I made a few changes to suit my needs bettter.

Moved template to /common/tex
Added siunitx, mhchem, and related commands to template preamble
Use basename of tikz-file as pdf filename instead of the generic "template"

tikz2pdf

@@ -33,6 +33,8 @@
 # LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN
 # ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE
 # POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
+#
+# With a few changes by me 2011-03-29 /Taha Ahmed
 
 import sys, os.path, subprocess, glob, time, optparse, tempfile
 
@@ -49,14 +51,14 @@ op.add_option("-s", "--view", action = "store_true",
 options, args = op.parse_args()
 tikzName, = args # exactly one filename expected
 
-basename = "tikz2pdf_temp"
+basename = os.path.splitext(tikzName)[0] # equivalent to basename(tikzName) in R
 texName = basename + ".tex"
 pdfName = basename + ".pdf"
 
-templateFilename = os.path.expanduser("~/.tikz2pdf.tex")
+templateFilename = os.path.expanduser("/home/taha/chepec/chetex/common/tex/tikz2pdf.tex")
 searchDir = os.getcwd()
 while searchDir != "/":
-	candidate = os.path.join(searchDir, ".tikz2pdf.tex")
+	candidate = os.path.join(searchDir, "tikz2pdf.tex")
 	if os.path.exists(candidate):
 		templateFilename = candidate
 		sys.stdout.write("Using template %r.\n" % candidate)
@@ -143,4 +145,3 @@ for temp in glob.glob("tikz2pdf_temp.*"):
 		verboseUnlink(temp)
 # for ext in (".aux", ".log"):
 # 	verboseUnlink(basename + ext)
-