Can't find tikz subfiles

Question

I've the following project structure:

./main.tex
./ch1/ch1.tex
./ch1/tikz1/tikz1.tex

The main.tex looks like:

\documentclass{book}
\begin{document}
\subfile{./ch1/ch1.tex} 
\end{document}

The ch1.tex looks like:

\documentclass[../main.tex]{subfiles}
\begin{document}
\begin{figure}[H]
\centering
\subfile{./tikz1/tikz1.tex}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

When I run the ch1.tex everything is ok, it finds the tikz1.tex, but when I run the main.tex it can't find the tikz1.tex.

I need them because the tikz code is very big and I don't want to confuse it with ch1.tex code. — Andreas K., Mar 16 '13 at 01:53
I tried standalone but I got the same problem. Could you please show how to do it correctly? — Andreas K., Mar 16 '13 at 01:53
The 'standalone' package didn't help because I still need to use 3 different .tex files, so the problem remains. The main.tex can't find the tikz.tex. Please help. — Andreas K., Mar 16 '13 at 12:57

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 31 '14 at 00:36

In addition to @MarcoDaniel's observation that \usepackage{subfiles} was missing from the main.tex file, there is a problem with how you compile the documents because of relative paths.

When you compile main.tex, latex looks in <maindir>/ch1/ for ch1.tex and in <maindir>/tikz1/ for tikz1.tex. When you compile ch1.tex (likely from its containing directory <maindir>/ch1/), latex looks in <maindir>/ch1/tikz/ for tikz1.tex. Clearly, both of these cannot be correct, unless you maintain two copies of tikz1.tex which sort of defeats the purpose.

There are a number of ways to solve this:

Flatten the directory structure (might be OK depending on number of files)
Use absolute paths (not recommended for portability reasons)
Input ./ch1/ch1.tex to pdflatex run from <maindir> when compiling ch1.tex on its own. Depending on the editor you use, there may be ways to set this up for files other than the main file.

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 18 '19 at 15:36

I had a similar issue. It used to compile but not on my new system.

I had a main.tex and a Subfolder/firstChapter/subDoc.tex. The file subDoc.tex has a tikz subfile included with the path Subfolder/anotherFolder/tikz.tex.

To compile the main.tex I had to use the relative path from subDoc.tex to tikz.tex: ../anotherFolder/tikz not from main.tex to tikz.tex: Subfolder/anotherFolder/tikz.

Thinking about it, that totally makes sense. Perhaps this solution can help you.

Can't find tikz subfiles

2 Answers2