Using macros for including tikz graphics

Question

I am not facing any problem, but I need the opinion of the community.

I am writing a thesis and have a lot of tikz figures in it. So what I do is pre-compile these tikz files to PDF and then include them in the thesis. This makes the re-compiling of the thesis faster as no longer I have to compile the tikz files again and again, when I do minor modification in the text.

I have written a macro to include graphics like this -

\newcommand\myIncludeGraphics[2]{
\ifdefined\embedTikzGraphics
    \scalebox{#1}{\input{#2.tikz}}
\else
    \includegraphics[scale=#1]{#2}
\fi
}

and I include the graphics like this -

\begin{figure}
    \myIncludeGraphics{0.9}{chapters/chap1/Figures/fig1}
\end{figure}

Here 0.9 specifies how much to scale the figure. However, sometimes I would like to place two figures side-by-side and then I need to manually calculate the scaling factor.

\subfloat[CAP1]{\label{fig:lab1a}{\resizebox{0.5\columnwidth}{!}{\includegraphics{chapters/chap1/Figures/fig1a}}}}
\subfloat[CAP2]{\label{fig:lab1b}{\resizebox{0.5\columnwidth}{!}{\includegraphics{chapters/chap1/Figures/fig1b}}}}

This will help me to fit the two figure exactly to column-width of the document. However, I lost the capability of embedded tikz files.

I want some suggestions if I can cover all three scenarios in one macro keeping the code clean. I should be able to use scaling factor or width=\columnwidth.

If this is not possible, it is fine. Please excuse, if I didn't define the problem correctly.

Thank You

UPDATE

Just to summarize what I am trying to achieve is the following.

• I should be able to use the tikz picture integrated in the main pdf or tikz picture which is compile separately and then included in pdf using includegraphics.
• When using includegraphics, I should be able to specify either width of the figure or scale factor of the figure.
• When using the tikz picture integrated in main pdf, I will not change the macro in my tex. For example the macro usage will look like myIncludeGraphics{scalefactor=0.9}{chapters/chap1/Figures/fig1} or myIncludeGraphics{figWidth=0.5\columnwidth}{chapters/chap1/Figures/fig1}. Depending on the first argument, the macro should use scalebox or resizebox. This is because scalebox does not understand 0.5\columnwidth and the other way round for the resizebox.

Answer 1

A possible solution to maintain the macro's interface clean is to use a key-val parameter using pgfkeys:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}


\newcommand\myIncludeGraphics[2][]{
\ifdefined\embedTikzGraphics
    \pgfkeys{
        my include/.cd,
        scale/.store in=\myScaleFactor,
        scale=1,
        width/.initial=0,
        % define here similarly the graphicx keys you want to support
        #1
    }
    \scalebox{\myScaleFactor}{\input{#2.tikz}}
\else
    \includegraphics[#1]{#2}
\fi
}

\begin{document}

\myIncludeGraphics{tikzdrawing}
\myIncludeGraphics[scale=0.1]{tikzdrawing}
\myIncludeGraphics[width=.5\columnwidth]{tikzdrawing}

\end{document}

Here you can pass to the macro any argument accepted by graphix but when \embedTikzGraphics is defined you will parse them with pgfkeys, extract the scale factor and use that directly.

Update: Another option is using adjustbox:

\usepackage{adjustbox}

\newcommand\myIncludeGraphics[2][]{
\ifdefined\embedTikzGraphics
    \begin{adjustbox}{#1}
        \input{#2.tikz}
    \end{adjustbox}
\else
    \includegraphics[#1]{#2}
\fi
}

Answer 2

As I already commented, scaling doesn't take in account the widths, sizes, etc. in the TikZ code. It just scales the result. With tikzscale you can scale only the coordinates, and have everything draw as it was intended in first place (that's the same that [scale = X] does inside the options of tikzpicture).

\documentclass{scrartcl}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{tikzscale}

\begin{filecontents}{fig.tikz}
    \begin{tikzpicture}[y=.1cm] %
        \draw[ultra thick] (0,0) circle (1);
        \draw[red] (0,0) node {$A$};
        \draw[color=blue] (0,0) rectangle (1,1);
    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{filecontents}


\begin{document}

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit,
sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris
nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in
reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla
pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in
culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
\begin{center}
    \resizebox{.5\textwidth}{!}{\input{fig.tikz}}%
    \includegraphics[width=.5\linewidth]{fig.tikz}
\end{center}
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit,
sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris
nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in
reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla
pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in
culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

\end{document}

gives you

where I clearly prefer the right one.

So the solution I propose is, use tikzscale with \includegraphics and only use width or height. Of course, one could add the scale option, but since the figure is already written on a file, it would be the same as the image on the left, which I think is not correct.