tikzpicture vertical line from one node to the other

Question

Assume there are two nodes A and B, with B below A. These nodes are of different width. Connecting A.south to B.north results in a slanted line. I wonder how I can connect A.south to B with the connection being vertical. I do not want to use A.south to, say, B.8 which results in a straight line however when the width of B changes the connection will not be straight anymore.

A MWE is as follows:

\documentclass[10pt]{article}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning}

\begin{document}

\tikzset{font=\Large,
every node/.style=
    {minimum height=8mm,
    draw=blue,
    very thick,
    },
data/.style = {draw, node distance=3cm}
    }

The line from A to B is vertical in the following example.


\begin{tikzpicture}
\node (a) {A};
\node[below right=of a] (c) {C};
\node[left=of c] (B) {BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB};
\draw[->][very thick](a.south) -- (B.8);
\end{tikzpicture}

\medskip 

The line from A to B is not vertical in the following example.

\medskip

\begin{tikzpicture}
\node (a) {A};
\node[below right=of a] (c) {C};
\node[left=of c] (B) {BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB};
\draw[->][very thick](a.south) -- (B.8);
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

Please add a minimal working example (MWE) that illustrates your problem. It will be much easier for us to reproduce your situation and find out what the issue is when we see compilable code, starting with \documentclass{...} and ending with \end{document}. — jub0bs, Apr 29 '13 at 14:37
Still, it's good to add a MWE for future visitors to this page. — jub0bs, Apr 29 '13 at 17:23
@Jubobs I have edited the original posting to include a MWE. — Reza, Apr 29 '13 at 18:01

score 16 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 29 '13 at 14:43

You can use the perpendicular coordinate system; for example

\draw (A.south) -- (A.south|-B.north);

will draw a line from A.south to the point that has the same x-coordinate as A.south and the same y-coordinate as B.north. A little example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}
\node[draw] at (0,0) (A) {short text};
\node[draw] at (0.2,-2) (B) {Some longer text};
\draw[green] (A.south) -- (B.north);
\draw[red] (A.south) -- (A.south|-B.north);
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

enter image description here

tikzpicture vertical line from one node to the other

1 Answers1