Re: developing large numbers of MP files for inclusion in source

[Taco Hoekwater <taco@elvenkind.com>]

David Arnold wrote:
> 
> I am open to any suggestions on how to most efficiently develop and  
> include figures (in Metapost, of course) in our main document.

Well, if you do not depend on metafun -- context interaction, then
I would just create a metapost input file per chapter, and compile
it with mpost off-line (it they are complicated, even pre-run mptopdf
to save time during the inclusion phase).

Then include the image in the document just like I would a 'normal'
external figure or even table). I have a separate per-chapter directory
for that to avoid clutter. It is not most high-tech solution, but I
find it quite workable.

So, my tree structure usually looks like this:

    ./book.tex
    ./style.tex
    ./chapter1.tex % those are components
    ./chapter2.tex
    ...
    ./chapter1/figure.mp
    ./chapter1/figure.1
    ./chapter1/figure.2
    ./chapter1/whatever.png
    ./chapter1/table-1.tex

Cheers,

Taco