[Tex/LaTex] Tikz box size adjustment

tikz-pgfwidth

I am facing a problem with the box size. Is there a possibility to shorten the Box called "shorter" such that it is 2/3 of the full size. Furthermore, the anchor point of the arrow should be in the middle. I hope you can understand the problem. Here is the toy example:

\documentclass[border=5mm]{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{arrows.meta,positioning}
\tikzset{
    box/.style={rectangle, text centered, minimum height=3em},
    narrowbox/.style={box,text width=4cm,draw,thick},
    line/.style={draw, thick, -Stealth}
}
\begin{document}
    \begin{tikzpicture}[auto]
        \node [box]                                     (inv)      {};
        \node [box, below=0.5cm of inv]                 (deter)    {};
        \coordinate [below=0.5cm of deter]              (vuoto1);
        \node [narrowbox, below=0.5cm of vuoto1]        (meth2)    {};
        \node [narrowbox, left=0.5cm of meth2]          (meth1)    {};
        \node [narrowbox, right=0.5cm of meth2]         (meth3)    {};
        \node [narrowbox, below=0.5cm of meth3]         (select1)  {};  
        \node [narrowbox, below=0.5cm of meth1]         (select)   {};
        \node [narrowbox, below=0.5cm of select]        (select2)  {}; 
        \node [box, below=4.5cm of meth2]               (decide)   {Shorter};
        \node [box, below=0.5cm of decide]              (inter)    {};

        \path [line] (inv)      --    (deter);
        \path [line] (deter)    --    (meth2);
        \path [line] (vuoto1)   -|    (meth1);
        \path [line] (vuoto1)   -|    (meth3);
        \path [line] (meth1)    --    (select);
        \path [line] (select)   --    (select2);
        \path [line] (select2)  --    (select.south |- decide.north);
        \path [line] (meth2)    --    (decide);
        \path [line] (meth3)    --    (select1);
        \path [line] (select1)  --    (meth3.south |- inter.north);
        \path [line] (decide)   --    (inter);

        % draw rectangles around top and bottom nodes
        \foreach \N in {inv,deter,decide,inter}
        \draw [thick] (\N.north -| meth1.west) rectangle (\N.south -| meth3.east);
    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

I tried to draw some lines in the following picture to make it easier to understand. The goal is to get the position of the red arrow and shorten the box width as the blue line.

Best Answer

It would be simpler to do this using one of the provided frameworks such as chains or even a tree. However, making minimal changes:

\documentclass[border=10pt,multi,tikz]{standalone}
\usetikzlibrary{arrows.meta,positioning}
\tikzset{
    box/.style={rectangle, text centered, minimum height=3em,text width=130mm,draw},
    narrowbox/.style={box,text width=4cm,draw,thick},
    line/.style={draw, thick, -Stealth}
}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[auto]
  \node [box]                                     (inv)      {i};
  \node [box, below=0.5cm of inv]                 (deter)    {d};
  \coordinate [below=0.5cm of deter]              (vuoto1);
  \node [narrowbox, below=0.5cm of vuoto1]        (meth2)    {m2};
  \node [narrowbox, anchor=west]          (meth1) at (meth2 -| deter.west)    {m1};
  \node [narrowbox, anchor=east]         (meth3) at (meth2 -| deter.east)    {m3};
  \node [narrowbox, below=0.5cm of meth3]         (select1)  {s1};
  \node [narrowbox, below=0.5cm of meth1]         (select)   {s};
  \node [narrowbox, below=0.5cm of select]        (select2)  {s2};
  \node [box, text width={(2/3)*130mm}, below=4.5cm of meth1.south west, anchor=north west]               (decide)   {Shorter};
  \node [box, below=0.5cm of decide.south west, anchor=north west]              (inter)    {it};

  \path [line] (inv)      --    (deter);
  \path [line] (deter)    --    (meth2);
  \path [line] (vuoto1)   -|    (meth1);
  \path [line] (vuoto1)   -|    (meth3);
  \path [line] (meth1)    --    (select);
  \path [line] (select)   --    (select2);
  \path [line] (select2)  --    (select.south |- decide.north);
  \path [line] (meth2)    --    (decide.north -| meth2);
  \path [line] (meth3)    --    (select1);
  \path [line] (select1)  --    (meth3.south |- inter.north);
  \path [line] (decide.south)   --    (inter.north -| decide.south);

\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to establish node-anchor-like points on a (tikz) rectangle path (is there a better method than the one described)

I think that the best way to establish node-like anchors is to use a node. I'm guessing that the annoyance of using an actual node to draw the rectangle is that specifying a node rectangle by its coordinates is a little more complicated than just saying (0,0) rectangle (3,2). So here's some code that puts an invisible (rectangular - but that's only because the default is a rectangle) node around the current path. If the path is more complicated then the node is guaranteed to contain the rectangular bounding box.

Here's the code:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{fit}
\makeatletter
\tikzset{
  fitting node/.style={
    inner sep=0pt,
    fill=none,
    draw=none,
    reset transform,
    fit={(\pgf@pathminx,\pgf@pathminy) (\pgf@pathmaxx,\pgf@pathmaxy)}
  },
  reset transform/.code={\pgftransformreset}
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[line width=.5cm]
\draw[thick,green] (-2,-2) -- (4,4);
\draw (0,0) rectangle (3,2) node[fitting node] (rect) {};
\draw[->,red] (5,5) -- (rect.north east);
\draw[->,red] (0,5) -- (rect.north);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

The green line is to show that the bounding box used is that of the path and not the current picture. The thick lines are to show that the node anchors are on the proper border of the path, not the "theoretical" path[1].

Here's the result:

path with anchors

[1]: With your method of specifying anchors via coordinates, the anchors would be on the "theoretical" path, namely the north west anchor would be at (3,2) not (3 + half line width, 2 + half line width). If you prefer this, it's easy to modify this method to do that.

Edit Now copes with scale=2 as Altermundus asked about. With more complicated transformations then it gets increasingly difficult to keep track since nodes work differently, and it is working on the actual bounding box rather than the path itself. So in those cases, caveat texer.

[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] How to establish node-anchor-like points on a (tikz) rectangle path (is there a better method than the one described)

[Tex/LaTex] How to define the default vertical distance between nodes

Related Question