Cfrgtkky

As part of a larger diagram I've written the following, which does basically what I want:

documentclass{report}

usepackage{tikz}

usetikzlibrary{arrows,positioning}

begin{document}



begin{tikzpicture}[box/.style={rectangle,draw=black},

                    vh path/.style={to path={|- (tikztotarget)}}

                   ]

  node[box] (ReadQueryParametersJSON) at (0,0) {ReadQueryParametersJSON};

  node[box] (ParseParametricLine) [below=of ReadQueryParametersJSON,anchor=west,xshift=-1cm] {ParseParametricLine};

  node[box] (ReadJSONFile) [below=of ParseParametricLine.west,anchor=west] {ReadJSONFile};

  node[box] (GUIMapping) [below=of ReadJSONFile.west,anchor=west] {GUIMapping};



  path [->] (node cs:name=ReadQueryParametersJSON,angle=-169.69) edge [vh path] (GUIMapping)

             (node cs:name=ReadQueryParametersJSON,angle=-168.69) edge [vh path] (ReadJSONFile)

             (node cs:name=ReadQueryParametersJSON,angle=-167.47) edge [vh path] (ParseParametricLine);



  %node[box] (root) at (0,-4) {root};

  %foreach name in {aa,bb,cc,dd}

  %   node[box] (name) at ++(0,-1) {name};

end{tikzpicture} 





end{document}

The only mechanism I could find to offset the starting point for the arrows was to use the angle, which means that for even spacing, the parameter depends on the arctan and the dimensions of the box. That's sort of complicated. Is there a better way?

I need to make a structure like this several times, so I tried write a loop to generate this structure automatically, starting with the code that is commented out. This code places the root node down at (1,-4) and all of the listed nodes on top of each other at the absolute location (1,-1) even though I used ++ to get relative location. Why doesn't this work? How can I write this loop (without absolute coordinates so that the child nodes are positioned relative to the parent)?

The solution with xshift from marmot is exactly what I needed. I tried putting xshift in various places but it never seemed to do anything. And the other solution with the loop also works great. I discovered I had the 2.10 version of the manual, which explains why I couldn't find those options.

I have a mystery of being unable to draw the lines when I generate the layout using a loop. And it's become somewhat more mysterious as I got ready to post this example, because then it started to work---sometimes. So in this example I have generated two sets of nodes. One set I drew lines using a new command I define, and it works. The other time I just tried to draw one line and it doesn't work. I can't figure out what the difference is, why it works one time and not the other. Another question is whether there is a tidy way to avoid having to treat the top child as a special argument (because it alone needs to be shifted to the right). Finally, I added a node distance specification to tighten up the layout, and the manual says the distance is supposed to be edge to edge, but I'm getting center to center. Why?

documentclass{report}

usepackage{tikz}

usetikzlibrary{arrows,positioning}

begin{document}



% arguments: {root node}{root node position}{first child}{list of remaining children}

newcommand{verticalnodes}[4]{

       node[box] (#1) at #2 {#1};

       node[box] (#3) [below=of #1.west,anchor=west,xshift=1cm] {#3};  % Can this special case go in the loop?

       foreach name [remember= name as n (initially #3),count=shift from 0]in #4 {

          node[box,below=of n.west,anchor=west] (name) {name};

          %path [->] ([xshift=6mm-shift*2 mm]#1.south west) edge  [vh path](name);

       }

}



% Arguments: {root node}{list of children}{horizontal offset of rightmost line from left edge}

newcommand{drawlines}[3]{

   foreach name [count=shift from 0]in #2

     path [->] ([xshift=#3-shift*2 mm]#1.south west) edge [vh path](name);

}



begin{tikzpicture}[box/.style={rectangle,draw=black,node distance=6mm}, % Not getting 6mm spacing

                            vh path/.style={to path={|- (tikztotarget)}}

                   ]

  verticalnodes{ReadQueryParametersJSON}{(0,0)}{ParseParametricLine}{{ReadJSONFile,GUIMapping}}

  drawlines{ReadQueryParametersJSON}{{ParseParametricLine,ReadJSONFile,GUIMapping}}{6mm}



  node[box] (rootroot) at (0,6) {rootroot};

  node[box] (toplevel) [below=of rootroot.west,anchor=west,xshift=1cm] {toplevel};

  foreach name [remember= name as n (initially toplevel)]in {aaaaaa,bbbbbbbbbbbb,cccccccccc} {

      node[box,below=of n.west,anchor=west] (name) {name};

  }

  path [->] (rootroot) edge [vh path] (toplevel);  % Why doesn't this draw anything?



end{tikzpicture} 

end{document}

R you looking for the good old xshift?

documentclass{report}

usepackage{tikz}

usetikzlibrary{arrows,positioning}

begin{document}



begin{tikzpicture}[box/.style={rectangle,draw=black},

                    vh path/.style={to path={|- (tikztotarget)}}

                   ]

  node[box] (ReadQueryParametersJSON) at (0,0) {ReadQueryParametersJSON};

  node[box] (ParseParametricLine) [below=of ReadQueryParametersJSON,anchor=west,xshift=-1cm] {ParseParametricLine};

  node[box] (ReadJSONFile) [below=of ParseParametricLine.west,anchor=west] {ReadJSONFile};

  node[box] (GUIMapping) [below=of ReadJSONFile.west,anchor=west] {GUIMapping};



  path [->] ([xshift=4mm]ReadQueryParametersJSON.south west) edge [vh path] (GUIMapping)

             ([xshift=6mm]ReadQueryParametersJSON.south west) edge [vh path] (ReadJSONFile)

             ([xshift=8mm]ReadQueryParametersJSON.south west) edge [vh path] (ParseParametricLine);



  %node[box] (root) at (0,-4) {root};

  %foreach name in {aa,bb,cc,dd}

  %   node[box] (name) at ++(0,-1) {name};

end{tikzpicture} 

If I understood your question correctly, you can use the above of= key in this way:

documentclass{report}

usepackage{tikz}

usetikzlibrary{arrows,positioning}

begin{document}



begin{tikzpicture}[

box/.style={draw=black},

vh path/.style={to path={|- (tikztotarget)}}

                   ]



  node[box] (root) at (0,-4) {root};

  foreach name [remember= name as n (initially root)]in {aa,bb,cc,dd}

     node[box, above=of n] (name) {name};

end{tikzpicture} 





end{document}