# How to draw two Tikz pictures that are parallel to each other?

I want to draw two automaton figures next to each other; however I can't put them in one \begin{} \end{} tag because the node distance can be changed, further the distance between two pictures is also different. A minimal example would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

\begin{tikzpicture}[shorten >=1pt,node distance=2cm,on grid,auto]
\node[state,initial]    (q_0)                   {$q_0$};
\node[state,accepting]  (q_1)   [right=of q_0]  {$q_1$};
\node[state]            (q_2)   [right=of q_1]  {$q_2$};

\path[->]
(q_0) edge                  node {a}            (q_1)
(q_1) edge                  node {$\lambda$}    (q_2)
(q_2) edge  [bend right]    node {$\lambda$}    (q_0)
; %end path
\end{tikzpicture}

-

If the two pictures can stay on one line, it's nothing more than

\begin{tikzpicture}
<code for the first picture>
\end{tikzpicture}
\begin{tikzpicture}
<code for the second picture>
\end{tikzpicture}


They will be aligned at their bottom.

-
Thank you for your solution. However I found another solution for this particular problem in the TikZ manual. They used \scope nested inside the \begin{tikzpicture} texample.net/tikz/examples/nodetutorial – Chan Jul 24 '11 at 20:31
@Chan Yes but in this case, you don't draw two tkizpictures but only one. The rule that everyone should know is that the result of an environment tikzpicture is a box whose height is the height of the box and the depth is null. This is why we can align the boxes at their bottom. It is possible to change the depth of this box with the option baseline. Then it is easy to align boxes. – Alain Matthes Jun 18 '12 at 15:26

You could use a minipage:

\noindent
\begin{minipage}{.5\textwidth}
\centering
\begin{tikzpicture}
<code for the first picture>
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{minipage}%
\begin{minipage}{.5\textwidth}
\centering
\begin{tikzpicture}
<code for the second picture>
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{minipage}


Or else a subfloat (using the subfig package):

\begin{figure}
\subfloat[first caption here]
{
\begin{tikzpicture}
<code for the first picture>
\end{tikzpicture}
}
\subfloat[second caption here]
{
\begin{tikzpicture}
<code for the second picture>
\end{tikzpicture}
}
\end{figure}

-
You can just type 0.5\textwidth. – Andrey Vihrov Jul 24 '11 at 21:28
I've added some code without which the result would not have worked. – egreg Jul 24 '11 at 21:30

This is my solution based on the following example from TikZ tutorial http://www.texample.net/tikz/examples/nodetutorial/

\begin{tikzpicture}[shorten >=1pt,node distance=2cm,on grid,auto]
\begin{scope}
\node[state,initial]    (q_1)                           {$q_1$};
\node[state,accepting]  (q_2)   [right=of q_1]          {$q_2$};
\node[state]            (q_3)   [below right=of q_1]    {$q_3$};

\path[->]
(q_1) edge  [bend left]     node {a}            (q_2)
(q_1) edge  [loop above]    node {b}            (q_1)
(q_2) edge  [bend left]     node {a,b}          (q_3)
(q_3) edge  [bend left]     node {a}            (q_2)
(q_3) edge  [bend left]     node {b}            (q_1)
;
\end{scope}

\begin{scope}[xshift=10cm]
\node[state,initial]    (q_1)                           {$q_1$};
\node[state,accepting]  (q_2)   [right=of q_1]          {$q_2$};
\node[state]            (q_3)   [below right=of q_1]    {$q_3$};

\path[->]
(q_1) edge  [bend left]     node {a}            (q_2)
(q_1) edge  [loop above]    node {b}            (q_1)
(q_2) edge  [bend left]     node {a,b}          (q_3)
(q_3) edge  [bend left]     node {a}            (q_2)
(q_3) edge  [bend left]     node {b}            (q_1)
;
\end{scope}
\end{tikzpicture}

-
Doesn't your question explicitly state that you don't want this kind of solution? – Caramdir Jul 24 '11 at 21:27
@Caramdir: The distance between two pictures is xshift which is different than the node distance so this is what I wanted. Did I misunderstand you somewhere? – Chan Jul 24 '11 at 21:32
No, I (and seemingly the other people who answered) misinterpreted your question. Without the second part of your first sentence (which is rather confusing) the scope/shift solution would have been given sooner. – Caramdir Jul 24 '11 at 21:37
Then, I really apologize for misinterpret my question because my initial thought was influenced by the node distance parameter. – Chan Jul 24 '11 at 21:40