[Tex/LaTex] Styling tikz-timing signal lines

tikz-pgftikz-stylestikz-timing

I'm using the tikz-timing package and would like to apply either snakes type of styling, or say the double for double lines to signal lines. Consider the example below:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{arrows,chains,matrix,positioning,scopes,snakes,decorations.markings}
\usepackage{tikz-timing}
\usetikztiminglibrary[rising arrows]{clockarrows} 
\usetikztiminglibrary{advnodes}

\usepackage[graphics,tightpage,active]{preview}
\PreviewEnvironment{tikzpicture}
\newlength{\imagewidth}
\newlength{\imagescale}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikztimingtable}[timing/nodes/advanced,]
  %
  % start timing diagram
  %
  \textcolor{green}{ClockA} & [green] H N(ca01) 
    C N(ca02) C N(ca03) C N(ca04) C N(ca05) C N(ca06) C N(ca07) C N(ca08) \\ %
  \textcolor{orange}{ClockB} & [orange,snake=zigzag,double] L N(cb01) 
    C N(cb02) C N(cb03) C N(cb04) C N(cb05) C N(cb06) C N(cb07) C N(cb08)  \\ %
  %
  % end timing diagram
  %
  % there must NOT be an uncommented line before \extracode!
  %
\extracode
  \tablerules
  %\tablegrid
  \begin{background}[line width=0.35pt]
    \draw[snake=zigzag,double] (ca01) -- (cb01) ; 
  \end{background}
\end{tikztimingtable}

\end{document}

which results in the following timing diagram:

Sample image

Obviously, the snakes and double work for normal lines, but not for signals.

Is there a possibility to also 'style' the signal diagram lines in this way?

Best Answer

The support for the line decorations is very limited in tikz-timing. The reason is that the timing symbols are not drawn as one drawing path but using multiple ones. Therefore the previous style settings are getting lost most of the time a new timing character is used. The L and H characters are different here and are actually drawn in one path.

The first style options at the very beginning are global for the whole line, but unfortunately TikZ seems to require to put many of the decoration styles as local option to the actual \draw command. Therefore your code doesn't work as expected. A few styles, like the line width is explicitly copied from one drawing path to the next by tikz-timing but this doesn't help you with decorations.

You can however add certain styles to the style definitions of the timing characters. These are called /tikz/timing/<char> and can be modified like shown below. Note that there is not styles for H and L characters at the moment. I might change this in the future and maybe also add one style which is used by every character. This should simply things like that.

\documentclass{standalone}
\renewcommand{\PreviewBorder}{2mm}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{snakes}
\usepackage{tikz-timing}
\tikzset{timing/c/.append style={snake=zigzag}}
\tikzset{timing/t/.append style={double}}
\tikzset{timing/d/.append style={snake=zigzag}}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikztimingtable}
    A &  5{hl} 5{C} 2D{A} \\
    B &  5{hl} 5{T} 2D{B} \\
\end{tikztimingtable}
\end{document}

Result

I now made some minor changes to tikz-timing to provide a timing/every char style which is used for every timing character. A second one timing/every bg is used for every background (like for U). The H and L character now also have an own style. However they do not start a new drawing path so HL combinations will be drawn with the last used style.

I have to test this further before I can publish it on CTAN. Feel free to download it from the SVN repository. Simply download the DTX and INS file and then run the INS file through latex in order to extract the package files. Do not hesitate to contact me by PM if you find any issue with this version.

The new styles can be used like that and should work with decorations:

\documentclass{standalone}
\renewcommand{\PreviewBorder}{2mm}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{snakes}
\usepackage{tikz-timing}
\tikzset{timing/every char/.append style={double}}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikztimingtable}
    A &  5{hl} 5{C} 2D{A} Z \\
    B &[timing/every char/.style={snake=zigzag}]  5{hl} 5{T} 2D{B} Z \\
\end{tikztimingtable}
\end{document}

New Result

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] tikz-timing: text labels in symbols other than D, and time axis discontinuities

You can use stacked material inside D by simply using \shortstack{$\mathbf0$\\a1}. There is no need to use TeX lower-level primitives for that.

Also the node character N also takes a content if used with { } and also options using [ ], i.e. N[<options>]{<content>}, so you can place text into the timing diagram directly, without extracode. By default nodes are set using the coordinate shape, you need to use the rectangle option to allow for a visible content.

I personally use dotted or dashed lines (something like ;[dashed] <chars>;) to draw discontinuities.

BTW, allowing text content for other characters as well is on my long-term TODO list.

Here a way you can implement such a diagram using dotted lines and direct node content. I'm moving the node position manually to get the correct vertical position.

\documentclass[convert=png]{standalone}

\usepackage{tikz-timing}
\usetikztiminglibrary{nicetabs} % a bit strange with \Huge; use belowrulesep to adjust

\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{type1cm} % to avoid "LaTeX Font Warning: Font shape `OML/cmm/m/it' in size <2> not available"; tlmgr install type1cm
\usepackage{helvet}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikztimingtable}[%
    timing/dslope=0.1,
    timing/name/.style={font=\sffamily\scriptsize},
    timing/d/text/.style={font=\sffamily\tiny},
    grayz/.style={timing/z/.append style={gray}},
    timing/n/.style={rectangle},
    timing/metachar={{K}[2]{#1l !{++(0,+.5\yunit)} N[rectangle,scale=.3]{\shortstack{$\mathbf 0$\\(#2)}} !{++(0,-.5\yunit)} #1l}},
    timing/metachar={{J}[2]{#1h !{++(0,-.5\yunit)} N[rectangle,scale=.3]{\shortstack{$\mathbf 1$\\(#2)}} !{++(0,+.5\yunit)} #1h}},
  ]
  Sig1 & Z H K{a1} K{2} J{3} ;[gray] D;[dotted,gray] D;[gray] D; J{$N_a$} Z \\
  Sig2 & Z H J{1} J{1} K{3} ;[grayz] Z;[dotted,grayz] Z;[grayz] Z; K{$N_b$} Z \\
\extracode
  % foreground:
  \tablerules
  \tablegrid[black!25]
\end{tikztimingtable}
\end{document}

Result

[Tex/LaTex] Vertically center tikz-timing label of custom size

As you only want to change the label of one row I added a timing/name <row>/.try style to the timing/name style. The .try handler makes it possible to not having to define a timing/name <row> style for every possible <row>.

I have used these name <row> styles twice:

The timing/name 1 style sets up the label node so that the baseline is on the same height as the middle of the distance of a D slope.

The .6pt has been found empirical and covers the additional height introduced by the actual D lines.

The timing/name 2 style makes use of the append after command key to actually draw that arrow with TikZ.

Code

\documentclass[border=4pt,convert={true,density=600}]{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz-timing}
\usetikzlibrary{arrows}
\newcommand{\arr}[1]{#1 $\Longrightarrow$}
\makeatletter
\tikzset{timing/name/.append style={timing/name \the\c@tikztiming@nrows/.try}}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
    \begin{tikztimingtable}[
        timing/name 1/.append style={
            anchor=east,
            yshift=\timingdslope cm/2+.6pt,
            minimum height=\timingdslope cm,
        },
        timing/name 2/.append style={
            anchor=east,
            yshift=\timingdslope cm/2+.6pt,
            minimum height=\timingdslope cm,
            font=\tiny,
            append after command={
                \pgfextra
                \pgfsetinnerlinewidth{.7pt}
                \pgfsetbuttcap
                \draw [line width=1.3pt,implies-] (\tikzlastnode.east) -- ++(-.25cm,0);
                \endpgfextra
            }
        }
        ]
        \arr                              & 4D{normal} \\
        critical\_point\hspace{.3cm}       & 4D{normal} \\
        \extracode
        \tablegrid
    \end{tikztimingtable}
\end{document}

Output

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