Graphics, Figures & Tables ⇒ tikz node distance: spacing larger than expected

[jess-elzbth]

I am using the command node distance. When I generate help lines the spacing between the nodes is not what I expected. I have many ideas as to why this is occurring, but I'm not sure which questions to ask to get the answer I actually need.

Also, in node distance why is the vertical, or y-axis, spacing given as an argument before the horizontal, or x-axis, spacing? My math mind is having a hard time remembering that one.

node-distance.png (9.66 KiB) Viewed 24302 times

Code: Select all

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}
	[inner sep=0.5mm,
	nofill/.style={circle,draw=cyan},
	filled/.style={circle, draw=cyan, fill=cyan}]

	\begin{scope}[node distance=1cm and 0.1cm]
	\draw[help lines,step=5mm,gray!20] (-1,1) grid (6,-2);
%Text 1
		\node (t) at (0,0) {Text 1};
		\node [filled, right=of t] (t1) {};
		\node [filled, right=of t1] (t2) {}; 
		\node [nofill, right=of t2] (t3) {};
		\node [nofill, right=of t3] (t4) {};
		\node [nofill, right=of t4] (t5) {};
%Text 2
		\node [filled, below=of t1] (j1) {}; 
		\node [left= of j1](j) {Text 2};
		\node [filled, right=of j1] (j2) {}; 
		\node [filled, right=of j2] (j3) {};
		\node [nofill, right=of j3] (j4) {};
		\node [nofill, right=of j4] (j5) {};
%Text 3
		\node (w) at (3.5,0) {Text 3};
		\node [filled, right=of w] (w1) {};
		\node [filled, right=of w1] (w2) {}; 
		\node [nofill, right=of w2] (w3) {};
		\node [nofill, right=of w3] (w4) {};
		\node [nofill, right=of w4] (w5) {};
%Text 4
		\node [filled, below=of w1] (e1) {}; 
		\node [left= of e1](e) {Text 4};
		\node [filled, right=of e1] (e2) {}; 
		\node [filled, right=of e2] (e3) {};
		\node [nofill, right=of e3] (e4) {};
		\node [nofill, right=of e4] (e5) {};
	\end{scope}
\end{tikzpicture}
	
\end{document}

Please forgive my terrible names; it makes more sense in my actual code.

Side question: Could anyone suggest a different way to achieve what I've done? Thank you for your help.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi,

the node distance is the distance between the borders of nodes by default, that is, if the on grid option is set to false (default). If on grid is set, it's the distance between the centers of the nodes.

Perhaps you look for

\begin{scope}[node distance=1cm and 0.5cm,on grid]

that gives an y-distance of 1 cm between node centers, and an x-distance of 0.5 cm between node centers.

dots.png (12.56 KiB) Viewed 24295 times

Stefan

[Stefan Kottwitz]

For positioning in a grid structure, there's also the handy matrix syntax.

Code: Select all

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{matrix}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
  [ inner sep=0.5mm,
    nofill/.style={circle,draw=cyan},
    filled/.style={circle, draw=cyan, fill=cyan}]
  \matrix (m) [ matrix of nodes, row sep=1cm, column sep = 0.5cm,
            nodes = {anchor=center}] {
    Text1 & |[filled]| & |[filled]| & |[nofill]| & |[nofill]| & |[nofill]| \\
    Text2 & |[nofill]| & |[nofill]| & |[nofill]| & |[filled]| & |[filled]| \\
  };
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

matrix.png (7.42 KiB) Viewed 24294 times

I gave the matrix the name m. Now you can access the matrix nodes with already predefined names, (m-row-column), such as by:

\draw (m-1-2) -- (m-2-6);

Stefan

[jess-elzbth]

Thank you Stefan for both of your clear explanations. I knew there was a much better way to achieve a grid structure; a matrix is perfect!