TikZ picture new feature doesn't really work

[joulev]

Disable all the other extensions except for LaTeX Workshop, and check that you still see this issue. [Required]
Done.

Make sure to visit the wiki FAQ before filling an issue.
Done.

Describe the bug [Required]
I was (and am) literally very surprised to see the "View TikzPicture" a few days ago – never thought that such a feature will ever be implemented. After some days of using and checking, I think there are still some problems to be considered:

• LaTeX Workshop doesn't recognize 90% of the TikZ pictures in my document, although they are all bounded by \begin{tikzpicture}[something] and \end{tikzpicture}.
• Surprisingly, all recognized TikZ pictures are surrounded by one custom-defined command (in my case it is \centertikz) (see screenshot below). Even more, two adjacent TikZ pictures are recognized as one.
• And, none of these buttons work :( There are some cases it opens a PDF file which has literally nothing but some text (maybe because the feature does not take the preamble into account which leads to some kinds of compilation errors). In some rare cases (which I can not reproduce right now, but I have encountered before), no PDF file is opened at all and error "PDF file not found" is reported by the PDF viewer.

Last, but not least, could you please change "TikzPicture" to "TikZ picture", or even better "TikZ picture"? The official "logo" of the package is "TikZ".

Expected behavior
Exactly what we all expect.

Logs [Required]

LaTeX Workshop Output [Required]

I paste the related part (everything that is shown after I pressing the button). The other lines are not related IMHO.

[15:26:24] Serving PDF file at http://localhost:51814/viewer.html?file=pdf..QyUzQSU1Q1VzZXJzJTVDQU5IVEFOfjElNUNBcHBEYXRhJTVDTG9jYWwlNUNUZW1wJTVDdnNjb2RlLWxhdGV4d29ya3Nob3AlNUN0aWt6cHJldmlldy1wcm9ibGVtLXR2d3RsNSU1Q3Rpa3pwaWN0dXJlLTcwMzgwODQwLnBkZg
[15:26:24] The encoded path is C:\Users\ANHTAN~1\AppData\Local\Temp\vscode-latexworkshop\tikzpreview-problem-tvwtl5\tikzpicture-70380840.pdf
[15:26:25] Open PDF tab for C:\Users\ANHTAN~1\AppData\Local\Temp\vscode-latexworkshop\tikzpreview-problem-tvwtl5\tikzpicture-70380840.pdf
[15:26:26] No PDF viewer connected for C:\Users\ANHTAN~1\AppData\Local\Temp\vscode-latexworkshop\tikzpreview-problem-tvwtl5\tikzpicture-70380840.pdf
[15:26:26] Serving PDF file at http://localhost:51814/viewer.html?file=pdf..QyUzQSU1Q1VzZXJzJTVDQU5IVEFOfjElNUNBcHBEYXRhJTVDTG9jYWwlNUNUZW1wJTVDdnNjb2RlLWxhdGV4d29ya3Nob3AlNUN0aWt6cHJldmlldy1wcm9ibGVtLXR2d3RsNSU1Q3Rpa3pwaWN0dXJlLTcwMzgwODQwLnBkZg
[15:26:26] The encoded path is C:\Users\ANHTAN~1\AppData\Local\Temp\vscode-latexworkshop\tikzpreview-problem-tvwtl5\tikzpicture-70380840.pdf
[15:26:26] Open PDF tab for C:\Users\ANHTAN~1\AppData\Local\Temp\vscode-latexworkshop\tikzpreview-problem-tvwtl5\tikzpicture-70380840.pdf
[15:26:28] Handle data type: open
[15:26:28] Handle data type: open
[15:26:28] Preview PDF file: c:\Users\ANHTAN~1\AppData\Local\Temp\vscode-latexworkshop\tikzpreview-problem-tvwtl5\tikzpicture-70380840.pdf
[15:26:28] Preview PDF file: c:\Users\ANHTAN~1\AppData\Local\Temp\vscode-latexworkshop\tikzpreview-problem-tvwtl5\tikzpicture-70380840.pdf
[15:26:28] Handle data type: loaded
[15:26:28] Handle data type: loaded

Developer Tools Console [Required]

latexmkrc seems to have trouble compiling the TikZ pictures.

Screenshots
In the following screenshot, there are no buttons.

In the following screenshot, the middle TikZ picture is not recognized.

In the following screenshot, it is expected to be a graph.

\begin{tikzpicture}[font=\footnotesize,>=stealth]
    \draw[<->] (3.5,0) -| (0,2.5) node[at start,below] {$d$} node[at end,left] {$V$};
    \path (0,0) node[below] {$X$} (1.5,0) node[below] {$P$} (3,0) node[below] {$Y$};
    \fill (0,0) circle (1.5pt) (1.5,0) circle (1.5pt) (3,0) circle (1.5pt);
    \draw[thick] (0,.5) -- (3,2);
\end{tikzpicture}

Desktop [Required]:

• OS: Windows 10
• VS Code version: 1.36.1
• Extension version: 7.2.0

Additional context
If necessary, this is my mysterious \centertikz command. It is a workaround for centering elements in the middle of the baseline. I can't figure out how it affects the feature, but as I can see, it does affect the feature.

\newbox\mybox
\def\centertikz#1{%
    \setbox\mybox\hbox{#1}%
    \raisebox{-0.5\dimexpr\ht\mybox+\dp\mybox}{\copy\mybox}%
}

[tecosaur]

Hi, @joulev thanks for making this issue. I should be able to help with those points.

1. Tikz pictures not being recognised.

That's due to a mistake that slipped in earlier where whenever \end{tikzpicture} is unindented the tikzpicture isn't recognised (fixed in 7a18715). Hopefully this should be fine in the next release.

2. Tikzpictures after \centertikz being recognised

I imagine that's because the \end{tikzpicture} there is indented.

3. View tikzpicture button is buggy

That's very dodgy. I did try your example though, and it seemed to work (Using the HEAD version of this extension though). It's worth noting that I am on linux.

4. please change "TikzPicture" to "TikZ picture", or even better "TikZ picture"

Sure! I'll make a commit for that soon.

p.s. Thanks for a rather nicely structured issue with examples 😃

Helpful troubleshooting steps

The temp file used (in your case) looks like C:\Users\ANHTAN~1\AppData\Local\Temp\vscode-latexworkshop\tikzpreview-problem-tvwtl5\ (though the letters/numbers at the end change each session). You should find the files for the tikzpreview in this folder.

e.g.

It would be very helpful if you would be able to

• produce the probems once again
• verify that ...Temp\vscode-latexworkshop\tikzpreview-problem-tvwtl5\ looks like you'd expect (has all the right files)
• grab preamble.tex and tikzpicture-XXXXXXX.tex
• also provide the problematic document or just a MWE version of it

[joulev]

Hi @tecosaur.

Thanks for your reply. I am trying to reproduce the problems. In fact, I think indentation is the cause here:

As you have fixed, I am looking forward to the next release!

---

However, even when the environment is indented, if they are nested in something e.g. enumerate, it seems that only the 1st, 3rd, 5th, etc. are recognized:

---

As of the output preview, I see nothing actually. latexmkrc is still reporting that it can't compile. Following your advice, I go to the directory and found

preamble.tex

\documentclass{standalone}


\usepackage{tikz}

\pdfcompresslevel=0
\pdfobjcompresslevel=0

\begin{document}\end{document}

tikzpicture-76543465.tex (just for example)

%&preamble
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[font=\footnotesize,>=stealth]
        \draw (0,0) -- (1,1);
    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

texput.log

This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.20 (MiKTeX 2.9.7050 64-bit) (INITEX)  23 JUL 2019 17:08
**"&pdflatex" mylatexformat.ltx "C:\Users\ANHTAN~1\AppData\Local\Temp\vscode-la
texworkshop\tikzpreview-check-Ou9Dix\preamble.tex"

! Emergency stop.
<*> "&pdflatex" 
                mylatexformat.ltx "C:\Users\ANHTAN~1\AppData\Local\Temp\vsco...
*** (job aborted, file error in nonstop mode)

No pages of output.

It seems that the files is somehow written incorrectly perhaps, which leads to compilation errors.

Full MWE source file I used in the above example (if necessary)

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\newbox\mybox
\def\centertikz#1{%
    \setbox\mybox\hbox{#1}%
    \raisebox{-0.5\dimexpr\ht\mybox+\dp\mybox}{\copy\mybox}%
}
\begin{document}
This is a normal TikZ picture

\begin{tikzpicture}[font=\footnotesize,>=stealth]
    \draw (0,0) -- (1,1);
\end{tikzpicture}

This is an indented TikZ picture 

\begin{center}
    \begin{tikzpicture}[font=\footnotesize,>=stealth]
        \draw (0,0) -- (1,1);
    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{center}

Using \verb|\centertikz| but not indented

\centertikz{\begin{tikzpicture}[font=\footnotesize,>=stealth]
    \draw (0,0) -- (1,1);
\end{tikzpicture}}

Using \verb|\centertikz| but indented

    \centertikz{\begin{tikzpicture}[font=\footnotesize,>=stealth]
        \draw (0,0) -- (1,1);
    \end{tikzpicture}}

Using many different TikZ pictures and indented

\begin{enumerate}
    \item \centertikz{\begin{tikzpicture}[font=\footnotesize,>=stealth]
        \draw (0,0) -- (1,1);
    \end{tikzpicture}}
    \item \centertikz{\begin{tikzpicture}[font=\footnotesize,>=stealth]
        \draw (0,0) -- (1,1);
    \end{tikzpicture}}
    \item \centertikz{\begin{tikzpicture}[font=\footnotesize,>=stealth]
        \draw (0,0) -- (1,1);
    \end{tikzpicture}}
    \item \centertikz{\begin{tikzpicture}[font=\footnotesize,>=stealth]
        \draw (0,0) -- (1,1);
    \end{tikzpicture}}
    \item \centertikz{\begin{tikzpicture}[font=\footnotesize,>=stealth]
        \draw (0,0) -- (1,1);
    \end{tikzpicture}}
\end{enumerate}
\end{document}

[joulev]

Although in my computer it can't compile yet, but by some tests, I found another problem. It seems that \tikzset in preamble is not recognized.

For example, with the following MWE,

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{decorations.markings}

\tikzset{
    ->-/.style={
        postaction=decorate,
        decoration={markings,mark=at position #1 with \arrow{>}}
    }
}

\begin{document}
\begin{center}
    \begin{tikzpicture}
        \draw[->-=0.5] (0,0) -- (3,-2);
    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{center}
\end{document}

the \tikzset line is crucial to compile the figure. However, in both preamble.tex and tikzpicture-XXX.tex, I don't see any \tikzset, i.e. all settings I have in these global \tikzsets are lost. I think this should also be fixed.

[tecosaur]

Ok. Seems like the \tikzset may be the root of all the compile issues. I have a feeling that the regex for it may not deal with nested brackets well. I'll have a look at that and the code lenses and report back.

[tecosaur]

Update 1

Have fixed the code lense issue.

[tecosaur]

Update 2

Think I fixed the \tikzset issue. Just had to make some regex that matched up to 3rd level nested brackets — {(?:[^\{\}]+|{(?:[^\{\}]+|{(?:[^\{\}]+|{[^\{\}]+})+})+})+}. I find it easier spread out over a few lines.

@joulev would you mind testing https://github.com/tecosaur/LaTeX-Workshop/tree/tikzpreview-fixes and letting me know how that goes?

Just in case you havent seen this before, the steps are:

• clone / download
• npm install
• open folder with vscode
• launch

[joulev]

@tecosaur In fact, I haven't done this before, and I have a bit trouble with it. 😄

Could you please explain the steps more? I don't think I can get it yet.

[seragunn]

@joulev Edit: The easiest way to download the code is to download it as a .zip file through Github. I wrote about how to clone repositories earlier which you may feel free to skip.

The procedure to clone a repository is with the git command (https://git-scm.com/). Normally this would just be git clone https://github.com/tecosaur/LaTeX-Workshop.git but since you want a different branch, you want to specify that as well:

git clone --single-branch --branch tikzpreview-fixes https://github.com/tecosaur/LaTeX-Workshop.git
cd LaTeX-Workshop
npm install

Also possible is to clone the whole thing and then checkout to the correct branch:

git clone https://github.com/tecosaur/LaTeX-Workshop.git
cd LaTex-Workshop
git checkout tikzpreview-fixes

Once you're there, you can type git log to check that "Expand maximum bracket nesting in tikzpreview regex" was the latest commit (so you know you have the right branch. Press q to exit the log.

---

Now you can try npm install and hopefully that works. (It might produce a couple warnings, that is to be expected.) Check that you now have a directory called node_modules. Note: you must run this command from inside the LaTeX-Workshop source directory. Use the cd (change directory) command to get to it. E.g. if you unzipped inside your Downloads folder: cd C:\User\Username\Downloads\LaTeX-Workshop. The command also accept relative paths. E.g. cd Downloads\LaTeX-Workshop will work if your current directory is C:\User\Username\.

You can now open up the directory in VSCode and launch, but you may also find it easier to instead run npm run compile which will produce a folder called out which you can copy to C:\User\Username\.vscode\extensions\james-yu.latex-workshop-7.2.0\. (This is what launching does except launching restores the original extension when it closes.)

[joulev]

@TrevorGunn Thank you very much for your detailed instructions! I think I just succeeded.

@tecosaur In fact, all TikZ pictures are now recognized 😃. But there are still some problems with compilations in my computer.

I see that preamble.tex, tikzpicture-XXX.tex and texput.log are not different from yesterday.

---

Checking out the \tikzset MWE, I can see that \tikzset is still not recognized.

The log file of the compilation

This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.20 (MiKTeX 2.9.7050 64-bit) (preloaded format=pdflatex 2019.7.24)  24 JUL 2019 10:02
entering extended mode
**./tikzpicture-37352611.tex
(tikzpicture-37352611.tex
LaTeX2e <2018-12-01>
(tikzpicture-37352611.aux)
\openout1 = `tikzpicture-37352611.aux'.

LaTeX Font Info:    Checking defaults for OML/cmm/m/it on input line 2.
LaTeX Font Info:    ... okay on input line 2.
LaTeX Font Info:    Checking defaults for T1/cmr/m/n on input line 2.
LaTeX Font Info:    ... okay on input line 2.
LaTeX Font Info:    Checking defaults for OT1/cmr/m/n on input line 2.
LaTeX Font Info:    ... okay on input line 2.
LaTeX Font Info:    Checking defaults for OMS/cmsy/m/n on input line 2.
LaTeX Font Info:    ... okay on input line 2.
LaTeX Font Info:    Checking defaults for OMX/cmex/m/n on input line 2.
LaTeX Font Info:    ... okay on input line 2.
LaTeX Font Info:    Checking defaults for U/cmr/m/n on input line 2.
LaTeX Font Info:    ... okay on input line 2.

! LaTeX Error: The font size command \normalsize is not defined:
               there is probably something wrong with the class file.

See the LaTeX manual or LaTeX Companion for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
 ...                                              
                                                  
l.2 \begin{document}
                    
Your command was ignored.
Type  I <command> <return>  to replace it with another command,
or  <return>  to continue without it.


! LaTeX Error: Environment tikzpicture undefined.

See the LaTeX manual or LaTeX Companion for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
 ...                                              
                                                  
l.3 \begin{tikzpicture}
                       
Your command was ignored.
Type  I <command> <return>  to replace it with another command,
or  <return>  to continue without it.

! Undefined control sequence.
l.4         \draw
                 [->-=0.5] (0,0) -- (3,-2);
The control sequence at the end of the top line
of your error message was never \def'ed. If you have
misspelled it (e.g., `\hobx'), type `I' and the correct
spelling (e.g., `I\hbox'). Otherwise just continue,
and I'll forget about whatever was undefined.

Missing character: There is no [ in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no - in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no > in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no - in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no = in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no 0 in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no . in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no 5 in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no ] in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no ( in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no 0 in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no , in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no 0 in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no ) in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no - in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no - in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no ( in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no 3 in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no , in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no - in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no 2 in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no ) in font nullfont!
Missing character: There is no ; in font nullfont!

! LaTeX Error: \begin{document} ended by \end{tikzpicture}.

See the LaTeX manual or LaTeX Companion for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
 ...                                              
                                                  
l.5     \end{tikzpicture}
                         
Your command was ignored.
Type  I <command> <return>  to replace it with another command,
or  <return>  to continue without it.


! LaTeX Error: The font size command \normalsize is not defined:
               there is probably something wrong with the class file.

See the LaTeX manual or LaTeX Companion for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.
 ...                                              
                                                  
l.6 \end{document}
                  
Your command was ignored.
Type  I <command> <return>  to replace it with another command,
or  <return>  to continue without it.

[1] (tikzpicture-37352611.aux) ) 
Here is how much of TeX's memory you used:
 14 strings out of 492891
 622 string characters out of 3122622
 57124 words of memory out of 3000000
 4026 multiletter control sequences out of 15000+200000
 3640 words of font info for 14 fonts, out of 3000000 for 9000
 1141 hyphenation exceptions out of 8191
 22i,4n,15p,69b,109s stack positions out of 5000i,500n,10000p,200000b,50000s

Output written on tikzpicture-37352611.pdf (1 page, 870 bytes).
PDF statistics:
 6 PDF objects out of 1000 (max. 8388607)
 0 named destinations out of 1000 (max. 500000)
 1 words of extra memory for PDF output out of 10000 (max. 10000000)

[tecosaur]

@joulev I find it interesting that this \tikzset still isn't recognised. You can see your document and the updated regex here https://regex101.com/r/1xix9x/1 and it looks like it should be included.

Using your \tikzset MWE it seems to work for me.

Preamble.tex

\documentclass{standalone}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{decorations.markings}
\tikzset{
    ->-/.style={
        postaction=decorate,
        decoration={markings,mark=at position #1 with \arrow{>}}
    }
}

\pdfcompresslevel=0
\pdfobjcompresslevel=0

\begin{document}\end{document}

tikzpicture-XYZ.tex

%&preamble
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
        \draw[->-=0.5] (0,0) -- (3,-2);
    \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Some Thoughts

I notice in your compilation log that you are using MiKTeX and have the following line

! LaTeX Error: Environment tikzpicture undefined.

as such my current suspicion is that the preamble.fmt file isn't being used for the compilation.

For comparison with texlive on Linux I get this:

My compilation log

Latexmk: This is Latexmk, John Collins, 17 Jan. 2018, version: 4.55.
Latexmk: applying rule 'pdflatex'...
Rule 'pdflatex': Rules & subrules not known to be previously run:
   pdflatex
Rule 'pdflatex': The following rules & subrules became out-of-date:
      'pdflatex'
------------
Run number 1 of rule 'pdflatex'
------------
------------
Running 'pdflatex  -recorder  "tikzpicture-39616869.tex"'
------------
This is pdfTeX, Version 3.14159265-2.6-1.40.19 (TeX Live 2018) (preloaded format=preamble)
 restricted \write18 enabled.
entering extended mode
(./tikzpicture-39616869.tex
LaTeX2e <2018-04-01> patch level 2
Babel <3.18> and hyphenation patterns for 84 language(s) loaded.

==============================================================================
JOB NAME         : "tikzpicture-39616869"
CUSTOMISED FORMAT: "preamble"
PRELOADED FILES:
standalone.cls    2018/03/26 v1.3a Class to compile TeX sub-files standalone
shellesc.sty    2016/06/07 v0.02a unified shell escape interface for LaTeX
ifluatex.sty    2016/05/16 v1.4 Provides the ifluatex switch (HO)
   ifpdf.sty    2017/03/15 v3.2 Provides the ifpdf switch
 ifxetex.sty    2010/09/12 v0.6 Provides ifxetex conditional
 xkeyval.sty    2014/12/03 v2.7a package option processing (HA)
 xkeyval.tex    2014/12/03 v2.7a key=value parser (HA)
standalone.cfg    2018/03/26 v1.3a Default configuration file for 'standalone' 
class
 article.cls    2014/09/29 v1.4h Standard LaTeX document class
  size10.clo    2014/09/29 v1.4h Standard LaTeX file (size option)
bmc-color.sty    2019/06/09 Colour functionality used in the BMC class
etoolbox.sty    2018/02/11 v2.5e e-TeX tools for LaTeX (JAW)
kvoptions.sty    2016/05/16 v3.12 Key value format for package options (HO)
 ltxcmds.sty    2016/05/16 v1.23 LaTeX kernel commands for general use (HO)
kvsetkeys.sty    2016/05/16 v1.17 Key value parser (HO)
infwarerr.sty    2016/05/16 v1.4 Providing info/warning/error messages (HO)
etexcmds.sty    2016/05/16 v1.6 Avoid name clashes with e-TeX commands (HO)
 ifdraft.sty    2016/05/16 v1.4 Detect class options draft and final (HO)
  xcolor.sty    2016/05/11 v2.12 LaTeX color extensions (UK)
   color.cfg    2016/01/02 v1.6 sample color configuration
  pdftex.def    2018/01/08 v1.0l Graphics/color driver for pdftex
colortbl.sty    2012/02/13 v1.0a Color table columns (DPC)
   array.sty    2018/04/07 v2.4g Tabular extension package (FMi)
dvipsnam.def    2016/06/17 v3.0m Driver-dependent file (DPC,SPQR)
  svgnam.def    2016/05/11 v2.12 Predefined colors according to SVG 1.1 (UK)
bmc-maths.sty    2019/06/09 Maths functionality used in the BMC class
 amsmath.sty    2017/09/02 v2.17a AMS math features
 amstext.sty    2000/06/29 v2.01 AMS text
  amsgen.sty    1999/11/30 v2.0 generic functions
  amsbsy.sty    1999/11/29 v1.2d Bold Symbols
  amsopn.sty    2016/03/08 v2.02 operator names
 amssymb.sty    2013/01/14 v3.01 AMS font symbols
amsfonts.sty    2013/01/14 v3.01 Basic AMSFonts support
   xfrac.sty    2018/02/21 L3 Experimental split-level fractions
   expl3.sty    2018/03/05 L3 programming layer (loader) 
expl3-code.tex    2018/03/05 L3 programming layer 
l3pdfmode.def    2017/03/18 v L3 Experimental driver: PDF mode
graphicx.sty    2017/06/01 v1.1a Enhanced LaTeX Graphics (DPC,SPQR)
graphics.sty    2017/06/25 v1.2c Standard LaTeX Graphics (DPC,SPQR)
    trig.sty    2016/01/03 v1.10 sin cos tan (DPC)
graphics.cfg    2016/06/04 v1.11 sample graphics configuration
l3keys2e.sty    2018/02/21 LaTeX2e option processing using LaTeX3 keys
textcomp.sty    2017/04/05 v2.0i Standard LaTeX package
  ts1enc.def    2001/06/05 v3.0e (jk/car/fm) Standard LaTeX file
  ts1enc.dfu    2018/04/05 v1.2c UTF-8 support for inputenc
  xparse.sty    2018/02/21 L3 Experimental document command parser
xtemplate.sty    2018/02/21 L3 Experimental prototype document functions
  cancel.sty    2013/04/12 v2.2 Cancel math terms
mathtools.sty    2018/01/08 v1.21 mathematical typesetting tools
    calc.sty    2017/05/25 v4.3 Infix arithmetic (KKT,FJ)
 mhsetup.sty    2017/03/31 v1.3 programming setup (MH)
    tikz.sty    2015/08/07 v3.0.1a (rcs-revision 1.151)
     pgf.sty    2015/08/07 v3.0.1a (rcs-revision 1.15)
  pgfrcs.sty    2015/08/07 v3.0.1a (rcs-revision 1.31)
everyshi.sty    2001/05/15 v3.00 EveryShipout Package (MS)
  pgfrcs.code.tex
 pgfcore.sty    2010/04/11 v3.0.1a (rcs-revision 1.7)
  pgfsys.sty    2014/07/09 v3.0.1a (rcs-revision 1.48)
  pgfsys.code.tex
pgfsyssoftpath.code.tex    2013/09/09  (rcs-revision 1.9)
pgfsysprotocol.code.tex    2006/10/16  (rcs-revision 1.4)
 pgfcore.code.tex
pgfcomp-version-0-65.sty    2007/07/03 v3.0.1a (rcs-revision 1.7)
pgfcomp-version-1-18.sty    2007/07/23 v3.0.1a (rcs-revision 1.1)
  pgffor.sty    2013/12/13 v3.0.1a (rcs-revision 1.25)
 pgfkeys.sty    
 pgfkeys.code.tex
 pgfmath.sty    
 pgfmath.code.tex
  pgffor.code.tex
    tikz.code.tex
    umsa.fd    2013/01/14 v3.01 AMS symbols A
    umsb.fd    2013/01/14 v3.01 AMS symbols B

==============================================================================
(mylatexformat)Info: start reading document "tikzpicture-39616869"
(mylatexformat)      on input line 2. (\begin{document})
==============================================================================
(./tikzpicture-39616869.aux) (/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/ts1cmr.fd)
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/context/base/mkii/supp-pdf.mkii
[Loading MPS to PDF converter (version 2006.09.02).]
) (/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/oberdiek/epstopdf-base.sty
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/oberdiek/grfext.sty
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/kvdefinekeys.sty))
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/pdftexcmds.sty)
(/usr/share/texmf-dist/tex/latex/latexconfig/epstopdf-sys.cfg))
ABD: EveryShipout initializing macros [1] (./tikzpicture-39616869.aux) )
Output written on tikzpicture-39616869.pdf (1 page, 1585 bytes).
Transcript written on tikzpicture-39616869.log.
=== TeX engine is 'pdfTeX'
Latexmk: Log file says output to 'tikzpicture-39616869.pdf'
Latexmk: All targets (tikzpicture-39616869.pdf) are up-to-date

Of particular note to me is the line CUSTOMISED FORMAT: "preamble " which doesn't appear on your log.

I'll have a look and see if MiKTeX works differently and come back. Thanks for being a willing test subject 😛

@TrevorGunn thank you for helping with instructions on how to run the branch.

[tecosaur]

Ok. @joulev I have no clue why it's not working. I installed MiKTeX on a Win7 VM, pasted the files described in my last comment, and the ran.

1. pdftex -ini -interaction=nonstopmode -shell-escape -file-line-error -jobname="preamble" "&pdflatex" mylatexformat.ltx "preamble.tex"
2. latexmk -interaction=batchmode -quiet -pdf tikzpicture-XYZ.tex

And it all worked.

Could you verify that if you do the same that it works for you? If it does can you make sure that the preamble and tikzpicture files that you said were the same are indeed from after you tried my branch. The contents of the files should be the same.

[seragunn]

@tecosaur Calling pdftex from the command line works, calling it with child_process does not. I have no idea why. pdftex doesn't produce a log either when run from the extension so I don't think it even tried to run.

What does work:

• Calling child_process.spawn('explorer') so we know the spawn command is working
• Calling latexmk works (once pdftex is called manually, the Tikz previewer works normally)

I'm out of ideas as to why launching pdftex with child_process isn't working.

You do have to run pdftex.exe rather than pdftex from the command line, but I'm pretty sure that isn't the issue.

EDIT: There is one more thing. If I uninstall the mylatexformat package and standalone class from MikTeX, Running pdftex with child_process.spawn does not prompt to install either package. Running pdftex with child_process.exec prompts to install mylatexformat but not standalone class. This means that pdftex sees the mylatexformat argument but not the standalone class which is contained in the preamble. (Possibly I set up the parameters to child_process.exec wrong.)

This also means that with child_process.spawn, the command doesn't run at all because if it did, it would prompt to install mylatexformat even if it can't find the preamble file.

[tecosaur]

This is strange. I do hope the way it currently is it isn't a Linux-only feature. @James-Yu @jlelong @tamuratak have any of you tested this feature on windows?

[joulev]

@tecosaur @TrevorGunn I haven't tested anything yet (today I am a bit busy), but I am sure I don't use latexmk. Maybe that is the issue?

Tonight I will try uninstall all LaTeX-Workshop and your branch and start all over again, but use your approach (latexmk). Hope it works. It is not probable that the feature is Linux-only.

But it is also worth noting that not all users use latexmk, so it should also work without latexmk.