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

[David Arnold <dwarnold45@cox.net>]

Mojca,

You pretty much describe the way I've always worked in the past.

I am currently working on a technique where all my graphics for  
section1 of chapter 3 are inside a file named sectionfigs.tex. I am  
using MPpage and friends to make these. The file currently contains  
about 14 graphics and files .1 through .14 are produced when I run  
the file with texexec.

Next, I have a file section1figs.xml that is working as per the  
directions in xfigures-s.pdf from Pragma. It produces a nice listing  
of all of the figures for section 1 and their new labels (names).

I am now in my main document section1.tex including these figures as  
per directions in xfigures-s.pdf.

I'd be happy to send what I've done when I've finished. Let me know.

On Dec 24, 2005, at 4:17 PM, Mojca Miklavec wrote:

>> Do you have one metapost file with many figures in it? Is it possible
>> to just compile for the figurein that file that   you want? Is there
>> a command that will compile then show the result?
>
> (sorry for not writing to the list)
>
> If you have an .mp file, it compiles "faster than you can switch from
> command line back to the editor". No really, if you work with .mp, you
> don't need to wait for hours as you do have to wait if you have
> metafun graphics inside text.
>
> You get figures filename.1, filename.2, ... out of it, so you only
> need to have GhostView with "filename.5" (or your desired figure) open
> and it also changes instantly. If you need to have a text inside it,
> it's an exception since it won't work until you convert the graphic
> into PDF (mptopdf), which takes slightly longer, but may still be
> acceptable.
>
> I alway create mp files first and then (eventually) copy the content
> into the document if needed since it much faster.
>
> If you need metafun macros inside .mp files, you can load them with
> input mp-tool;
> input mp-spec;
> (I guess.)
>
> Metapost files can't give you the flexibility to combine extremely
> fancy stuff (typesetting text on paths created by metafun or vice
> versa), but I guess you don't need that.
>
> Ask on the list again if you can inctruct mptopdf to convert into PDF
> one figure only.
>
> Mojca