[Tex/LaTex] Scale TikZ nodes and shapes for a given canvas size

tikz-pgf

I have the following code to produce an hexagon coverage area:

\documentclass{standalone}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{shapes.geometric}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}
\usetikzlibrary{decorations.pathreplacing} % for expanding waves
\usetikzlibrary{decorations.markings}

\tikzset{%
    terminal/.style = {draw, shape = circle , thick, radius = 2cm},
    area/.style = {draw, shape = regular polygon, regular polygon sides = 6, thick, minimum width = 10cm},
    basestation/.style = {draw, shape = dart, shape border rotate = 90, thick, minimum width = 1cm, minimum height = 1cm},
    transmission/.style = {decorate, decoration = {expanding waves, angle = 7, segment length = 4}, thick},
    label/.style = {font=\footnotesize}
}

\usepackage{tikzscale}
\usepackage{adjustbox}

\usepackage{filecontents}
\usepackage{silence}
\WarningFilter{latex}{Overwriting file}
\WarningFilter{latex}{Tab has been converted to Blank Space}

\newcommand*{\FILE}{test}

\begin{filecontents*}{\FILE.tikz}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw [help lines, step = 0.5cm] (-5,-5) grid (5,5);
\node [area] at (0,0) {};
\node [basestation] (ENB) at (0,-0.5) {eNB}; % not exactly at center

\node [terminal] (UE2) at (-0.5,2) {UE};
\node [terminal] (UE3) at (2.5,-1) {UE};

\draw [blue, transmission] (ENB.north) -- (UE3) node [midway] (celllink1) {};
\draw [blue, transmission] (ENB.north) -- (UE2) node [midway] (celllink2) {};

\node [label] (celllinktext1) at (1, -1.5) {Cellular Link};
\node [label, align = center] (celllinktext2) at (-2, -1) {Cellular\\ Link};

\path [out = 90, in = 210] (celllinktext1) edge (celllink1);
\path [out = 90, in = 180] (celllinktext2) edge (celllink2);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{filecontents*}

\newlength\WFIG
\setlength{\WFIG}{252.0pt} % column width

\begin{document}
%\includegraphics[width=0.5\WFIG]{\FILE.tikz}
%\resizebox{0.5\WFIG}{!}{\input{\FILE.tikz}}
\begin{adjustbox}{width=0.5\WFIG}
    \input{\FILE.tikz}
\end{adjustbox}
\input{\FILE.tikz}
\end{document}

I have drawn that picture to a one-column document. Now I want to use that picture for a two-column document. Therefore I am trying to properly scale it. I have tried the \adjustbox, \scalebox, and tikzscale (this does not work for this case). There are some approaches explained in How to scale a tikzpicture to \textwidth and Scale TikZ figure to linewidth when relative positioning used and TikZ: Expand width of each picture to given size. However I am not sure what is the best approach, if there is a best approach.

I also would like for the font to remain as much as possible the same (a possible solution for this would be to draw all text in a foreground layer that is unscalable, but I don't know if it even possible).

enter image description here

Any thoughts on this?!

Best Answer

I am not certain if I've understood the question or not. Assuming that you plan to use this in a two column document, I've switched to article as suggested in comments. However, the code for the image is still taken from an external file. The scaling is determined by setting a PGF key to the required value. It is 1 by default. To change this use

\pgfkeyssetvalue{cacamailg/picture-scale}{<value>}

In the code below, I use 0.8 as an example but you can equally use, say, 2 or whatever.

To ensure that the node shapes are scaled, we set transform shape. To avoid the text being scaled, we override this in the style applied to the labelling nodes.

Note that I've renamed your styles since it is asking for trouble to use something like label which TikZ already uses for, well..., for labels.

In the following example, a full-width figure* is shown first with the default scale factor of 1. A scaled-down version is then used in a regular figure which appears within a column.

\documentclass[twocolumn]{article}
\usepackage{tikz,kantlipsum}
\usetikzlibrary{shapes.geometric,positioning,calc,decorations.pathreplacing,decorations.markings}

\tikzset{%
  my terminal/.style = {draw, shape = circle , thick, radius = 2cm},
  my area/.style = {draw, shape = regular polygon, regular polygon sides = 6, thick, minimum width = 10cm},
  basestation/.style = {draw, shape = dart, shape border rotate = 90, thick, minimum width = 1cm, minimum height = 1cm},
  transmission/.style = {decorate, decoration = {expanding waves, angle = 7, segment length = 4}, thick},
  my label/.style = {font=\footnotesize, transform shape=false},
}

\usepackage{filecontents}

\begin{filecontents*}{\jobname.tikz}
  \begin{tikzpicture}[scale=\pgfkeysvalueof{cacamailg/picture-scale}, transform shape]
    \draw [help lines, step = 0.5cm] (-5,-5) grid (5,5);
    \node [my area] at (0,0) {};
    \node [basestation] (ENB) at (0,-0.5) {eNB}; % not exactly at center

    \node [my terminal] (UE2) at (-0.5,2) {UE};
    \node [my terminal] (UE3) at (2.5,-1) {UE};

    \draw [blue, transmission] (ENB.north) -- (UE3) node [midway] (celllink1) {};
    \draw [blue, transmission] (ENB.north) -- (UE2) node [midway] (celllink2) {};

    \node [my label] (celllinktext1) at (1, -1.5) {Cellular Link};
    \node [my label, align = center] (celllinktext2) at (-2, -1) {Cellular\\ Link};

    \path [out = 90, in = 210] (celllinktext1) edge (celllink1);
    \path [out = 90, in = 180] (celllinktext2) edge (celllink2);
  \end{tikzpicture}
\end{filecontents*}

\pgfkeyssetvalue{cacamailg/picture-scale}{1}

\begin{document}
\begin{figure*}
  \centering
  \input{\jobname.tikz}
  \caption{Wide figure}
\end{figure*}

\kant[1-10]
\begin{figure}
  \centering
  \pgfkeyssetvalue{cacamailg/picture-scale}{.8}
  \input{\jobname.tikz}
  \caption{Narrow figure}
\end{figure}
\kant[11-20]
\end{document}

First version, scale=1:

full size

Second version, scale=.8 (80%):

80% scaling

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