MikTex update caused battery direction to change in circuitikz?

Question

I have been using MikTex for several years and am familiar with the circuitikz package. I know that if I code a battery as such

\draw (0, 0) to [battery1] (2, 0);

the positive side (long side) will be on the right side of the battery. Within the past 6 months I noticed that my battery directions had changed. Meaning that the above code would produce a battery with the positive side on the left. Besides drawing the battery backwards, does anyone know of an elegant solution?

The first step toward an elegant solution is to provide a small but complete example that can be used for tests. — Ulrike Fischer, Mar 08 '17 at 12:54
Welcome to TeX.SX! Please help us help you and add a minimal working example (MWE) that illustrates your problem. Reproducing the problem and finding out what the issue is will be much easier when we see compilable code, starting with \documentclass{...} and ending with \end{document}. — Dai Bowen, Mar 08 '17 at 13:00

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 08 '17 at 13:30

2

Having a look at the circuitikz manual this change was made due to an update of the circuitikz package:

Version 0.7 (2016-09-08)

– Fixed/rotated battery symbol (longer lines by default positive voltage)

answered Mar 08 '17 at 13:30

epR8GaYuh

2,432

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 16 '17 at 21:19

2

Please have a look at the latest version 0.8. The drawing direction should now always be as expected: By default is the positive potential and the longer line of the symbol at the starting side of the path, like all the other sources and symbols.

\begin{circuitikz}[american voltages]
\draw (0, 0) to [battery1,v=1V] (2, 0);
\end{circuitikz}

Best regards,

Stefan

answered Mar 16 '17 at 21:19

sistlind

723

The underlying difficulty goes far back, and is unrelated to TeX. On a circuit diagram, the longer line is positive. But on typical consumer batteries (AA, AAA, etc.) the positive end is the one with the button, which might cause someone to think that the circuit diagram should have positive as the shorter line (because it looks like a button). – Mar 22 '17 at 16:13

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 22 '21 at 15:56

You can use "invert" to change polarity. This my example

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{circuitikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{circuitikz}
    \draw  (0,0) to [battery1] (3,0);              % without invert
    \draw  (0,-2) to [battery1, invert] (3,-2);    % with invert
\end{circuitikz}
\end{document}

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 11 '19 at 17:30

1

Instead of rewriting all your code, you can tell CircuiTikZ to keep the old direction convention. To do this for your entire document, in the preamble write

\usepackage{circuitikz}
  \tikzset{voltage dir = RP}

To keep the old direction convention in just one drawing, omit \tikzset{voltage dir = RP} in the preamble, but begin the CircuiTikZ environment with \begin{circuitikz}[voltage dir = RP].

As explained in the CircuiTikZ 0.9.4 documentation, RP is for "rising potential." Note: you may have to update your TeX distribution for the "RP" key to be recognized.

answered Sep 11 '19 at 17:30

Rich006

187

Better use theRPvoltagesoption when calling the package.... – Rmano Jan 23 '20 at 08:03
Why is the RPvoltages option better than the tikzset method? – Rich006 Jan 23 '20 at 20:58
Well, really it's equivalent, but stating your default when loading the package will silence the warning. – Rmano Jan 23 '20 at 22:05

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 22 '17 at 14:58

0

I had a problem when i tried to reverse the poles, a line pass trougth the symbol

\documentclass{minimal} \usepackage{circuitikz}

\begin{document}
    \begin{circuitikz}
        \draw (0,0) to[R,l=r](0,3) node[rectangle,draw=blue](A){A}
                    to[R,l=$r_3$]++(0,3) node[](B){B};
        \draw       (A) to[battery,l=$V_1$]++(3,-3);
        \draw       ($(B)+(3,0)$)   to[battery,l=$V_2$] (A);

    \end{circuitikz}
\end{document}

answered Mar 22 '17 at 14:58

Esteban Lemos

1

Please post this as a separate question if you have queries. – Troy Mar 22 '17 at 15:19
I have no Idea why this happens, but if you replace (A) by ($(A)+(0,0)$) everything is ok. I will have a look at this... – sistlind Mar 23 '17 at 19:29
1

This is fixed and a new version 0.8.1 is on the way to CTAN – sistlind Mar 25 '17 at 15:39

MikTex update caused battery direction to change in circuitikz?

5 Answers5

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