[Tex/LaTex] tikzpicture alignment and centering

horizontal alignmenttikz-pgfvertical alignment

I have several very similar images except some have some extra graphics that enlarge them slightly. This causes some pictures to be offset and not aligned visually when it's clear they should be.

How can I align several tikzpictures along the the same origin they were created and center vertically and horizontally properly?

First, I want to align the 3 large boxes regardless of the what the small boxes are doing
Second, I want to be able to center them all without adding additional spaces the \begin{center} seems to do
Third, I want to be able to reproduce the exact same results but everything in landscape mode without using the landscape package if possible. (as you can see, the problem is that TeX is putting one rectangle at a time which is not what I want)
The methods should be easy and quick. I have many rectangles stacked and some need to be grouped arbitrarily. What these means is I want the methods to sort of be "smart" in that they can figure out themselves so I don't have to go change a lot of stuff each time I have to change the grouping. Basically I would like the first rectangle on the page to define the alignment location and the others on the same page to use it unless I tell them not to.

I've tried creating a custom bounding box as shown in How does TiKZ calculate positioning of picture on page? but it didn't do anything unless I make it too large which then causes other problems. (I can end up doing the alignment but it seems more complex than necessary)

\documentclass[10pt]{book}
\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
    \draw[line width=30pt] (0,0) -- (7,0);
\end{tikzpicture}

\begin{tikzpicture}
    \draw[line width=30pt] (0,0) -- (7,0);
    \draw[line width=20pt] (-0.4, 0) -- (-0.1, 0);
\end{tikzpicture}

\begin{tikzpicture}
    \draw[line width=30pt] (0,0) -- (7,0);
    \draw[line width=20pt] (-0.4, 0) -- (-0.1, 0);
    \draw[line width=20pt] (-0.8, 0) -- (-0.5, 0);
\end{tikzpicture}



\begin{center}%
\begin{tikzpicture}%
    \draw[line width=30pt] (0,0) -- (7,0);
\end{tikzpicture}%
\end{center}%

\begin{center}%
\begin{tikzpicture}%
    \draw[line width=30pt] (0,0) -- (7,0);
    \draw[line width=20pt] (-0.4, 0) -- (-0.1, 0);
\end{tikzpicture}%
\end{center}%

\begin{center}%
\begin{tikzpicture}%
    \draw[line width=30pt] (0,0) -- (7,0);
    \draw[line width=20pt] (-0.4, 0) -- (-0.1, 0);
    \draw[line width=20pt] (-0.8, 0) -- (-0.5, 0);
\end{tikzpicture}%
\end{center}%




\begin{tikzpicture}%
    \draw[line width=30pt] (0,0) -- (0,7);
\end{tikzpicture}%


\begin{tikzpicture}%
    \draw[line width=30pt] (0,0) -- (0,7);
    \draw[line width=20pt] (0,-0.4) -- (0,-0.1);
\end{tikzpicture}%

\begin{tikzpicture}%
    \draw[line width=30pt] (0,0) -- (0,7);
    \draw[line width=20pt] (0,-0.4) -- (0,-0.1);
    \draw[line width=20pt] (0,-0.8) -- (0,-0.5);
\end{tikzpicture}%



\begin{center}%
\begin{tikzpicture}%
    \draw[line width=30pt] (0,0) -- (0,7);
\end{tikzpicture}%
\end{center}


\begin{center}%
\begin{tikzpicture}%
    \draw[line width=30pt] (0,0) -- (0,7);
    \draw[line width=20pt] (0,-0.4) -- (0,-0.1);
\end{tikzpicture}%
\end{center}%


\begin{center}%
\begin{tikzpicture}%
    \draw[line width=30pt] (0,0) -- (0,7);
    \draw[line width=20pt] (0,-0.4) -- (0,-0.1);
    \draw[line width=20pt] (0,-0.8) -- (0,-0.5);
\end{tikzpicture}%
\end{center}%


\end{document}

Best Answer

For getting the horizontal alignment right, you could supply the trim left option to the tikzpictures, which sets the bounding box so it starts at x=0. There's no option like that for the vertical alignment, however, so in that case you'll have to make sure the bounding boxes between the pictures match by setting them manually using \pgfresetboundingbox and then issuing a \path command that has the right dimensions.

You can automate this by defining a style like

master/.style={
    execute at end picture={
        \coordinate (lower right) at (current bounding box.south east);
        \coordinate (upper left) at (current bounding box.north west);
    }
}

which you supply to the first picture of a group to save the necessary bounding box information, and

slave/.style={
    execute at end picture={
        \pgfresetboundingbox
        \path (upper left) rectangle (lower right);
    }
}

which you supply to the other pictures in the group to set their bounding box to be equal to that of the first picture.

You have to be a bit careful with manually adjusted bounding boxes, as the pictures could protrude into the page margins or into the surrounding text.

\documentclass[10pt]{book}
\usepackage{tikz}

\tikzset{
    master/.style={
        execute at end picture={
            \coordinate (lower right) at (current bounding box.south east);
            \coordinate (upper left) at (current bounding box.north west);
        }
    },
    slave/.style={
        execute at end picture={
            \pgfresetboundingbox
            \path (upper left) rectangle (lower right);
        }
    }
}


\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[master]
    \draw[line width=30pt] (0,0) -- (7,0);
\end{tikzpicture}

\begin{tikzpicture}[slave]
    \draw[line width=30pt] (0,0) -- (7,0);
    \draw[line width=20pt] (-0.4, 0) -- (-0.1, 0);
\end{tikzpicture}

\begin{tikzpicture}[slave]
    \draw[line width=30pt] (0,0) -- (7,0);
    \draw[line width=20pt] (-0.4, 0) -- (-0.1, 0);
    \draw[line width=20pt] (-0.8, 0) -- (-0.5, 0);
\end{tikzpicture}



\begin{center}%
\begin{tikzpicture}[master]%
    \draw[line width=30pt] (0,0) -- (7,0);
\end{tikzpicture}%
\end{center}%

\begin{center}%
\begin{tikzpicture}[slave]%
    \draw[line width=30pt] (0,0) -- (7,0);
    \draw[line width=20pt] (-0.4, 0) -- (-0.1, 0);
\end{tikzpicture}%
\end{center}%

\begin{center}%
\begin{tikzpicture}[slave]%
    \draw[line width=30pt] (0,0) -- (7,0);
    \draw[line width=20pt] (-0.4, 0) -- (-0.1, 0);
    \draw[line width=20pt] (-0.8, 0) -- (-0.5, 0);
\end{tikzpicture}%
\end{center}%




\begin{tikzpicture}[master]%
    \draw[line width=30pt] (0,0) -- (0,7);

\end{tikzpicture}%
\hspace{1em}
\begin{tikzpicture}[slave]%
    \draw[line width=30pt] (0,0) -- (0,7);
    \draw[line width=20pt] (0,-0.4) -- (0,-0.1);
\end{tikzpicture}%
\hspace{1em}
\begin{tikzpicture}[slave]%
    \draw[line width=30pt] (0,0) -- (0,7);
    \draw[line width=20pt] (0,-0.4) -- (0,-0.1);
    \draw[line width=20pt] (0,-0.8) -- (0,-0.5);

\end{tikzpicture}%



\begin{center}%
\begin{tikzpicture}[master]%
    \draw[line width=30pt] (0,0) -- (0,7);
\end{tikzpicture}%
\hspace{1em}
\begin{tikzpicture}[slave]%
    \draw[line width=30pt] (0,0) -- (0,7);
    \draw[line width=20pt] (0,-0.4) -- (0,-0.1);
\end{tikzpicture}%
\hspace{1em}
\begin{tikzpicture}[slave]%
    \draw[line width=30pt] (0,0) -- (0,7);
    \draw[line width=20pt] (0,-0.4) -- (0,-0.1);
    \draw[line width=20pt] (0,-0.8) -- (0,-0.5);
\end{tikzpicture}%
\end{center}%


\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] TikZ copy command

Other than using the \foreach command or defining a new command, you may repeat pictures by at least two other ways. (solution to the grid problem is found at the end of my answer)

1- (not tikz specific) : use the \newsavebox, \savebox and \usebox commands. The advantage of savebox is that the picture is not redrawn everytime it is called. For example:

\documentclass{minimal}

\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}

\newsavebox{\test}
\savebox{\test}{\tikz \draw[red] (0,0) circle (1cm);}

\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw (0,0) node {\usebox{\test}};
\draw (7,0) node {\usebox{\test}};
\end{tikzpicture}


\end{document}

2- (tikz specific) Use the object-oriented capabilities of tikz and pgf. The details are found in the tikz manual. For example, the code found on page 554 of the manual:

\documentclass{minimal}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usepgfmodule{oo}

\begin{document}

\pgfooclass{stamp}{ % This is the class stamp
    \method stamp() { % The constructor 
    }
    \method apply(#1,#2) { % Causes the stamp to be shown at coordinate (#1,#2)
        %Draw the stamp:
        \node [rotate=20] at (#1,#2) {Passed};
    }
}
\pgfoonew \mystamp=new stamp()
\begin{tikzpicture}
        \mystamp.apply(1,2)
        \mystamp.apply(3,4)
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

About the grid problem. I don't have a good explanation about why the problem is occurring other than the shift in coordinates isn't being treated by tikz the way you expect them to (not much of an explanation I admit). A good way to solve the problem is to use the scope environment, and shift the whole environment, as described by the following code (I somewhat simplified your loop to make the scope environment stand out):

\begin{tikzpicture}[scale=1,thick]
  \foreach \xoffset in {0,5.2}
  {
    \begin{scope}[shift={(\xoffset,0)}]
        \draw[xstep=1,ystep=1] (0,0) grid (5,5);
    \end{scope}
  }
\end{tikzpicture}

The scope environment acts as box that may be moved around (shifted or rotated) as a whole. If you are familiar with pstricks, it is similar to the \rput command.

[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] TikZ copy command

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

Related Question