7

Using both calc and |- would be a convenient way to refer to "inner, relative coordinates" of a node, with

  • (0, 0) meaning node.center,
  • (0, 1) meaning node.east and
  • (.3, -.5) meaning somewhere precise (but relative) in the south east quarter.

However, as described here and there, the following coordinate is not parsed:

($(node.center)!.3!(node.east)$ |- $(node.center)!-.5!(node.north)$)

So the following convenience macro does not work:

\newcommand{\relativeToNode}[3]{($(#1.center)!#2!(#1.east)$ |- $(#1.center)!#3!(#1.north)$)}

How nice would it be to write:

\node (inner) at (\relativeToNode{outer}{.3}{-.5}) {hey!};

Is there any chance to get this working?
Any workaround that would not involve defining intermediate macros or coordinates (whose names would have to be picked etc.)?

iago-lito
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    tikz doesn't enable calculation of coordinates on the way as you desired. you should defined one auxiliary coordinate: \coordinate (aux) at ($(node1.south) + (1,0)$); \draw ($(node1.south) + (1,0)$) to (aux |- node2.north); – Zarko Aug 27 '18 at 09:52
  • @Zarko Well, it seems that it is finally possible like this :) – iago-lito Aug 27 '18 at 12:15

1 Answers1

7

For your use case you don't even need the calc library. You can define style relative to node=<node name> that shifts and scales the coordinate system accordingly:

\tikzset{
    relative to node/.style={
        shift={(#1.center)},
        x={(#1.east)},
        y={(#1.north)},
    }
}

Then you can place your node with

\path[relative to node=outer] (-0.4,-0.5) node {Hello};

MWE:

\documentclass[tikz,margin=2mm]{standalone}

\tikzset{
    relative to node/.style={
        shift={(#1.center)},
        x={(#1.east)},
        y={(#1.north)},
    }
}

\begin{document}
    \begin{tikzpicture}
        \node[minimum width=2cm,minimum height=3cm,draw=red] (outer) at (3,3) {};

        % Only for the grid
        \begin{scope}[relative to node=outer]
            \foreach \ratio in {-1,-0.8,...,1}{
                \draw[help lines] (-1,\ratio) -- (1,\ratio);
                \draw[help lines] (\ratio,-1) -- (\ratio,1);
            }
            \draw (-1,0) -- (1,0);
            \draw (0,-1) -- (0,1);
        \end{scope}

        \path[relative to node=outer] (-0.4,-0.5) node {Hello};

    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Resulting in

enter image description here

Max
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    Awesome, thanks :) Since this is not my core problem, but the core problem has no solution according to Zarko, I'll edit the OP so it matches your answer best. – iago-lito Aug 27 '18 at 09:59