Dear knights, I spent a few hours today with MetaPost and MetaFun, my first serious stab at Meta in many years, so I'm a virtual newbie (used PSTricks back in the LaTeX days). I am trying to basically duplicate the attached pdf graphic and need help with the following: 1. This code is pretty naive; how can I make it more efficient? Eg, can I make a global "scaled 1cm" declaration instead of repeating it so many times? 2. ConTeXt's alignment mechanism apparently does not work in MetaPost (alignment is commented); is there a workaround? ragged left needed for some labels. 3. What is the most efficient way to get labels to follow the diagonals as in the attached pdf? Any tips/trick will be appreciated! Best Idris ==================================== % output=pdf interface=en \setupcolors[state=start] \starttext \noheaderandfooterlines \startuseMPgraphic{square} picture p ; p := dashpattern(on 1mm off 1mm) ; label bot(btex %\hbox to 1.5cm {%\startalignment[left] \vbox{\hsize=1.2cm \ssxx\setupinterlinespace (0,0,0,0) \crlf Light \crlf Condensed Small \crlf Sans~Serif} %\stopalignment } etex, (-1.2cm,0)) ; draw (origin -- (0,5) -- (5,5) -- (5,0) -- cycle) scaled 1cm withcolor .625red ; %draw ((2,1) -- (2,6) -- (7,6) -- (7,1) -- cycle) %scaled 1cm withcolor .625red ; draw ((2,6) -- (7,6)) scaled 1cm withcolor .625red ; draw ((7,6) -- (7,1)) scaled 1cm withcolor .625red ; draw ((2,6) -- (2,5)) scaled 1cm withcolor .625red ; draw ((2,5) -- (2,1)) scaled 1cm withcolor .625red dashed p withpen pencircle scaled 0.4pt; draw ((2,1) -- (5,1)) scaled 1cm withcolor .625red dashed p withpen pencircle scaled 0.4pt; draw ((5,1) -- (7,1)) scaled 1cm withcolor .625red ; draw ((0,5) -- (2,6)) scaled 1cm withcolor .625red ; draw ((5,5) -- (7,6)) scaled 1cm withcolor .625red ; draw ((5,0) -- (7,1)) scaled 1cm withcolor .625red ; draw (origin -- (2,1 )) scaled 1cm withcolor .625red dashed p withpen pencircle scaled 0.4pt; \stopuseMPgraphic \startuseMPgraphic{2squares} draw (origin -- (0,5) -- (5,5) -- (5,0) -- cycle) scaled 1cm withcolor .625red ; draw ((2,1) -- (2,6) -- (7,6) -- (7,1) -- cycle) scaled 1cm withcolor .625red ; draw ((0,5) -- (2,6)) scaled 1cm withcolor .625red ; draw ((5,5) -- (7,6)) scaled 1cm withcolor .625red ; draw ((5,0) -- (7,1)) scaled 1cm withcolor .625red ; draw (origin -- (2,1 )) scaled 1cm withcolor .625red ; draw ((10,0) -- (10,-5) -- (15,-5) -- (15,0) -- cycle) scaled 1cm withcolor .625red ; draw ((12,1) -- (12,-4) -- (17,-4) -- (17,1) -- cycle) scaled 1cm withcolor .625red ; draw ((10,0) -- (12,1)) scaled 1cm withcolor .625red ; draw ((10,-5) -- (12,-4)) scaled 1cm withcolor .625red ; draw ((15,-5) -- (17,-4)) scaled 1cm withcolor .625red ; draw ((15,0) -- (17,1 )) scaled 1cm withcolor .625red ; % map square to square picture p ; p := dashpattern(on 1mm off 1mm) ; draw ((0,5) -- (10,0)) scaled 1cm dashed p withpen pencircle scaled 0.4pt withcolor .625red ; draw ((2,6) -- (12,1)) scaled 1cm dashed p withpen pencircle scaled 0.4pt withcolor .625red ; draw ((0,0) -- (10,-5)) scaled 1cm dashed p withpen pencircle scaled 0.4pt withcolor .625red ; draw ((2,1) -- (12,-4)) scaled 1cm dashed p withpen pencircle scaled 0.4pt withcolor .625red ; draw ((5,5) -- (15,0)) scaled 1cm dashed p withpen pencircle scaled 0.4pt withcolor .625red ; draw ((7,6) -- (17,1)) scaled 1cm dashed p withpen pencircle scaled 0.4pt withcolor .625red ; draw ((5,0) -- (15,-5)) scaled 1cm dashed p withpen pencircle scaled 0.4pt withcolor .625red ; draw ((7,1) -- (17,-4)) scaled 1cm dashed p withpen pencircle scaled 0.4pt withcolor .625red ; \stopuseMPgraphic \midaligned{\useMPgraphic{square}} \hbox{}\blank[5*big] \useMPgraphic{2squares} \stoptext ==================================== -- Professor Idris Samawi Hamid Department of Philosophy Colorado State University Fort Collins, CO 80523 -- Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/