tikz building blocks for pneumatic diagrams

Question

I've created a small library of tikz shapes that I want to use over and over in a convienient manner. The following is a subset of the shapes used together in an example:

\documentclass[]{standalone}

\usepackage{pgf,tikz}

\begin{document}
\usetikzlibrary{arrows.meta}

\begin{tikzpicture}
%Left-override
\begin{scope}[rotate=270]
\draw (0,0) -- (0,-2.5) --(3,-2.5)--(3,0);
\draw (0.25,-2.25)--(1.5,-1)--(2.75,-2.25)--cycle;
\end{scope}
%horz-3by2solenoid
\begin{scope}[shift={(0,1)},rotate=270]
\draw (0,0) -- (0,5) -- (5,5) -- (5,0) -- (0,0);
\draw[line width = 0.1cm,black] (5,1.25) -- (4,1.25);
\draw[line width = 0.1cm,black] (4,1.75) -- (4,.75);
\draw[-{Triangle},line width = 0.1cm,blue] (5,2.5) -- (0,2);
\draw[-{Triangle},line width = 0.1cm,red] (0,3.25) -- (5,3.75);
\draw (0,5) -- (0,10) -- (5,10) -- (5,5) -- (0,5);
\draw[line width = 0.1cm,black] (5,8.75) -- (4,8.75) node[pos=-0.5]{EB};
\draw[line width = 0.1cm,black] (4,9.25) -- (4,8.25);
\draw[-{Triangle},line width = 0.1cm,blue] (0,6.75) -- (5,6.25)node[pos=1.1]{EA};
\draw[-{Triangle},line width = 0.1cm,red] (5,7.5) -- (0,8) node[pos=-0.1]{S};
\end{scope}
%Right-override
\begin{scope}[shift={(10,-3)},rotate=90]
\draw (0,0) -- (0,-2.5) --(3,-2.5)--(3,0);
\draw (0.25,-2.25)--(1.5,-1)--(2.75,-2.25)--cycle;
\end{scope}
%Right-coil
\begin{scope}[shift={(12.5,-3)},rotate=90]
\draw (0,0) -- (0,-2.5) --(3,-2.5)--(3,0);
\draw (0,-1.5)--(3,-1);
\end{scope}
%some connection lines..
\draw[green](2,1.5)--(2,4)--(20,4);
\draw[green](3,1.5)--(3,3)--(18,3)--(18,-7)--(20,-7);
\draw[green](3.75,-4.25)--(3.75,-5.5);
%Vertical-2wayPiston
\begin{scope}[shift={(20,-12.5)}]
\draw (1,5) -- (1,19) -- (5,19) -- (5,5) -- (1,5);
\draw (0,17) -- (1,17);
\draw (0,6) -- (1,6);
\filldraw (1,15) rectangle (5,16);
\filldraw[fill=white] (2.9,15) rectangle (3.1,1);
\end{scope}
\begin{scope}[shift={(20,-12.5)}]
\draw[{Triangle}-{Triangle},line width = 0.1cm] (7,10)--node[pos=1.1]{OPEN}(7,15);
\end{scope}
%Vertical-speedControl
\begin{scope}[shift={(3.75,-9)},scale=0.75]
\draw (0,4)--(0,3);
\draw (0,1)--(0,0);
\draw (1,0.5) arc (-90:-270:0.9 and 1.5);
\draw (-1,0.5) arc (-90:90:0.9 and 1.5);
\draw [-{Triangle}](-1,1) -- (1,3);
\end{scope}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

that produces the following image:

What would be the easiest way to cobble these building blocks together such that drawing the green lines would be easier? I purposely did not connect them to the intended locations to illustrate difficulty... But I would like them to join up at the obvious spots.

Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Add coordinates at the points you want to connect and use them to draw the lines. I also added the library calc to draw the lines. They can also be used to position your blocks, as e.g. the speed control:

\documentclass[border=5mm]{standalone}

\usepackage{pgf,tikz}

\begin{document}
\usetikzlibrary{arrows.meta,calc} %%% Add calc

\begin{tikzpicture}
  % Left-override
  \begin{scope}[rotate=270]
    \draw (0,0) -- (0,-2.5) --(3,-2.5)--(3,0);
    \draw (0.25,-2.25)--(1.5,-1)--(2.75,-2.25)--cycle;
  \end{scope}
  % horz-3by2solenoid
  \begin{scope}[shift={(0,1)},rotate=270]
    \draw (0,0) -- (0,5) -- (5,5) -- (5,0) -- (0,0);
    \draw[line width = 0.1cm,black] (5,1.25) -- (4,1.25);
    \draw[line width = 0.1cm,black] (4,1.75) -- (4,.75);
    \draw[-{Triangle},line width = 0.1cm,blue] (5,2.5) -- (0,2) coordinate(BlueArrow);   %%% New coordinate
    \draw[-{Triangle},line width = 0.1cm,red] (0,3.25) -- (5,3.75) 
    coordinate[pos=0](RedArrowStart) coordinate[pos=1](RedArrowEnd);  %%% New coordinates
    \draw (0,5) -- (0,10) -- (5,10) -- (5,5) -- (0,5);
    \draw[line width = 0.1cm,black] (5,8.75) -- (4,8.75) node[pos=-0.5]{EB};
    \draw[line width = 0.1cm,black] (4,9.25) -- (4,8.25);
    \draw[-{Triangle},line width = 0.1cm,blue] (0,6.75) -- (5,6.25)node[pos=1.1]{EA};
    \draw[-{Triangle},line width = 0.1cm,red] (5,7.5) -- (0,8) node[pos=-0.1]{S};
  \end{scope}
  % Right-override
  \begin{scope}[shift={(10,-3)},rotate=90]
    \draw (0,0) -- (0,-2.5) --(3,-2.5)--(3,0);
    \draw (0.25,-2.25)--(1.5,-1)--(2.75,-2.25)--cycle;
  \end{scope}
  % Right-coil
  \begin{scope}[shift={(12.5,-3)},rotate=90]
    \draw (0,0) -- (0,-2.5) --(3,-2.5)--(3,0);
    \draw (0,-1.5)--(3,-1);
  \end{scope}
  % some connection lines..  %%%% Wait with these until you have all coodinates to connections %%%%%%%%%%%
  % \draw[green](2,1.5)--(2,4)--(20,4);
  % \draw[green](3,1.5)--(3,3)--(18,3)--(18,-7)--(20,-7);
  % \draw[green](3.75,-4.25)--(3.75,-5.5);
  % Vertical-2wayPiston
  \begin{scope}[shift={(20,-12.5)}]
    \draw (1,5) -- (1,19) -- (5,19) -- (5,5) -- (1,5);
    \draw (0,17) -- (1,17) coordinate[pos=0](UpperConnection);    %%% New coordinate
    \draw (0,6) -- (1,6) coordinate[pos=0](LowerConnection);    %%% New coordinate
    \filldraw (1,15) rectangle (5,16);
    \filldraw[fill=white] (2.9,15) rectangle (3.1,1);
  \end{scope}
  \begin{scope}[shift={(20,-12.5)}]
    \draw[{Triangle}-{Triangle},line width = 0.1cm] (7,10)--node[pos=1.1]{OPEN}(7,15);
  \end{scope}
  % Vertical-speedControl
  \begin{scope}[shift={($(RedArrowEnd) + (0,-5)$)},scale=0.75]%[shift={(3.75,-9)},scale=0.75]
    \draw (0,4)--(0,3) coordinate[pos=0](SpeedControl);  %%% New coordinate
    \draw (0,1)--(0,0);
    \draw (1,0.5) arc (-90:-270:0.9 and 1.5);
    \draw (-1,0.5) arc (-90:90:0.9 and 1.5);
    \draw [-{Triangle}](-1,1) -- (1,3);
  \end{scope}
  %%% Green stuff
  \draw[green] (RedArrowEnd) -- (SpeedControl);
  \draw[green] (BlueArrow) |- (UpperConnection);
  \draw[green] (RedArrowStart) -- +(0,2) -| ($(LowerConnection)+(-1,0)$) -- (LowerConnection);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}