smith2
The yellow background is of course easily changed to something else --- or to nothing. Just change or remove the color options in the background specification.
\documentclass{standalone} \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} \usepackage{amsmath,amsfonts,amssymb} \usepackage{tikz} \usetikzlibrary{shapes,positioning,calc} \usetikzlibrary{narrow} \tikzset{every picture/.style={auto, line width=1pt, >=narrow,font=\small, x=1mm, y=1mm}} \tikzset{block/.style={draw, rectangle, line width=2pt, fill=blue!10, minimum height=3em, minimum width=3em, outer sep=0pt}} \tikzset{blockMinus/.style={draw,minimum width=2em, minimum height=2em,line width=1pt,fill=blue!10,label=center:{$-1$}} } \tikzset{sumcircle/.style={draw, fill=white, circle, outer sep=0pt, label=center:{{$\sum$}}, minimum width=2em}} % Handle the yellow background \pgfdeclarelayer{background} \pgfdeclarelayer{foreground} \pgfsetlayers{background,main,foreground} \begin{document} \begin{tikzpicture} \node[block](Adam){Adam}; \node[block,below=5mm of Adam](Bertil){Bertil}; \node[block,below=8mm of Bertil](Cesar){Cesar}; \node[sumcircle,left=6mm of Adam](sumA){}; \node[sumcircle,left=15mm of sumA](sumB){}; \node[block,right=18mm of Adam](David){David}; \draw[->](sumB) ++(-15,0)--node[xshift=-3mm]{$AA$}(sumB); \draw[->](sumB)--node[xshift=-3mm]{$BB$}(sumA); \draw[->](sumA)--(Adam); \draw[->](Adam)--node[xshift=-3mm](CC){$CC$}(David); \draw[->](CC)|-(Bertil); \draw[->](Bertil)-|(sumA); \draw[->](David.east)-- node[xshift=-1mm](DD){$DD$}++(15,0); \draw[->](DD)|-(Cesar); \draw[->](Cesar)-|(sumB); % Compute the coordinates for the background and the text above % the background \coordinate(b1) at ($(sumA.west |- Adam.north) + (-6,4)$); \coordinate(b2) at ($(Bertil.south east -| CC.east) +(1,-5)$); \coordinate(b3) at ($(Adam.north -| CC.east) +(0,4)$); \node[yshift=6pt] at ($(b1)!0.5!(b3)$) {$EE$}; \begin{pgfonlayer}{background} \draw[fill=yellow!20,rounded corners, draw=black!50, dashed, line width=1pt] (b1) rectangle(b2); \end{pgfonlayer} \end{tikzpicture} \end{document}