[Tex/LaTex] how to draw two boxes side by side in tikz

tikz-nodetikz-pgf

I want to draw two boxes with text inside, side by side in one "tikzpicture", since I'm a newbie in tikz, I managed to do this(MWE), could you please help me to achieve it, I would be grateful.

Here is MWE:

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
    \node (example-align) [draw,very thick, align=left,text width=7.5em]{Machine \\ \hspace{0.4cm} variables \\\hspace{0.4cm} invariants \\\hspace{0.4cm} theorems \\\hspace{0.4cm} variant \\\hspace{0.4cm} events}; &
    \end{tikzpicture}
    \hspace{1.4cm}
        \begin{tikzpicture}
    \node (example-align) [draw,very thick, align=left,text width=7.5em] {Context \\ \hspace{0.4cm} carrier sets  \\\hspace{0.4cm} constants \\\hspace{0.4cm} axioms \\ \hspace{0.4cm} theorems};
    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Best Answer

one possibility as one tikzpicture which contain two boxes:

\documentclass[tikz, margin=3mm]{standalone}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning}% for positioning of nodes

\begin{document}
    \begin{tikzpicture}[
node distance = 0mm and 12mm,% for distance between nodes
   box/.style = {draw, very thick, minimum width=5em}% nodes style
                        ]
\node (n1) [box] {\begin{tabular}{ll}% text in nodes write as table
                  \multicolumn{2}{l}{Machine}   \\
                  & variables                   \\
                  & invariants                  \\
                  & theorems                    \\
                  & variant                     \\
                  & events
                 \end{tabular}};
\node (n2) [box, below right=of n1.north east]
                {\begin{tabular}{ll}
                  \multicolumn{2}{l}{Context}   \\
                  & carrier sets                \\
                  & constants                   \\
                  & axioms                      \\
                  & theorems
                 \end{tabular}};
    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Shrinking text to the width of a node within a tikzpicture

The east and west anchors include the inner margin between the text and the frame (inner sep). So you set your text as wide as the frame of the other node, not its text. Then the new node adds its own inner margin which makes it wider. I would use the text and center anchors instead (see pgfmanual page 420). They give you half the text width, so this must only be doubled.

There is also no need to use calc with tikz. It comes with its own math engine pgfmath which is more powerful. Also note that \pgfpointanchor (and all other \pgfpoint... macros) already stores the x-value into \pgf@x. The \pgfextractx just calls \pgf@process (which executes the \pgfpoint... macro locally and only makes the result global available) and set #1=\pgf@x.

In your case it's better to work with \pgf@x directly, just keep in mind that it will be overwritten by the next \pgfpoint... macro. Also there is no need to calculate the scale factor by yourself. Use \resizebox{<width>}{<height>}{<content>} from the graphics package (already loaded by pgf or tikz). Use a ! for the height here so that it scales accordantly to the width.

Now there seems to be an unwanted space inside either \pgfpointanchor or the anchor code itself which causes the extra white space before your AAAAAAAs. Adding \unskip after them fixes this. But this is worth investigating and to report it to the developers.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}

\makeatletter
\newcommand{\settowidthofnode}[2]{%
  \pgfpointanchor{#2}{center}%
  \unskip
  \setlength{#1}{\pgf@x}%
  \pgfpointanchor{#2}{text}
  \unskip
  \addtolength{#1}{-\pgf@x}%
  \addtolength{#1}{#1}%
}%
\newcommand{\shrinktowidthofnode}[2]{%
  \begingroup
  \settowidthofnode{\pgf@xb}{#2}%
  \resizebox{\pgf@xb}{!}{#1}%
  \endgroup
}%
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}[every node/.style={draw,rectangle}]
  \draw[step=0.5cm,gray,very thin] (-3,-3) grid (3,3);
  \node (n) {blah};
  \node (m) [below of=n] {\shrinktowidthofnode{AAAAAAAA}{n}};
  \node (o) [below of=m] {\scalebox{0.43259}{AAAAAAAA}};
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

Result:

Result

[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)

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Shrinking text to the width of a node within a tikzpicture

Result:

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

Related Question