Automatically placing TikZ in a float/figure

Question

Is there a way to insert a diagram generated by Tikz/PGF directly from within a LaTex file? Currently, I am writing it in its own file, compiling it with pdflatex and then including the generated output file as an image.

Answer 1

Yes, this is possible. If you have a file diagram.tex with your TikZ instructions, just use the following

\begin{figure*}[tbp]
\input{diagram.tex}
\caption{This is my diagram.}
\label{f:diagram}
\end{figure*}

This should work just fine.

Answer 2

In the preamble add \usepackage{tikz} and necessary tikz libraries and in the document

    \begin{figure}[htb]
    \centering{
    \resizebox{0.8\textwidth}{!}{\input{diagram.tex}}}
    \caption{This is my diagram} \label{fig:diagram}
    \end{figure}

This enables to control the figure dimensions in your text.