arrows: flipping |<->| when the node is too big

Question

When the node is too big, we tend to switch the arrows to ->| 2cm |<-. Is there a smart way to do this without drawing two separate lines?

We can see from the image [>= stealth, |<->|] the arrow tips barely shows since 19.02 mm takes up the whole line segment.

enter image description here

\documentclass[tikz]{standalone}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw[>= stealth, |<->|] (0, -0.3cm) -- ++(1cm, 0)
  node[pos = 0.5, fill = white, font = \tiny, inner sep = 0] {$19.02$ mm};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Related Question: I have been using the solution from Draw dimension of a line as a decoration in TikZ and placing the dimension above or below the line. This doesn't solve the issue if you want to place the text along the path though. — Peter Grill, Dec 05 '14 at 04:42
Another possible solution: http://tex.stackexchange.com/a/14906/1952 — Ignasi, Dec 05 '14 at 10:59

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 05 '14 at 15:07

Just the basics, a lot needs to be parametrized to make a decent solution but the following shows one way using a decoration and the \pgfnodepositionlater trick. As I've used the node contents key, this requires the latest PGF release:

\documentclass[tikz,border=5]{standalone}
\usetikzlibrary{decorations}
\def\pgfdimgetwidth{%
  \pgfmathparse{\pgfpositionnodelatermaxx-\pgfpositionnodelaterminx}%
  \global\let\pgfdimwidth=\pgfmathresult%
}
\pgfdeclaredecoration{dimension}{draw}{%
\state{draw}[width=\pgfdecoratedpathlength]{
  % Get the width of the node without drawing it.
  \pgfpositionnodelater\pgfdimgetwidth%
  \node [node contents=, dimension label/.try];
  \pgfpositionnodelater\relax
  \pgfmathparse{\pgfdecoratedpathlength-\pgfdimwidth}%
  \ifdim\pgfdecoratedpathlength<0.375cm\relax
     \path (0,0) -- (\pgfdecoratedpathlength,0)
         node [rotate=\pgfdecoratedangle, midway, above=.25cm,, node contents=, dimension label/.try];
       \draw [->|] (-.25cm,0) -- (0,0);
       \draw [->|] (\pgfdecoratedpathlength+.25cm,0) -- (\pgfdecoratedpathlength,0);
  \else%
    \ifdim\pgfmathresult pt<0cm\relax%
       \draw [|<->|] (0,0) -- (\pgfdecoratedpathlength,0)
        node [rotate=\pgfdecoratedangle, midway, above=.25cm, node contents=, dimension label/.try];
    \else%
      \ifdim\pgfmathresult pt<.25cm\relax%
        \path (0,0) -- (\pgfdecoratedpathlength,0)
           node [rotate=\pgfdecoratedangle, midway, node contents=, dimension label/.try];
         \draw [->|] (-.25cm,0) -- (0,0);
         \draw [->|] (\pgfdecoratedpathlength+.25cm,0) -- (\pgfdecoratedpathlength,0);
      \else%
        \draw [|<->|] (0,0) --  (\pgfdecoratedpathlength,0)
        node [rotate=\pgfdecoratedangle, midway, node contents=, dimension label/.try] ;
      \fi%
    \fi%
  \fi%
}
}
\tikzset{%
  dimension/.style={
    decoration=dimension, decorate,
    dimension label/.style={
      node contents=#1, fill=white, font=\tiny, inner sep=0pt
    }
  }
}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[>=stealth]
\foreach \i [count=\y] in {0.125,0.25,0.5,1,2}
\draw [dimension=\i cm] (0,\y) -- (\i,\y);
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

enter image description here

arrows: flipping |<->| when the node is too big

1 Answers1