previewtikz-pgf
This minimal example produces an error (undefined control sequences):
% !TEX TS-program = pdflatexmk
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{preview}
\begin{document}
Hello.
\end{document}
Once the tikz package is removed, it compiles fine. Removing either usepackage commands allows the program to compile. Moreover, including both, but adding the [active] option to preview allows the script to compile.
I've pasted the log file here.
You can avoid the issue by selecting the page size to be equal to the picture size. Therefore you don't need preview and it works fine with XeLaTeX. For this you need to save the picture in a box register. Because geometry only allows to select the page size in the preamble you need to move the picture there, which is OK as long it inside a savebox (like inside a lrbox environment).
I'm planning to build a feature like this into standalone as an alternative to preview.
\documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{geometry}
%\usepackage[active,tightpage]{preview}
%\usepackage[pdftex,active,tightpage]{preview}
%\PreviewEnvironment[]{tikzpicture}
\pagestyle{empty}
\normalfont% required to select normal font already in the preamble
\begin{lrbox}{0}%
\begin{tikzpicture}[line width=1ex]
\draw (0,0) -- (3,1);
\filldraw [fill=red,draw opacity=0.5] (1,0) rectangle (2,1);
\end{tikzpicture}%
\end{lrbox}
\geometry{paperwidth=\wd0,paperheight=\ht0,margin=0cm}
\parindent=0pt
\begin{document}
\usebox{0}%
\end{document}
(The outer dark frame is the background of the PDF viewer)
The upcoming version 1.0 of standalone includes code similar to this and avoids the need of preview. It should work fine for XeLaTeX.
I am definitely unfamiliar with both beamer and tikz (do not quite get what the \only are supposed to do) but perhaps this could go in the direction you want:
\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{chains}
\newcounter{count}
% helper macro:
\long\def\GobToSemiColon #1;{}
\newcommand\myPicture{
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{scope}[start chain = going below]
\ifnum\value{count}<1 \expandafter\GobToSemiColon\fi
\ifnum\value{count}>3 \expandafter\GobToSemiColon\fi
\node[draw, rectangle, on chain] {display only when counter is between
1 and 3};
\ifnum\value{count}>-1 \expandafter\GobToSemiColon\fi
\node[draw, rectangle, on chain] {display only when counter is
negative};
\ifnum\value{count}<100 \expandafter\GobToSemiColon\fi
\ifnum\value{count}>200 \expandafter\GobToSemiColon\fi
\node[draw, rectangle, on chain] {display only if counter is between
100 and 200};
\ifnum\value{count}<3 \expandafter\GobToSemiColon\fi
\ifnum\value{count}>20 \expandafter\GobToSemiColon\fi
\node[draw, circle, on chain] {only when counter is in the range 3 to 20};
\end{scope}
\end{tikzpicture}
}
\begin{document}
\begin{frame}
\only{\setcounter{count}{-3}\myPicture}
\only{\setcounter{count}{105}\myPicture}
\only{\setcounter{count}{39}\myPicture}
\only{\setcounter{count}{2}\myPicture}
\only{\setcounter{count}{5}\myPicture}
\end{frame}
\end{document}
Best Answer
Ulrike Fischer has noted that this is a current bug report listed here and here. I include a short guide so as to preserve the suggested solution.
Run
kpsewhich pgfutil-latex.defon the command line to detect the location of the def file. Search for an \AtBeginDocument command that addresses the preview package. Change the previous codeblock to the following: