How to generate custom figure from Powerpoint presentation using tikz?

Question

I am writing a project report, where I have been asked to plot the figure using tikz in overleaf. I made the figure on Powerpoint Presentations (PPT) and then imported it on my overleaf using pdf format. Which actually is very high quality.

But I have still been asked to re-plot using tikz plots. I want to ask, is there any major difference between what I have done and what I will get using tikz? Additionally, is it possible to plot this figure?

Kindly someone, suggest how to go about this figure. I was not able to generate the boxes with proper spacing. I don't have any experience using tikz.

I tried making some of the parts of the figure using help from online websites; but could not figure out how to place them as given in the picture or how to exactly make them like the picture.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{tikz, pgfplots}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning}
\usepackage{geometry,graphicx}
\usepackage{tikz,amsmath}
\usetikzlibrary{fit}
\begin{document}
\vspace{2in}
\begin{tikzpicture}[
SIR/.style={rectangle, draw=black!60, fill=white!5, very thick, minimum size=5mm},
]
%Nodes
\node[SIR]    (Susceptible) {X X X X X};
\end{tikzpicture}
Computation domain\
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node[draw,minimum size=1.5cm] (A) at (0,0) {Equation at $x_1$};
\end{tikzpicture}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node[draw,minimum size=1.5cm] (A) at (0,0) {$x_2 - x_1$ extra integral};
\end{tikzpicture}\
% Preamble: \pgfplotsset{width=7cm,compat=1.3}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[
xlabel=Quad point,
ylabel={Numerical error}
]
% use TeX as calculator:
\addplot {e^-x+50};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Answer 1

For sure it's possible to draw (almost?) everything with TikZ. Have a look at http://texample.net/tikz/examples/all/ for instance.

Pros

• homogeneity with the whole document (particularly fonts…)
• no third party elements

Cons

• it may take (a lot of) time depending on your TikZ skills and on the graph to plot…
• compilation time would increase (even if you can use the externalize functionality)

Answer 2

To give you some ideas:

\documentclass[border=10pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}
\usetikzlibrary{decorations.pathreplacing}
\usetikzlibrary{matrix}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{scope}[scale=0.75]
    \draw[blue!50!black] plot[domain={-1.5:5}] (\x,{e^-\x-1});
    \draw[blue!50!black, densely dotted] (-2,0) -- (5,0);
    \draw[black, densely dashed] (0,0) 
        -- ++(0,-2) node[below] {$x_1$} coordinate[pos=0] (A);
    \draw[black, densely dashed] (2.5,0) 
        -- ++(0,-2) node[below] {$x_2$} coordinate[pos=0] (B);
\draw[draw, thick, ->] ([yshift=5pt]A) 
    to[out=90, in=90, looseness=1.75] 
    node[above, midway, xshift=25pt] {Increase in quad. points} ([yshift=5pt]B);

\draw[thick, <->] (-2,4) 
    -- node[left, midway, anchor=south, rotate=90, font=\bfseries] (Y) {Numerical error} (-2,-2)
    -- node[below, pos=1, font=\bfseries] {Quad. points} (5,-2);

\end{scope}
\node[draw=blue!50!black, fill=yellow!25, text width=3cm, align=center] at ([yshift=-3cm]$(A)!0.5!(B)$) (E) {Equations at $x_1$};
\draw[thick, ->] ([yshift=-2cm]$(A)!0.5!(B)$) -- ([yshift=5pt]E.north);
\node[draw=blue!50!black, fill=yellow!25, text width=3cm, align=center, below=10pt of E] (F) {$(x_2 - x_1)$ \ \textbf{Extra integrals}};
\draw[decorate, decoration={brace, mirror, raise=2.5pt, amplitude=5pt}] (E.north west) -- (F.south west) node[left, midway, anchor=south, rotate=90, yshift=5pt, font=\bfseries] {Equations at $x_2$};
\matrix[matrix of nodes, draw, nodes={circle, inner sep=2pt, font=\bfseries}, row sep=10pt] (M) at (-5,-2) { 
    X & X & X & X & |[fill=cyan!25, draw]| X \
    X & X & X & X & X \
    X & X & X & X & X \
};
\draw[thick, ->] (M-1-5) -- ([yshift=20pt]Y.north west);
\node[below=2.5pt of M] {Computation domain};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}