[Tex/LaTex] how to make a cog/gear in LaTeX

fncychapgraphicstikz-pgf

I was wondering what would be a good way to make this in LaTeX. Basically, what I want to do with this is use it as a chapter heading. So basically it will be something like this:

cog chapter # Chapter name

What would be the best way to achieve this? Am I better off using the image or making it myself?

Thanks a lot for you time!

EDIT: I have done what the comments have recommended but I am having difficult implementing the gear into the chapter heading using titlesec. Here is the MWE:

\documentclass[12pt]{memoir}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{titlesec}


% #1 number of teeths
% #2 radius intern
% #3 radius extern
% #4 angle from start to end of the first arc
% #5 angle to decale the second arc from the first 

\newcommand{\gear}[5]{%
\foreach \i in {1,...,#1} {%
  [rotate=(\i-1)*360/#1]  (0:#2)  arc (0:#4:#2) {[rounded corners=1.5pt]
             -- (#4+#5:#3)  arc (#4+#5:360/#1-#5:#3)} --  (360/#1:#2)
}}  

\titleformat{\chapter}{\Huge\bfseries}{\usebox{\gear{18}{0.5}{0.4}{10}{2}}\thechapter}{20pt}{\Huge\b‌fseries}

\begin{document}
 \begin{tikzpicture}
   \draw[thick] \gear{18}{0.5}{0.4}{10}{2};
 \end{tikzpicture} 

\chapter{Whatever} 

\end{document}

EDIT 2: With the help of @Qrrbrbirlbel and @StefanKottwitz I have gotten the following:

\documentclass[12pt]{memoir}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{titlesec}

\newsavebox\gearbox
\newcommand{\gear}[5]{%
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw[ultra thick]
\foreach \i in {1,...,#1} {%
  [rotate=(\i-1)*360/#1]  (0:#2)  arc (0:#4:#2) {[rounded corners=1.5pt]
             -- (#4+#5:#3)  arc (#4+#5:360/#1-#5:#3)} --  (360/#1:#2)
};\end{tikzpicture}}
\sbox\gearbox{\resizebox{!}{2em}{\gear{18}{2}{1.6}{10}{2}}}
\titleformat{\chapter}{\Huge\bfseries}{\usebox{\gearbox}\thechapter}{20pt}{\Huge\bfseries}

\begin{document} 

\chapter{Whatever} 

\end{document}

But I would like to have the gear look more like this and have the gear behind the chapter number. How can this be done?

Best Answer

Before you can use the box, you need to store your gears within, such as

\newsavebox{\chaptergear}
\savebox{\chaptergear}{%
  \begin{tikzpicture}
    \draw[thick] \gear{18}{0.5}{0.4}{10}{2};
  \end{tikzpicture}}
\titleformat{\chapter}{\Huge\bfseries}{\usebox{\chaptergear}%
  \thechapter}{20pt}{\Huge\bfseries}

chapter heading

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[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] TikZ/ERD: node (=Entity) label on the inside

I guess this is one way of doing it:

\documentclass[tikz,border=5]{standalone}

\usetikzlibrary{matrix}
\begin{document}
\tikzset{
    entity/.code={
        \tikzset{
            rounded corners,             
            name=#1,
            inner sep=2pt,
            every entity/.try,
        }%
        \def\entityname{#1}%
    },
    entity anchor/.style={matrix anchor=#1},
    every entity/.style={
            draw,
    },
    every property/.style={
        inner xsep=0.20cm, inner ysep=0.075cm, anchor=west, text width=1.75in
    }
}
\def\property#1{\node[name=\entityname-#1, every property/.try]{\propertysplit#1;};}
\def\properties{\begingroup\catcode`\_=11\relax\processproperties}
\def\processproperties#1{\endgroup%
    \gdef\propertycode{}%
    \foreach \p in {#1}{%
        \expandafter\expandafter\expandafter\gdef\expandafter\expandafter\expandafter\propertycode%
            \expandafter\expandafter\expandafter{\expandafter\propertycode\expandafter\property\expandafter{\p}\\}%
    }%
    \propertycode%
}
\def\propertysplit#1:#2;{#1:\hfill#2}

\def\entitynamenode{%
\node[every entity name/.try] (\entityname-name) {\entityname};
\draw (\entityname-name.south west) -- (\entityname-name.south east);
\\[1ex]
}
\tikzset{
  every entity name/.style={every property/.try, align=center}
}

\begin{tikzpicture}[every node/.style={font=\ttfamily}, node distance=0.5in]
\matrix [entity=Employee] {
    \entitynamenode
    \properties{
        Username :  varchar(255),
        Password :  varchar(255),        
        Name :  varchar(255),
        LastName :  varchar(255)
    }
};
\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] TikZ/ERD: node (=Entity) label on the inside

Related Question