mfpic-doc.pdf.

5 APPENDICES 83
5.6.3 GRAPHIC INCLUSION
It may be impossible to completely cater to all possible methods of graphic inclusions with automatic
tests. The macro that is invoked to include the POSTSCRIPT graphic is \setmfpicgraphic and the
user may (carefully!) redefine this to suit special circumstances. Actually, MFPIC runs the following
sequence:
\preparemfpicgraphic{〈filename〉}
\setmfpicgraphic{〈filename〉}
\getmfpicoffset{〈filename〉}
The following are the default definitions for \setmfpicgraphic:
plain TEX
LATEX209
LATEX
pdfLATEX
pdfTEX
\def\setmfpicgraphic#1{\epsfbox{#1}}
(No longer supported, but likely the plain TEX definition will be selected.)
\def\setmfpicgraphic#1{\includegraphics{#1}}
\def\setmfpicgraphic#1{\includegraphics{#1}}
\def\setmfpicgraphic#1{\convertMPtoPDF{#1}{1}{1}}
Moreover, since METAPOST by default writes files with numeric extensions, we add code to each
figure, so that these graphics are correctly recognized as EPS or MPS. For example, to the figure
with extension .1, we add the equivalent of one of the following
\DeclareGraphicsRule{.1}{eps}{.1}{} in LATEX 2ε .
\DeclareGraphicsRule{.1}{mps}{.1}{} in pdfLATEX.
After running the command \setmfpicgraphic, MFPIC runs \getmfpicoffset to store the
lower left corner of the bounding box of the figure in two macros \mfpicllx and \mfpiclly.
All the above versions of \setmfpicgraphic (except \includegraphics) make this information
available; the definition of \getmfpicoffset merely copies it into these two macros. What
MFPIC does in the case of \includegraphics is to modify (locally) the definition of an internal
command of the GRAPHICS package so that it copies the information to those macros, and
then \getmfpicoffset does nothing. This internal modification is accomplished by the macro
\preparemfpicgraphic. Changes to \setmfpicgraphic might require changing either or both
of \preparemfpicgraphic and \getmfpicoffset. All three of these commands are fed the
graphic’s file name as the only argument, although only \setmfpicgraphic currently does anything
with it.
One possible reason for wanting to redefine \setmfpicgraphic might be to rescale all pictures.
This is definitely not a good idea. A good deal of MFPIC’s figure placemant code assumes that the
size of the figure is consistent with the coordinate system set up by the \mfpic command. With
mplabels plus truebbox it might work, but (i) it has not been considered in writing the MFPIC code,
(ii) it will then scale all the text as well as the figure, and (iii) it will scale all line thickness, which
should normally be a design choice independent of the size of a picture. To rescale all pictures, one
need only change \mfpicunit and rerun TEX and METAPOST.
A better reason might be to allow the conversion of your METAPOST figures to some other format.
Then redefining \setmfpicgraphic could enable including the appropriate file in the appropriate
format.
The filename argument mentioned above is actually the result obtained by running the macro
\setfilename. The command \setfilename gets two arguments: the name of the METAPOST
output file (set in the \opengraphsfile command) without extension, and the number of the picture.
The default definition of \setfilename merely inserts a dot between the two arguments. 23
23 Unless modified by \setfilenametemplate, of course. See subsection 4.12.8.