Is there a way to plot tikz things easier?

Question

It may look too broad, but each time I want to draw something using tikz, it turns just into the hell, cause I always have to keep in mind all the coordinates I want. Well, for the square like this

\draw (0,0) -- (4,0) -- (4,4) -- (0,4) -- (0,0);

Thats not a problem, but for complicated things it is really difficult. Is not there a way to easier the work?

You can give the coordinates names and refer to the names instead of the numerical vector. — Johannes_B, Jun 11 '17 at 07:11
If you show an example someone may find some hacks to improve the code clarity. — hzhr, Jun 11 '17 at 07:40
Do you know the positioning library? See https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/69439 for example. There you can use \node[above right] (AnotherNode) {Text}; — Dr. Manuel Kuehner, Jun 11 '17 at 11:01
BTW, you should use cycle instead of repeating the last point, although the reason shows up better with acute triangles. — John Kormylo, Jun 11 '17 at 15:36

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 11 '17 at 07:24

1

only two coordinates...

\draw (1,1) rectangle (3,4);

edited Jun 11 '17 at 07:24

Henri Menke

109,596

answered Jun 11 '17 at 07:03

Arne Timperman

4,633

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 11 '17 at 06:59

There are (selection):

macro definitions
lengths, counters,
named coordinates,
pics,
...

For example:

\newcommand*{\MyLengthOfSquare}{4}
\draw
  (0, 0) coordinate (MyLowerLeftCornerOfSquare)
  rectangle (\MySquareLength, \MySquareLength)
  coordinate (MyUpperRightCornerOfSquare)
;

The named coordinates MyLowerLeftCornerOfSquare and MyUpperRightCornerOfSquare can then be used in the following TikZ commands.

Is there a way to plot tikz things easier?

2 Answers2