On Thu, 31 Mar 2016, Aidan Nichol wrote:

>> On Wed, 30 Mar 2016, Aidan Nichol wrote:
>> 
>>> I have been looking at various options for controlling how figures are placed on a page and based on answers to similar questions in this mailing list I  tried various options. The most flexible one seems to be using tables e.g.
>>> 
>>> \setupexternalfigures[location={default}]
>>> 
>>> \starttext
>>> 
>>> \placefigure[]{}{\externalfigure[hacker][height=1in]}
>>> 
>>> \startxtable[frame=off,align=low]
>>> \startxrow
>>> \startxcell[ny=2]
>>>     \placefigure[force][]{left twoup}{\externalfigure[mill][height=4in]}
>>>  \stopxcell
>>>  \startxcell
>>>    \placefigure[force][]{the first}{\externalfigure[spider][height=1.5in]}
>>>  \stopxcell
>>> \stopxrow
>>> \startxrow
>>> \startxcell
>>>   \placefigure[force][]{the second}{\externalfigure[cow][height=1.5in]}
>>> \stopxcell
>>> \stopxrow
>>> \stopxtable
>>> 
>>> It seems to work well except that figure numbers are being skipped. In this example hacker=1 mill=8, spider=9 and cow=10.
>>> Varying the contents of the table reveals that It is skipping two times the number of figures in the table.
>>> 
>>> Is this an invalid combination of features I’m using or am I doing something wrong?
>> 
>> The contents of a table are typeset multiple times to get an idea of the
>> height and width. Here is one option:
>> 
>> \useMPlibrary[dum]
>> 
>> \starttext
>> 
>> \bTABLE[frame=off,align=low]
>> \bTR
>> \bTD[ny=2]
>>      \placefigure[here,\iftrialtypesetting nonumber \fi]
>>                  []{left twoup}{\externalfigure[mill][width=2in,height=4in]}
>> \eTD
>> \bTD
>>      \placefigure[here,\iftrialtypesetting nonumber \fi]
>>                  []{the first}{\externalfigure[spider][width=2in,height=2in]}
>> \eTD
>> \eTR
>> \bTR
>> \bTD
>>      \placefigure[here,\iftrialtypesetting nonumber \fi]
>>                  []{the second}{\externalfigure[cow][width=2in,height=2in]}
>> \eTD
>> \eTR
>> \eTABLE
>> \stoptext
>> 
> Thanks Aditya
>
> That solved the problem

@Hans: Does it make sense to disable \incrementcounter if 
\trialtypesetting is active?

Aditya