# Position a node a certain distance away from another node at a certain angle in TikZ?

Like the title says, is it possible to position a node a certain distance away from another node at a certain angle from that node?

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Yes, TikZ can use polar coordinates. Not sure exactly what is the best way of defining the second node, here is one way.

\documentclass{scrartcl}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\node (A) {A};
\path (A) ++(30:2) node (B) [draw,fill=blue!20] {B};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}


In (30:2) 30 is the angle, 2 the distance. 0° is to the right, positive direction is counterclockwise, so node B will be above and to the right of A.

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Gnashing teeth - just beat me to it... – Brent.Longborough Sep 7 '11 at 19:14
Is it possible to use the \node command instead of \path? Or at least include a style in \path? – gablin Sep 7 '11 at 19:31
@gablin: I'm no expert, but I wasn't able to think of a way to do it with \node. But you can still do stuff like \path (A) ++(30:2) node (B) [draw,fill=blue!20] {B}; to style the node, if that was what you wanted. – Torbjørn T. Sep 7 '11 at 19:37
@Torbjorn T: Yup, that's what I wanted. Thanks! =) – gablin Sep 8 '11 at 9:37

TikZ allows you to specify positions and vectors in polar coordinates. Here's an example:

\begin{tikzpicture}
\node at (0,0) (a) {A node};
\node at (120:1cm) (b) {B node};
\path (a) ++(-45:2cm) node (c) {C node};
\end{tikzpicture}

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