate (block_right_south) at (\XCoordB,\YCoordA);
    \coordinate (block_right_east_west_inner_sep) at (0.5,0);
    \coordinate (block_right_west) at ($(block_right_label.west) - (block_right_east_west_inner_sep)$);
    \coordinate (block_right_east) at ($(block_right_label.east) + (block_right_east_west_inner_sep)$);

    \node [zerofit_block, fill=yellow!50!white, fit=(block_right_north) (block_right_south) (block_right_west) (block_right_east)]
        (block_right) {};

\end{pgfonlayer}

\end{tikzpicture}%
\end{document}

There are numerous ugly things about this solution that I don't like:

Width of the two left nodes are controlled manually, with minimum width, but I would like to have the wider node have just an inner sep and the narrower node stretch in width to follow it.
Controlling the fitted right node's north, south, east and west with four manually calculated coordinates seems like overkill and just feels wrong.
North and south artificial coordinate of the fitted right node require that the drawn line thickness is subtracted. This is not even manually calculated but hardcoded to half the draw thickness; as soon as the draw thickness of the nodes change, this must be adjusted by hand.
The worst problem: Right block's inner blocks (block_right_label and block_right_text) are manually positioned. It would be better to somehow control the fitted node edges and draw the inner nodes after the fitted node has been positioned. This way, I could precisely control the spacing between the right fitted node and the left nodes, maybe even set it equal to the spacing between the left nodes. Not to mention that manually positioning the inner nodes will not achieve a perfectly equal top and bottom inner sep like this.

Am I approaching this problem completely wrong? Fit seems like the wrong solution here. In any case, can you offer me solutions for any number of the above problems?

Best Answer

This is done by setting the width of the first node, and then fitting the other two nodes to the previous nodes, using the fit library.
Same as #1.
Solved with #1.
This depends on what you want to do. If you only want two short nodes inside of the yellow, you can add two more nodes anchored there. But it depends on what you want to do

Output

Code

\documentclass[margin=10pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning,fit}

\tikzset{
    every node/.style={draw, rectangle, align=center, text width=3cm, inner sep=0, thick, outer sep=0}
}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[node distance=5mm]
\node[fill=green!40, minimum height=2cm, minimum width=5cm, text width=3cm] (one) {This is\\block top left};
\node[fill=red!40,  fit={(one.west) (one.east)}, minimum height=1cm, anchor=north west, below =of one] (two) {block bottom left};
\node[fill=yellow, fit={(one)(two)},right =of two.south east, anchor=south west] (three) {This is\\block right};

\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Related Solutions

[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

[Tex/LaTex] Line up nested tikz enviroments or how to get rid of them

As is explained in How do I draw shapes inside a tikz node? pics can be used for defining new objects. My main problem using pics is how to place where you want because they aren't nodes and positioning them is not so easy.

Following code shows how to define EDFA block.

    EDFA/.pic={
        \begin{scope}[scale=.5]
        \draw (-1,0) coordinate (in) --  (-1,1) -- (1,0) coordinate (out) --  (-1,-1) -- cycle;
        \node[anchor=north,inner sep=2pt] at (0,-1) {$1$};
        \end{scope}

In this case, coordinate (-1,0) will act as west anchor and 1,0 as east. Both point will have an special name for further reference. Every pic is placed according its own origin (0,0). You can use Claudio's answer to Anchoring TiKZ pics for better positioning.

As your example was simple, I'd prefer to star with EDFA and place Source and Sink after it.

\documentclass[]{article}

% tikz
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning} %relative positioning

\begin{document}

\tikzset{%
    EDFA/.pic={
        \begin{scope}[scale=.5]
        \draw (-1,0) coordinate (in) --  (-1,1) -- (1,0) coordinate (out) --  (-1,-1) -- cycle;
        \node[anchor=north,inner sep=2pt] at (0,-1) {$1$};
        \end{scope}
    }
}

\begin{tikzpicture}[
block/.style={draw},
]

\draw pic (edfa) {EDFA};

\node[block, left=of edfain] (source) {Source};

\node[block, right= of edfaout] (sink) {Sink};

\draw[->] (source) -- (edfain);
\draw[->] (edfaout) -- (sink);

\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

I understand that your components are more complex than EDFA because for this particular case an isosceles triangle node with a label will do the work and it can be used as a node and not as a pic:

\documentclass[]{article}

% tikz
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning} %relative positioning
\usetikzlibrary{shapes.geometric}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}[
    block/.style={draw},
    edfa/.style={isosceles triangle, minimum width=1cm, 
         draw, anchor=west, isosceles triangle stretches, 
         minimum height=1cm, label=-80:#1}
]

\node[block] (source) {Source};

\node[edfa=1, right=of source] (edfa) {};

\node[block, right= of edfa] (sink) {Sink};

\draw[->] (source) -- (edfa);
\draw[->] (edfa) -- (sink);

\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}