nsk@Block

Overview

The \nskBlock command is the foundational drawing primitive in Neural Sketch, providing a rich set of customization options for geometric shapes, styling, positioning, and embedded content. It leverages TikZ’s shapes.geometric library to render rectangles, circles, diamonds, trapezoids, and more, with fine-grained control via a concise key-value interface.

Basic Usage

\nskBlock[<key=value, ...>]

This will draw a block (defaulting to a rectangle) with any combination of the supported keys to customize its appearance, position, and content.

Customized Example

For advanced use cases, you can specify options to adjust styling, positioning, and labeling:

\nskBlock[
  id=myBlock,
  fill=nskBlue!50,
  border-color=nskDarkGray,
  text-north={Block A},
  last-pos={right=2cm}
]

Available Keys

Identity

• id (string): Assigns a unique identifier to the block, useful for referencing positions later.

\nskBlock[id=blockA]

Shape and Dimensions

• shape (string, default=rectangle): Sets the geometric shape of the block (rectangle, circle, diamond, trapezium, etc.).

\nskBlock[shape=circle]

• width, height (dimension, default=1cm): Specifies the minimum width and height of the block.

\nskBlock[width=2cm, height=1.5cm]

• border-radius (dimension, default=2.5mm): Sets the corner radius for rectangular shapes.

\nskBlock[border-radius=4mm]

Colors and Styling

• fill (color, default=nskLightGray): Defines the fill color.

\nskBlock[fill=nskOrange!40]

• border-color (color, default=nskDarkGray): Sets the border color.

\nskBlock[border-color=nskRed]

• border-size (dimension, default=0.4mm): Adjusts the thickness of the block border.

\nskBlock[border-size=0.6mm]

Positioning

• last-pos (coordinate, default={}): Positions the current block relative to the previous block.

\nskBlock[last-pos={below=1cm}]

• last-pos-s (coordinate, default={}): Similar to last-pos but allows silent overrides without warnings.

\nskBlock[last-pos-s={right=0.5cm}]

Text Anchors

These keys define text labels attached to specific block anchor points:

• text-north, text-south, text-east, text-west, text-center (string, default={}): Adds text anchored to the specified side or center.

\nskBlock[text-north={Layer 1}]

Technical Details

Internally, \nskBlock:

• Sets user-defined keys and processes any position overrides (last-pos, last-pos-s).
• Auto-generates a unique ID if none is provided.
• Maintains a history of block positions and IDs for subsequent referencing.
• Provides debugging information when needed.

Example: Position Chaining

\nskBlock allows intuitive chaining of positions:

\nskBlock[id=A, text-center={A}]
\nskBlock[last-pos={right=of A}, text-center={B}]
\nskBlock[last-pos={below=of B}, text-center={C}]

Advanced Tips

• Leverage Neural Sketch’s curated palette and color mixing syntax for visual clarity:

\nskBlock[fill=nskBlue!30!nskGreen]

• Combine custom shapes with annotations for detailed diagrams:

\nskBlock[
  shape=diamond,
  fill=nskMagenta!20,
  text-center={Decision},
  last-pos={below=2cm}
]

See Also

• Basic Styles for default styling details.
• Palette for detailed color information.
• Notation & Conventions for standardized usage guidelines.

Reference