Scaling components in CircuiTikz with necommand

Question

My question refers to: Scaling components in CircuiTikz

I would like to scale single circuitikz components to various sizes, e.g. with the command

/tikz/circuitikz/bipoles/length=1cm

Is it possible to use it with '\newcommand'? And how?

I tried already

\draw (0,0) to[/tikz/circuitikz/bipoles/length=1cm,inductor] (3,0);

which works perfectly fine. But it does not work with

\newcommand{\compScale}[1]{/tikz/circuitikz/bipoles/length=#1cm}

in the preamble and

\draw (0,0) to[\compScale{1},inductor] (3,0);

I get the error:

! Package pgfkeys Error: I do not know the key '/tikz/circuitikz/bipoles/length =1cm' and I am going to ignore it. Perhaps you misspelled it.

Notice that the preferred way to scale components, with a recent circuitikz, is using the class' scale parameter. See pag. 23 here: http://circuitikz.github.io/circuitikz/circuitikzmanualgit.pdf — Rmano, Mar 19 '20 at 21:54

score 4 · Answer 1 · 2020-03-19T14:44:42.337

Welcome! You need to expand the macro.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{circuitikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{circuitikz}
\draw (0,0) to[/tikz/circuitikz/bipoles/length=1cm,inductor] (3,0);
\end{circuitikz}

\newcommand{\compScale}[1]{/tikz/circuitikz/bipoles/length=#1cm}
\begin{circuitikz}
\draw (0,0) to[style/.expanded=\compScale{1},inductor] (3,0);
\end{circuitikz}

\begin{circuitikz}
\draw (0,0) to[style/.expanded=\compScale{2},inductor] (3,0);
\end{circuitikz}

\end{document}

I guess that, if you explain what you really want to do, there will be much better options. Building on John Kormylo's comment, one could define a style cscale that scales the component by a factor.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{circuitikz}
\makeatletter
\tikzset{cscale/.code={\pgf@circ@Rlen=#1\pgf@circ@Rlen},cscale/.default=1}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
\begin{circuitikz}
\draw (0,0) to[cscale=1,inductor] (3,0);
\end{circuitikz}

\begin{circuitikz}
\draw (0,0) to[cscale=2,inductor] (3,0);
\end{circuitikz}
\end{document}

cscale is in fact the better option. though, there occurs the same problem concerning the pole size as Rmano´s answer shows — micha, Mar 20 '20 at 10:04

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 20 '20 at 08:52

In the manual, you can find that the suggested way to scale the components is to use their class scale parameter. Changing the bipole base length is ok, but on a general term (you should do it for a whole circuit, or at least a whole path. Check the manual, around page 23, scaling of components).

The correct way is to use the class scaling (unfortunately, you have to use a specific key for any class of components; I could think of adding a generic scaling in the future, although I am not sure of its usefulness).

Like (read the comments; the compScale macro is the one from the fine answer by a friendly cat):

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[RPvoltages]{circuitikz}

\newcommand{\compScale}[1]{/tikz/circuitikz/bipoles/length=#1cm}
%
% use a specific scaled component, maybe with a parameter.
%
\tikzset{
    bigL/.style={L, inductors/scale=1.5},
    scaled L/.style={L, inductors/scale=#1},
    scaled/.default=1, % or whatever
}
\begin{document}
\begin{circuitikz}
    \draw (0,0) to[/tikz/circuitikz/bipoles/length=2cm,inductor=L, o-o] ++(3,0) to [L=L, o-o] ++(3,0);
\end{circuitikz}

\bigskip

\begin{circuitikz}
\draw (0,0) to[style/.expanded=\compScale{2},inductor=L, o-o] ++(3,0) to [L=L, o-o] ++(3,0);
\end{circuitikz}

\bigskip

\begin{circuitikz}
\draw (0,0) to[bigL, l=L, o-o] ++(3,0) to [scaled L=0.8, l=L, o-o] ++(3,0);
\end{circuitikz}

\end{document}

(Notice the artifacts on the poles due to the local changes of bipoles/lenght)

Scaling components in CircuiTikz with necommand

2 Answers2