How to position a node with respect to another node?

Question

[taken from https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/396436/128718 ]

I want to use something like

\node[basic,anchor=north.west, xshift=5cm] {instructor.south.east}(department) {department,

instead of

\node[basic,right=5cm of instructor] (department) {department

That means x-coordinate distance between north.west corner of department and south.east corner of instructor is 5cm.

MWE(taken from @marmot)

\documentclass[tikz,border=5pt]{standalone}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning,shapes.multipart,shapes}
\begin{document}
\tikzset{basic/.style={
        draw,
        rectangle split,
        rectangle split parts=2,
        rectangle split part fill={blue!20,white},
        minimum width=2.5cm,
        text width=2cm,
        align=left,
        font=\itshape
    },
    Diamond/.style={ diamond, 
                        draw, 
                        shape aspect=2, 
                        inner sep = 2pt,
                        text centered,
                        fill=blue!10!white,
                        font=\itshape
                      }}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node[basic] (instructor) {instructor
\nodepart{second}
\underline{ID}\\
name\\
salary};
\node[basic,right=5cm of instructor] (department) {department
%I want to 
%\node[basic,anchor=north,yshift=-3cm] (department)(instructor.south) {department
\nodepart{second}
\underline{dept\_name}\\
building\\
budget};
\draw (instructor) -- (department) node[midway,Diamond]{member};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Since you have some responses below that seem to answer your question, please consider marking one of them as ‘Accepted’ by clicking on the tickmark below their vote count (see How do you accept an answer?). This shows which answer helped you most, and it assigns reputation points to the author of the answer (and to you!). It's part of this site's idea to identify good questions and answers through upvotes and acceptance of answers. — samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz, Jul 23 '18 at 17:29
Since you have some responses below that seem to answer your question, please consider marking one of them as ‘Accepted’ by clicking on the tickmark below their vote count (see How do you accept an answer?). This shows which answer helped you most, and it assigns reputation points to the author of the answer (and to you!). It's part of this site's idea to identify good questions and answers through upvotes and acceptance of answers. — samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz, Jan 05 '19 at 19:22
Since you have some responses below that seem to answer your question, please consider marking one of them as ‘Accepted’ by clicking on the tickmark below their vote count (see How do you accept an answer?). This shows which answer helped you most, and it assigns reputation points to the author of the answer (and to you!). It's part of this site's idea to identify good questions and answers through upvotes and acceptance of answers. — samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz, Apr 03 '19 at 11:29

score 4 · Answer 1 · 2018-03-28T15:41:59.393

UPDATE: I have completely misunderstood what you want. The syntax is

\node[basic,right=5cm of instructor.south,anchor=north] (department) ...

Here is the MWE for that:

\documentclass[tikz,border=5pt]{standalone}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning,shapes.multipart,shapes}
\begin{document}
\tikzset{basic/.style={
        draw,
        rectangle split,
        rectangle split parts=2,
        rectangle split part fill={blue!20,white},
        minimum width=2.5cm,
        text width=2cm,
        align=left,
        font=\itshape
    },
    Diamond/.style={ diamond, 
                        draw, 
                        shape aspect=2, 
                        inner sep = 2pt,
                        text centered,
                        fill=blue!10!white,
                        font=\itshape
                      }}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node[basic] (instructor) {instructor
\nodepart{second}
\underline{ID}\\
name\\
salary};
\node[basic,right=5cm of instructor.south,anchor=north] (department) {department
\nodepart{second}
\underline{dept\_name}\\
building\\
budget};
\draw (instructor) -- (department) node[midway,Diamond]{member};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

ORIGINAL ANSWER: I was under the impression you wanted to combine Torbjørn's great answer with the "basic" style. That's possible, e.g.

\documentclass[tikz,border=3mm]{standalone}
\usepackage[simplified]{pgf-umlcd} %<- added simplified here in order to avoid
% empty splits
% redefine enviroment
\renewenvironment{class}[3][]%
{
\begin{classAndInterfaceCommon}{#1}{#2}{#3}
}%
{\calcuateNumberOfParts{}
% Thorbjorns only change was in the following line, where "anchor=north" was moved before "this umlcd style"
% but I replaced "this umlcd style" by "basic=\theumlcdClassSplitPartNum"
% and changed the way you define the position. Essentially you need to put 
% brackets around
\node[anchor=north,basic=\theumlcdClassSplitPartNum] (\umlcdClassName) at \umlcdClassPos
    {\textbf{\umlcdClassName}
\insertAttributesAndOperations{}
};

\end{classAndInterfaceCommon}
}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning,shapes.multipart,shapes}
\tikzset{basic/.style={
        draw,
        rectangle split,
        rectangle split parts=#1,
        rectangle split part fill={blue!20,white},
        minimum width=2.5cm,
        text width=2cm,
        align=left,
        font=\itshape
    },
    Diamond/.style={ diamond, 
                        draw, 
                        shape aspect=2, 
                        inner sep = 2pt,
                        text centered,
                        fill=blue!10!white,
                        font=\itshape
                      }}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{class}{foo}{(0,0)}
\attribute{+ Public}
\end{class}

\begin{class}{bar}{([yshift=-10mm]foo.south)}
\attribute{+ balance : Dollars}
\operation{+ deposit( amount : Dollars )}
\end{class}

\begin{class}[anchor=west]{baz}{([xshift=20mm]bar.east)}
\end{class}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

This code works essentially like Torbjørn's except that you now have to put all the placement information in the third argument and put parentheses around, examples are provided above. As a bonus, the nodes won't be split any more if that's not necessary. Clearly, depending on what you want to do, you may want to increase the text width of the nodes and so on.

No need to make complex your code. I want to use your previous solution. Just make change in giving position. I want to use something like \node[basic,anchor=north.west, xshift=5cm] {instructor.south.east}(department) {department, instead of \node[basic,right=5cm of instructor] (department) {department — alhelal, Mar 28 '18 at 08:17
@alhelal Does \node[basic,right=5cm of instructor.south,anchor=north] (department) {department ... give you what you want? — , Mar 28 '18 at 10:45
Then I guess you can make a solution with xshift and yshift — alhelal, Mar 28 '18 at 13:41

How to position a node with respect to another node?

1 Answers1