flow chartsnodestikz-pgf
I am doing an old-style flow chart with TiKz, and I am defining my nodes with the \tikzstyle command (example \tikzstyle{startstop} = [rectangle, rounded corners, minimum width=3cm, minimum height=1cm,text centered, draw=black] for the start and stop nodes), but I haven't been able to find or create this figure:
It is used to represent documents in flow charts.
You can use nodes with the fit library by adding coordinates to each of the fit lists that lie on the left and right borders of the bounding box, but at the same vertical position as the nodes you want to highlight. You can do this with the calc library and its syntax ($(A)!(C)!(B)$), which projects the point (C) on the line from (A) to (B).
In the example below, I've used a script that takes a node name as an argument and returns three coordinates: The node itself, and its projection on the left and right borders of the bounding box. In order to make the new boxes all the same width, the bounding box needs to be "frozen", so one box doesn't influence the size of the next. You can do this by issuing \path [use as bounding box] (current bounding box.north west) (current bounding box.south east) before the first background box, which stops the updating of the bounding box.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{backgrounds,fit,calc}
\begin{document}
\tikzset{
schritt/.style={
draw,
rounded corners,
fill=blue!20,
inner xsep=2em,
},
background/.style={
draw,
fill=yellow!30,
align=right
}
}
% Returns three nodes: The argument, and the projections of the argument on the left and right borders of the bounding box
\newcommand{\extendnode}[1]{
(#1)
($(current bounding box.north east)!(#1)!(current bounding box.south east)$)
($(current bounding box.north west)!(#1)!(current bounding box.south west)$)
}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\matrix (matrix) [row sep=0.5cm,column sep=0.5cm] {
\node (elicit) [schritt] {Wissenserhebung}; & \\
\node (interpret) [schritt] {Interpretation}; & \\
& \node (model) [schritt] {Modellierung}; \\
\node (representation) [schritt] {Repräsentation}; & \\
\node (integration) [schritt] {Integration}; & \\
\node (maintenance) [schritt] {Wartung}; & \\
};
\path[->]
(elicit) edge (interpret)
(interpret) edge node[right] {\hspace{.35cm}\tiny Modellbasierter Ansatz} (model)
(interpret) edge node[right] {\tiny Rapid Prototyping} (representation)
(model) edge (representation)
(representation) edge (integration)
(integration) edge (maintenance);
\begin{pgfonlayer}{background}
\path [use as bounding box] (current bounding box.north west) (current bounding box.south east); % Freeze current bounding box
\node [fit={\extendnode{elicit}}, background] {First};
\node [fit={\extendnode{interpret} (model)}, background] {Second};
\node [fit=\extendnode{representation}, background] {Third};
\node [fit=\extendnode{integration}, background] {Fourth};
\node [fit=\extendnode{maintenance}, background] {Fifth};
\end{pgfonlayer}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}
There's a good chance some more elegant solution will appear soon, but here goes:
By using the calc library you can add node halfway between sensors and resources, and position information with relation to this. I actually used the corners of these, resources.south west and sensors.north west, and put the new node midway between these.
One way is to use relative coordinates to first go a little right of processing, then up, left to planning. By using |-/-| you can access coordinates that lie on the intersection of the horizontal line from one node and vertical line from another. That way you can end the arrow directly above sensors.north east, for example.
I first add a new node, lowerright while drawing the line from resources to planning. (lowerright |- container.east) is the point that lies on the vertical line from lowerright and the horizontal line from container.east. Similar for (container.east -| resources.south east).
You can add a node above the top left corner of container.
Add inner sep=<dimension> to the container node, instead of defining width and height. This sets the distance from the contents of the node to the edge of the node.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{fit,arrows,calc,positioning}
\begin{document}
\tikzstyle{b} = [rectangle, draw, fill=blue!20, node distance=3cm, text width=6em, text centered, rounded corners, minimum height=4em, thick]
\tikzstyle{c} = [rectangle, draw, inner sep=0.5cm, dashed]
\tikzstyle{l} = [draw, -latex',thick]
\begin{tikzpicture}[auto]
\node [b] (planning) {Planning};
\node [b, below=of planning] (resources) {Resources};
\node [b, below=of resources] (sensors) {Sensors};
\coordinate (RSmid) at ($(resources.south west)!0.5!(sensors.north west)$);
\node [b, left=of RSmid, node distance=4cm] (information) {Information system};
\node [b, below=of sensors] (processing) {Processing};
\node [c,fit=(resources) (sensors)] (container) {};
\path [l] (planning) -- (resources);
\path [l] (resources) -- (sensors);
\path [l] (sensors) -- (processing);
\path [l] (information) |- (planning);
\path [l] (information) |- (processing);
\node at (container.north west) [above right] {Desc};
\draw [l] (processing.east) -- ++(2,0) node(lowerright){} |- (planning.east);
\draw [l] (lowerright |- container.east) -- (container.east -| resources.south east);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}
Best Answer
Welcome to TeX-SE! The good news is that this shape is already defined in the
shapes.symbolslibrary.