Aligning components in CircuiTikZ / TikZ

I'm new to LaTex in general, having discovered it in my search for a way to produce circuit diagrams, and therefore have arrived via CircuiTikZ and TikZ. So far, I'm loving it!

Unfortuantely, due to my lack of experience, I am unsure which features I am using / needing belong to TeX in general, TikZ or are unique to CircuiTikZ, which makes it very hard to find tutorials or examples of what I am trying to do!

Anyway, I have discovered the ($(Nor.out)+(1,0)$) notation that allows me to locate a point relative to an anchor on an object, but I was wondering if I can split this reference up for X and Y co-ordinates?

Say, for example, I have two lines that cross, one horizontal and one verical. I want to use the crossing object at the intersection. I therefore need to reference the X co-ordinate using the anchor at one end of the vertical line, and the Y co-ordinate using an anchor at one end of the horizontal.

So, in this case:

The crossing (circled in red) would need to get it's Y Co-Ordinate from the output of the gate NOR1 and it's X Co-Ordinate from the top of the capacitor C1.

Kind of related to this, can I specify one co-ordinate using relative and the other using absolute referencing? Say, I want to place an object that is vertically aligned with an anchor on a second object, but at an absolute position horizontally. (Say, a connector that is on the left of my diagram, but in line with a partcular anchor somewhere to it's right.)

I'm not sure if I'm explaining myself properly, so please let me know if I need to clarify.

Thoughts?

[Edited to add sketch for clarity]

• better to give a handdrawn sketch - easier to understand – js bibra Jun 12 '20 at 12:36
• – John Kormylo Jun 12 '20 at 14:13
• – Rmano Jun 12 '20 at 16:58

My personal advice is to not using "jumps" --- mark all the connected crossing with more than three wires with a dot (using the -* syntax or simply with node [circ]{}) and let wires simply cross. But if you like jump crossing (and I admit that sometimes, especially in basic courses, is better to avoid catastrophic misunderstandings), I'll do something like this:

1. find the crossing using the |- or -| coordinate syntax;
2. use a xing bipole with a symmetric displacement on both sides

I explain it in the comments:

\documentclass[border=10pt]{standalone}
\usepackage[siunitx, RPvoltages]{circuitikz}
\ctikzset{logic ports=ieee}
\begin{document}
\begin{circuitikz}[]
\node [vcc](VCC) at(2,2) {} ;
\draw (VCC) -- ++(0,-2) to[C] ++(0,-1);
\node [xor port](P){P1};
% now let's draw a wire with a jump crossing to an AND for example.
% the point on the vertical line where the crossing occurs is (P.out -| VCC)
% so move simmetrically around it
\draw (P.out) -- ([xshift=-3mm] P.out -| VCC) to[xing] ++(6mm,0)
-- ++(1,0) node[and port, anchor=in 1]{Q};
\end{circuitikz}
\end{document}


which results in:

• Thank you! So, if I'm reading this correctly, (P.out -| VCC) returns the coordinates of the intersection itself? Awesome - just what I needed! – Paul Jun 12 '20 at 18:56
• Yes - it's the coordinate of the point you find going horizontally from P.out and vertically from VCC. One of the most useful coordinate operation in TikZ. – Rmano Jun 12 '20 at 22:06

From page 60 of the circuitikz manual -- the crossing itself is a node and can be called upon by its various anchor points -- east west north etc

\begin{circuitikz}[]
\node at (1,1)[jump crossing](X){};
\draw (X.west) -- ++(-1,0);
\draw (X.east) to[R] ++(2,0);
\draw (X.north) node[vcc]{};
\draw (X.south) to[C] ++(0,-1.5);
\end{circuitikz}


For other solutions you could turn to the following links which define how to make custom crossings

--https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/134090/197451

--https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/395495/197451

--https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/372742/197451

• Thanks for the suggestion (and I'm looking into the links you suppled!) My only issue is that your example fixes the crossing and then lays everything out around it, whereas I need the surrounding elements to be the ones that are fixed and the crossing to have its position calculated... – Paul Jun 12 '20 at 18:53