# Combining hobby paths for post action

Is there anyway to combine hobby paths and lines into a single path so that I can apply a post-action?

Basically, I want my orientation arrows to be equally spaced along the entire path rather than the individual components.

\documentclass{standalone}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{hobby}
\usetikzlibrary{backgrounds}
\usetikzlibrary{decorations.markings}
\usetikzlibrary{arrows.meta}
\tikzset{>=stealth}

\tikzset{
clockwise arrows/.style={
postaction={
decorate,
decoration={
markings,
mark=between positions 0 and 1 step 40pt with {\arrow{>}},
}}}}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[framed]

\coordinate (B1) at (7,-1);
\coordinate (B2) at (7,1);

\coordinate (A1) at (1,2);
\coordinate (A2) at (1,-2);

\draw[magenta, thick, clockwise arrows] (A1) -- (A2);
\draw[magenta, thick, clockwise arrows] (B1) -- (B2);

\draw[magenta,thick,use Hobby shortcut, clockwise arrows] (B2) .. (4.5,2) .. (3,3) .. (A1);
\draw[magenta,thick,use Hobby shortcut, clockwise arrows] (A2) .. (3,-3) .. (4.5,-2) .. (B1);

\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}


• What goes wrong if you just put them into a single path command? That ought to work just fine. – Loop Space Sep 30 '16 at 5:29
• How do I do that :S ? – vrbatim Sep 30 '16 at 7:33

You can combine your four draw statements into a single statement:

\draw[magenta,thick,use Hobby shortcut, clockwise arrows]
(B2) .. (4.5,2) .. (3,3) .. (A1) --
(A2) .. (3,-3) .. (4.5,-2) .. (B1) -- cycle;


Note that you can mix .. and -- and that cycle closes the loop.

But, you will still get that horrible arrow at the start of the path. To fix that you could just make the decoration start a bit further along:

    mark=between positions 0.05  and 1 step 40pt with {\arrow{>}},


with these changes your example produces this:

• Couldn't have put it better myself! – Loop Space Sep 30 '16 at 16:13
• @LoopSpace I'm sure you could. – Thruston Sep 30 '16 at 18:53