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I want to include some drawings with Erlenmeyer flask, Bunsen burner and so on in LaTeX.

I browsed the http://texample.net gallery. I found some examples for chemical structures, molecules and so. But I did not find any example for lab equipment.

  • Does TikZ provide a library that helps to construct this?
  • Are there any other TikZ sites where I can find examples?
  • Does anybody had a similar task and found a solution to share?

I am not fixed on TikZ. Are there other means to make this drawings?

I looked at pst-labo. How difficult would it be to extend the options it provides?

Any suggestions are welcome.

harper
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    What do you mean by "support"? Do you mean, "Is there a tikz library for this?", do you mean "Are there some examples I can cut-and-paste?", or what? Have you looked at texample.net, are there any examples there? – Andrew Stacey Oct 07 '10 at 17:40
  • you do not like pstricks? – pluton Oct 08 '10 at 00:53
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    I guess the OP would like a pre-built library where he can simply choose particular bits of kit. – Joseph Wright Oct 08 '10 at 07:03
  • Indeed, I can use TikZ as I would do with pencil and circle. But I don't want to use each line individually but use a template that leads my pencil. So, yes a TikZ-library would be very interesting. Examples of lab things are also great. – harper Oct 11 '10 at 12:20
  • What's wrong with pst-labo? You're saying you're not fixed on TikZ... – cgnieder Mar 20 '12 at 13:34
  • But can you use pst-labo in pdflatex? – Leeser Jan 10 '14 at 15:38
  • This is almost a duplicate with some very good answers. http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/55943/a-way-to-draw-a-lab-apparatus/55944#55944 – R. Schumacher Jul 17 '15 at 18:40

2 Answers2

4

Run it with xelatex or with package auto-pst-pdf also with pdflatex --shell-escape:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pst-labo}
\begin{document}

\psset{unit=0.5cm}
\pstDistillation

\end{document}

enter image description here

2

This may not be exactly for what you're looking, but it sounds like there are no pre-built packages that do exactly what you need. My suggestion would be to find some high quality vector images for the lab equipment (openclipart.org has some excellent examples) and then use that as clip art inside a TikZ picture, which you could also integrate into the aforementioned TikZ examples. One approach to do that is to convert the SVG images from openclipart.org directly into TikZ code. The easiest way to do this of which I know is to load the images into Inkscape and then use this patch. An alternative approach is to convert the SVG images to PDFs (which can also be done in Inkscape) and then inserting them into your TikZ picture as nodes. For example:

\node (flask) at (0,0) {\includegraphics[width=1cm]{flask.pdf}};
ESultanik
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