Pass several comma separated TikZ options to a single keyval key

Question

I'm still improving my answer to Need help creating a 3D cube from a 2D set of nodes in TikZ. One of the options should be to emphasize the edges of the cuboid. This would mean e.g.

\draw[red, very thick, dashed] <some coordinates>

I'm using keyval to define parameters for the cuboid. Now my quesrion is, how can I pass all these commands to a single key? I would do this:

\tikzcuboid{%
        emphedge=Y,%
        emphstyle=very thick,
    }

I can only pass one option (here very thick), as further commas (e.g. very thick, red, dashed) are interpreted as delimiters for keys by keyval. I tried several things, like

emphstyle={very thick, red, dashed}
emphstyle=style={very thick, red, dashed}
emphstyle=(very thick, red, dashed)

So my question basically is: are there some kind of special delimiters for keyval that I can put a list of comma separated arguments in? These special delimiters should however not be passed on, since this would probably cause problems with TikZ.

Answer 1

If you'd be willing to switch to using \pgfkeys then this is quite simple. It's possible to declare a key to be an alias to a list of keys. This is done via:

\tikzset{my key/.style={list,of,other,keys}}

Then the key my key expands to list,of,other,keys in the proper way.

Here's an example of how to do it, based on your code at the linked question. I've added some spaces into the key names to make them easier (which meant that I saw some errors: you had dimy in place of dimz a couple of times). I've replaced the \ifthenelse by a boolean key. I've also condensed the line and fill keys to one single style which gives greater flexibility. You could replace the \filldraw by a simple \path for maximum flexibility here, then the grids could be filled or not filled at leisure.

Here's the code:

\documentclass[parskip]{scrartcl}
\usepackage[margin=15mm,landscape]{geometry}
\usepackage{tikz}
%====================================
%emphasize vertices --> switch and emph style (e.g. thick,black)
%====================================

\newif\ifcuboidshaded
\newif\ifcuboidemphedge

\tikzset{
  cuboid/.is family,
  cuboid,
  shift x/.initial=0,
  shift y/.initial=0,
  dim x/.initial=3,
  dim y/.initial=3,
  dim z/.initial=3,
  scale/.initial=1,
  density x/.initial=1,
  density y/.initial=1,
  density z/.initial=1,
  rotation/.initial=0,
  angle x/.initial=0,
  angle y/.initial=90,
  angle z/.initial=225,
  scale x/.initial=1,
  scale y/.initial=1,
  scale z/.initial=sqrt(0.5),
  front/.style={draw=black,fill=white},
  top/.style={draw=black,fill=white},
  right/.style={draw=black,fill=white},
  shaded/.is if=cuboidshaded,
  shade color/.initial=black,
  shade perc/.initial=25,
  emph edge/.is if=cuboidemphedge,
  emph style/.style={thick},
}

\newcommand{\tikzcuboidkey}[1]{\pgfkeysvalueof{/tikz/cuboid/#1}}

% Commands
\newcommand{\tikzcuboid}[1]{
    \tikzset{cuboid,#1} % Process Keys passed to command
    \pgfmathsetmacro{\vectorxx}{\tikzcuboidkey{scale x}*cos(\tikzcuboidkey{angle x})}
    \pgfmathsetmacro{\vectorxy}{\tikzcuboidkey{scale x}*sin(\tikzcuboidkey{angle x})}
    \pgfmathsetmacro{\vectoryx}{\tikzcuboidkey{scale y}*cos(\tikzcuboidkey{angle y})}
    \pgfmathsetmacro{\vectoryy}{\tikzcuboidkey{scale y}*sin(\tikzcuboidkey{angle y})}
    \pgfmathsetmacro{\vectorzx}{\tikzcuboidkey{scale z}*cos(\tikzcuboidkey{angle z})}
    \pgfmathsetmacro{\vectorzy}{\tikzcuboidkey{scale z}*sin(\tikzcuboidkey{angle z})}
    \begin{scope}[xshift=\tikzcuboidkey{shift x}, yshift=\tikzcuboidkey{shift y}, scale=\tikzcuboidkey{scale}, rotate=\tikzcuboidkey{rotation}, x={(\vectorxx,\vectorxy)}, y={(\vectoryx,\vectoryy)}, z={(\vectorzx,\vectorzy)}]
    \pgfmathsetmacro{\steppingx}{1/\tikzcuboidkey{density x}}
    \pgfmathsetmacro{\steppingy}{1/\tikzcuboidkey{density y}}
    \pgfmathsetmacro{\steppingz}{1/\tikzcuboidkey{density z}}
    \newcommand{\dimx}{\tikzcuboidkey{dim x}}
    \newcommand{\dimy}{\tikzcuboidkey{dim y}}
    \newcommand{\dimz}{\tikzcuboidkey{dim z}}
    \pgfmathsetmacro{\secondx}{2*\steppingx}
    \pgfmathsetmacro{\secondy}{2*\steppingy}
    \pgfmathsetmacro{\secondz}{2*\steppingz}
    \foreach \x in {\steppingx,\secondx,...,\dimx}
    {   \foreach \y in {\steppingy,\secondy,...,\dimy}
        {   \pgfmathsetmacro{\lowx}{(\x-\steppingx)}
            \pgfmathsetmacro{\lowy}{(\y-\steppingy)}
            \filldraw[cuboid/front] (\lowx,\lowy,\dimz) -- (\lowx,\y,\dimz) -- (\x,\y,\dimz) -- (\x,\lowy,\dimz) -- cycle;

        }
    }
    \foreach \x in {\steppingx,\secondx,...,\dimx}
    {   \foreach \z in {\steppingz,\secondz,...,\dimz}
        {   \pgfmathsetmacro{\lowx}{(\x-\steppingx)}
            \pgfmathsetmacro{\lowz}{(\z-\steppingz)}
            \filldraw[cuboid/top] (\lowx,\dimy,\lowz) -- (\lowx,\dimy,\z) -- (\x,\dimy,\z) -- (\x,\dimy,\lowz) -- cycle;
        }
    }
    \foreach \y in {\steppingy,\secondy,...,\dimy}
    {   \foreach \z in {\steppingz,\secondz,...,\dimz}
        {   \pgfmathsetmacro{\lowy}{(\y-\steppingy)}
            \pgfmathsetmacro{\lowz}{(\z-\steppingz)}
            \filldraw[cuboid/right] (\dimx,\lowy,\lowz) -- (\dimx,\lowy,\z) -- (\dimx,\y,\z) -- (\dimx,\y,\lowz) -- cycle;
        }
    }
    \ifcuboidemphedge
        \draw[cuboid/emph style] (0,\dimy,0) -- (\dimx,\dimy,0) -- (\dimx,\dimy,\dimz) -- (0,\dimy,\dimz) -- cycle;%
        \draw[cuboid/emph style] (0,\dimy,\dimz) -- (0,0,\dimz) -- (\dimx,0,\dimz) -- (\dimx,\dimy,\dimz);%
        \draw[cuboid/emph style] (\dimx,\dimy,0) -- (\dimx,0,0) -- (\dimx,0,\dimz);%
    \fi
    \end{scope}
}

\makeatother

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}
    \tikzcuboid{shift x=0cm,%
        shift y=0cm,%
        scale=1.00,%
        rotation=30,%
        density x=1,%
        density y=2,%
        density z=3,%
        dim x=4,%
        dim y=5,%
        dim z=2,%
        front/.style={draw=yellow!30!black,fill=yellow!30!white},%
        top/.style={draw=red!30!black,fill=red!30!white},%
        right/.style={draw=blue!30!black,fill=blue!30!white}%
    }
    \tikzcuboid{%
        shift x=0cm,%
        shift y=8cm,%
        scale=1.00,%
        rotation=60,%
        density x=3,%
        density y=2,%
        density z=5,%
        dim x=4,%
        dim y=4,%
        dim z=4,%
        front/.style={draw=orange!75!black,fill=orange!75!white},%
        top/.style={draw=green!75!black,fill=green!75!white},%
        right/.style={draw=violet!75!black,fill=violet!75!white}%
    }
    \tikzcuboid{%
        shift x=8cm,%
        shift y=8cm,%
        scale=1.00,%
        rotation=45,%
        density x=1,%
        density y=(2/3),%
        density z=2,%
        dim x=3,%
        dim y=3,%
        dim y=3,%
        front/.style={draw=white!15!black,fill=black!15!white},%
        top/.style={draw=white!30!black,fill=black!30!white},%
        right/.style={draw=white!45!black,fill=black!45!white}%
    }
    \tikzcuboid{%
        shift x=8cm,%
        shift y=0cm,%
        scale=1.00,%
        rotation=75,%
        density x=2,%
        density y=3,%
        density z=2,%
        dim x=6,%
        dim y=8,%
        dim z=1,%
        front/.style={draw=red!75!black,fill=red!25!white},%
        top/.style={draw=red!50!black,fill=red!50!white},%
        right/.style={draw=red!25!black,fill=red!75!white}%
    }
    \tikzcuboid{%
        shift x=16cm,%
        shift y=8cm,%
        scale=1.00,%
        rotation=0,%
        density x=2,%
        density y=2,%
        density z=2,%
        dim x=4,%
        dim y=4,%
        dim y=4,%
        front/.style={draw=green!75!black,fill=green!25!white},%
        top/.style={draw=green!50!black,fill=green!50!white},%
        right/.style={draw=green!25!black,fill=green!75!white},%
        emph edge,%
        emph style/.style={very thick},
    }
    \tikzcuboid{%
        shift x=16cm,%
        shift y=0cm,%
        scale=1.00,%
        rotation=0,%
        density x=1,%
        density y=1,%
        density z=1,%
        dim x=4,%
        dim y=4,%
        dim z=4,%
        front/.style={draw=blue!75!black,fill=blue!25!white},%
        right/.style={draw=blue!25!black,fill=blue!75!white},%
        top/.style={draw=blue!50!black,fill=blue!50!white},%
        angle x=15,%
        angle y=135,%
        angle z=225,%
        scale x=1,%
        scale y=1,%
        scale z=1,%
        emph edge=false,%
    }
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

Answer 2

To protect the commas in your code you can do this

\ifthenelse{\equal{\tikzcuboid@emphedge}{Y}}%
    {\protected@edef\cube@temp{%
\noexpand\draw[\tikzcuboid@emphstyle](0,\dimy,0) -- (\dimx,\dimy,0) -- (\dimx,\dimy,\dimz) -- (0,\dimy,\dimz) -- cycle;     
\noexpand\draw[\tikzcuboid@emphstyle] (0,\dimy,\dimz) -- (0,0,\dimz) -- (\dimx,0,\dimz) -- (\dimx,\dimy,\dimz);
\noexpand\draw[\tikzcuboid@emphstyle](\dimx,\dimy,0) -- (\dimx,0,0) -- (\dimx,0,\dimz);
      }\cube@temp   
    }%
    {}

the result with

\tikzcuboid{%
    shiftx=16cm,%
    shifty=8cm,%
    scale=1.00,%
    rotation=0,%
    densityx=2,%
    densityy=2,%
    densityz=2,%
    dimx=4,%
    dimy=4,%
    dimy=4,%
    linefront=green!75!black,%
    linetop=green!50!black,%
    lineright=green!25!black,%
    fillfront=green!25!white,%
    filltop=green!50!white,%
    fillright=green!75!white,%
    emphedge=Y,%
    emphstyle={very thick, red, dashed}
} 

and the picture