Standalone in subfile

Question

I am trying to do cirkuittikz diagram inside a subfile but if i compile main it does not work.

main:

\documentclass[12pt]{report}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{standalone}
\usepackage{circuitikz}
\usepackage{subfiles}

\begin{document}
    \subfile{include/chapter1}
\end{document}

chapter1.tex:

\documentclass[../main.tex]{subfiles}
\begin{document}
\chapter{Test}
\begin{figure}
    \centering
    \includestandalone{figure/fig}
    \caption{A figure.}
    \label{fig:fig}
\end{figure}
\end{document}

fig.tex:

\documentclass[12pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{circuitikz}
\begin{document}
    \begin{circuitikz}
        \draw[] (0,0)
        to[R]++(0,3)
        ;
    \end{circuitikz}
\end{document}

LaTeX Error: Can be used only in preamble.

You have used a command in the main body of your document which should be used in the preamble. Make sure that \documentclass[…]{…} and all \usepackage{…} commands are written before \begin{document}. Learn more

See the LaTeX manual or LaTeX Companion for explanation. Type H for immediate help. ...

l.2 \usepackage {circuitikz} Your command was ignored. Type I to replace it with another command, or to continue without it.

) File: figure/fig.tex Graphic file (type tex) ) (/compile/include/chapter2.tex [1

Answer 1

As of version v1.6 of subfiles, this incompatibility of subfiles and the standalone package is fixed, your example now compiles fine. The version is currently only available on Github, but will make it sooner or later also to CTAN (I have to give the people there a break, published too many updates within the last week ;-).

Answer 2

After looking over this package for the last 45 minutes, I recommend not mixing subfiles and standalone. I have not been able to make them work.

For some reason while loading a \input{standalone} while inside a \subfile{mysubfile} it will print all names of the used packages. This seems like an incompatibility, as by its design, the standalone package is supposed to exclude these. Here is an example of the error.

main.tex

\documentclass[12pt]{report}
\usepackage[mode=tex]{standalone}
\usepackage{circuitikz}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{subfiles}

\begin{document}

\subfile{chapter1}

And now the figure by itself \input{fig}

\end{document}

chapter1.tex

\documentclass[main.tex]{subfiles}
\begin{document}
\chapter{Test}

\input{fig}

\end{document}

fig.tex

\documentclass[12pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{circuitikz}
\begin{document}
    \begin{circuitikz}
        \draw[] (0,0) to [R] ++(0,3);
    \end{circuitikz}
\end{document}

Take note of the erroneous circuitikz word right before the first figure.

As a solution, dont use the standalone package; set your fig.tex file to this, and use the above code for main.tex and chapter1.tex

new fig.tex

\begin{circuitikz}
    \draw[] (0,0) to [R] ++(0,3);
\end{circuitikz}