statefeed5
The yellow backgrond is of course only an example and is easily changed to something else, or removed completely. It is specified as fill=yellow!20 inside the background layer specification.
\documentclass{standalone} \usepackage{tikz} \usetikzlibrary{shapes,positioning,calc} \usetikzlibrary{narrow} % The double arrow comes from % http://www.texample.net/tikz/examples/double-arrows/ % with modification in % http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/169061/tikz-increase-arrow-head-size \usetikzlibrary{arrows,decorations.markings} \tikzset{block/.style={draw, rectangle, line width=2pt, fill=blue!10, minimum height=3em, minimum width=3em, outer sep=0pt}} \tikzset{sumcircle/.style={draw, circle, outer sep=0pt, label=center:{{\Large$\Sigma$}}, minimum width=2em}} \tikzset{vecArrow/.style={ line width=1pt, decoration={ markings,mark=at position 1 with { \arrow[scale=2.5,line width=0.4pt] {open triangle 60} } }, double distance=4pt, shorten >= 13pt, preaction = {decorate}, postaction = {draw,line width=4pt, white,shorten >= 10pt} }} \tikzset{innerWhite/.style={semithick, white, line width=1.4pt, shorten >= 4.5pt}} \tikzset{every picture/.style={auto, line width=1pt, >=narrow, x=1mm, y=1mm, font=\small}} % Handle the yellow background \pgfdeclarelayer{background} \pgfdeclarelayer{foreground} \pgfsetlayers{background,main,foreground} \begin{document} \begin{tikzpicture} %[auto, line width=1pt, >=narrow, x=1mm,y=1mm] \node[sumcircle](sumA){}; \node[block, right=20mm of sumA](Adam){Adam}; \coordinate[right=15mm of Adam](output); \node[block,below=8mm of Adam](Bertil){Bertil}; \node[block,below=5mm of Bertil,xshift=-15mm](Cesar){Cesar}; \node[block,left=8mm of sumA](David){David}; \coordinate[left=15mm of David](input); \draw[->](input)--node[xshift=-4mm]{$a$}(David); \draw[->](David)--(sumA); \draw[->](sumA)--(Adam); \draw[->](sumA)--node(forkB){$b$}(Adam); \draw[->](Adam)--node(forkC){$c$}(output); \draw[->](forkC)|-(Bertil); \draw[->](forkB)|-(Bertil); \draw[vecArrow](Bertil)|-node[xshift=3mm,yshift=8mm]{$x$}(Cesar); \draw[->](Cesar)-|(sumA); \begin{pgfonlayer}{background} \coordinate(a1) at ($(David.west |- David.north) + (-5,3)$); \coordinate(a2) at ($(Adam.west|-a1) + (-5,0)$); \coordinate (a3) at ($(a2|-Adam.south) + (0,-5)$); \coordinate (a4) at ($(a3 -| Adam.east) + (12,0)$); \coordinate (a5) at ($(a4|-Cesar.south) + (0,-5)$); \coordinate(a6) at (a5-|a1); \path[fill=yellow!20,rounded corners, draw=black!50, dashed, line width=1pt] (a1)--(a2)--(a3) -- (a4) --(a5) -- (a6)-- cycle; \end{pgfonlayer} \end{tikzpicture} \end{document}