# tikz picture not compiling using tikzexternalize - probably storage issue

I'm using tikzexternalize for most pictures in a very big document, which works fine. But for the image

\tikzsetnextfilename{someName}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{groupplot}[
group style={columns=2, rows=1 ,vertical sep=0cm},
view={0}{-90},
xtick=\empty,
ytick=\empty,
]
\nextgroupplot
\nextgroupplot
\end{groupplot}
\end{tikzpicture}


no file is created. If I choose to disable externalization via \tikzexternaldisable everything works fine.

The .dat files have 100x100 entries. With fewer entries (e.g. 30x30) externalization works properly.

Has anyone a suggestion how to solve this? By the way: I do not get any error or warning from the compiler.

Best, MA

PS: I forgot to mention: a colleague of mine has no issues using a Mac. I'm using a Windows Machine, with Miktex 2.9.

• Can you externalize "manually"? I.e.: copy the code of that figure in a standalone document, compile that one, and \includegraphics the resulting pdf in the main one. May 14, 2014 at 8:58
• Yes, it is possible to build the figure as standalone and include the pdf via \includegraphics. My issue is that with 'automatic' externalization no pdf is created at all. May 14, 2014 at 11:36
• Without a complete test document it is very difficult to say something. May 14, 2014 at 14:24

Well, here is the minimal example from my complete document including a link to the file I use. The crucial part is TikTexFile.tex - I don't get the .ps-file via externalization (that's how I posted the code). If I decomment the line \tikzexternaldisable everything works fine, since data is loaded directly. As I said, it is possible to build the Tikz picture standalone and include the PDF. This error appears using MikTex 2.9, Windows 7. Everything works fine with the Mac of a colleague. Thanks for your time!

Test.tex

\documentclass[12pt,open=left]{scrbook}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usetikzlibrary{pgfplots.groupplots}
\usetikzlibrary{datavisualization}
\usetikzlibrary{datavisualization.formats.functions}
\usepgfplotslibrary{groupplots}

\usepgfplotslibrary{external}
\tikzexternalize[shell escape={--enable-write18}, system call={latex    \tikzexternalcheckshellescape -halt-on-error -interaction=batchmode -jobname "\image" "\texsource" & dvips -o "\image".ps "\image".dvi & ps2pdf "\image".ps "\image".pdf}
]

\begin{document}

\begin{figure}[!ht]
\centering
\input{TikzTexFile}
\end{figure}
\end{document}


TikTexFile.tex

%\tikzexternaldisable
\tikzsetnextfilename{TikzFilePDF}
\begin{tikzpicture} [scale = 0.2]
\begin{groupplot}[
group style={columns=5, rows=1 ,vertical sep=0cm},
view={0}{-90},
xtick=\empty,
ytick=\empty,
]

\nextgroupplot

• Does it work if you replace & by &&? These signs have different meanings on Mac and windows. From what I understand, && is the correct one. See also stackoverflow.com/questions/8055371/… . I'll test it myself on windows eventually. Jul 8, 2014 at 9:16