How to fix height of parentheses in Tikz

Question

I am constructing a figure with Tikz, and I need to insert different vertical parentheses (brackets) like in my previous question (see : How to construct a synoptic table?) which have different heights as below:

• parenthesis 1730-1740 : 0.717cm
• parenthesis 1740-1747 : 0.5019cm
• parenthesis 1760-1789 : 2.0793cm
• parenthesis 1790-1797 : 0.5019cm
• parenthesis 1790-1799 : 0.6453cm
• parenthesis 1800-1819 : 1.3623cm
• parenthesis 1820-1832 : 0.8604cm
• parenthesis 1820-1839 : 1.3623cm

I use } with different size as \big}\Big}\bigg}\Bigg}, but I can't control the sizes of the parentheses. Here is my code :

\documentclass[symmetric,justified,marginals=raggedouter]{tufte-book}
\usepackage{ulem,tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{automata,positioning,arrows.meta,shapes,calc}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}
\node[anchor=west,font=\normalsize](a)at(5.63cm,9.7465cm){\Big \} \strut};
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

Who can help me to solve this problem ?

Thanks you in advance.

Answer 1

Within TikZ you can just use a (calligraphic) brace decoration to get a brace of any size.

\documentclass[tikz,border=3mm]{standalone}
\usetikzlibrary{decorations.pathreplacing,calligraphy}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{scope}[thick,decoration=calligraphic brace]
 \foreach \X in {2,...,5}{
 \draw[stealth-stealth] (1.5*\X-0.3,0) -- ++ (0,\X*1em);
 \draw[decorate] (1.5*\X,0) -- ++ (0,\X*1em) 
 node[midway,left=0.5ex,fill=white,font=\small\sffamily]{\X\,em};
 }
 \pgfmathsetmacro{\myrnd}{4+rnd*6}
 \draw[stealth-stealth] (9-0.3,0) -- ++ (0,\myrnd*1em);
 \draw[decorate] (9,0) -- ++ (0,\myrnd*1em) 
 node[midway,left=0.5ex,fill=white,font=\small\sffamily]{\pgfmathprintnumber\myrnd\,em};
\end{scope}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Answer 2

Thanks to Schrödinger's cat, I solve my problem and an example of parenthesis I want is obtained like this :

\documentclass[symmetric,justified,marginals=raggedouter]{tufte-book}
\usepackage{ulem,tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{automata,positioning,arrows.meta,shapes,calc}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning}
\usetikzlibrary{decorations.pathreplacing,calligraphy}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{scope}[thick,decoration=calligraphic brace]
\pgfmathsetmacro{\myrnd}{0.717} % <= 0,717 is the height
\draw[decorate,decoration={mirror}] (5.9,9.408) -- ++ (0,\myrnd*1cm) % <= (5.9,9.408) is the position on the tikzpicture and cm is the length unit (centimeter)
node{};
\end{scope}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}