[solved] tikz package causing error in IEEE Access template

One of my previous collaborators was having an issue while adding the tikz package to the IEEE Access template. Later I looked into the problem and tried the existing solutions available online. However, none of those worked alone and I had to summarize the solution. Here is how I solved the problem.

Required packages for plotting

\usepackage{pgfplots}
\usepackage{pgfplotstable}
\pgfplotsset{compat=1.7}
\usepackage{tikz}

Usually the \usepackage{tikz} arises an issue if included in the IEEE Access Latex template. The solutions available in the net have several issues and I had a tough time figuring out which works better. Later I summarized the solution in just two steps and it works fine now. The solution template is available in a modified short Overleaf IEEE Access Template.

Solution

• In ieeeaccess.cls file -> change \def\year to \def\Year
• In access.tex file -> add the following after \usepackage{tikz}

    \NewSpotColorSpace{PANTONE}
    \AddSpotColor{PANTONE} {PANTONE3015C} {PANTONE\SpotSpace 3015\SpotSpace C} {1 0.3 0 0.2}
    \SetPageColorSpace{PANTONE}
  

  Now, you are all set. Once again, you can access and download the modified files from the modified Overleaf IEEE Access Template.

Reference

# tikz package causing error in IEEE access template