8

Several decades ago I could compile the following code snippet with pdflatex -shell-escape main.tex to produce a PDF output with animation.

% the filename is main.tex
\documentclass[preview,border=12pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{filecontents}

\begin{filecontents*}{diagram.tex}

\documentclass[pstricks,border=12pt]{standalone}
\begin{document}
\foreach \x in {1,...,10}{
\begin{pspicture}[showgrid](5,5)
    \pscircle(2.5,2.5){!\x\space 10 div}
\end{pspicture}}
\end{document}

\end{filecontents*}


\usepackage{pgffor}
\foreach \compiler/\ext in {latex/tex,dvips/dvi,{ps2pdf -dAutoRotatePages=/None}/ps}{\immediate\write18{\compiler\space diagram.\ext}}

\usepackage{animate}
\begin{document}
\animategraphics[autoplay,controls,loop,scale=1]{3}{diagram}{}{}
\end{document}

Unfortunately now it is just a PDF output with a not-working animation. What causes this problem?

Edit

I does not seem to be dependent on whether or not I use PSTricks or TikZ.

% filenanem is main.tex
% compile it with pdflatex -shell-escape main.tex

\documentclass[preview,border=12pt]{standalone}
\usepackage{filecontents}

\begin{filecontents*}{diagram.tex}

\documentclass[tikz,border=12pt]{standalone}
\begin{document}
\foreach \x in {1,...,10}{%
\begin{tikzpicture}
    \draw[white] (0,0) rectangle (5,5);
    \draw (2.5,2.5) circle (\x/10);
\end{tikzpicture}}
\end{document}

\end{filecontents*}


\immediate\write18{pdflatex diagram.tex}

\usepackage{animate}
\begin{document}
\animategraphics[autoplay,controls,loop,scale=1]{3}{diagram}{}{}
\end{document}

Edit 2

My viewer is

enter image description here

Edit 3

When using article document class instead of standalone but it does not work as well.

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 \write18 enabled.
entering extended mode
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(c:/texlive/2013/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/size10.clo))
(c:/texlive/2013/texmf-dist/tex/latex/filecontents/filecontents.sty)This is pdfTeX, Version 3.1415926-2.5-1.40.14 (TeX Live 2013/W32TeX)
 restricted \write18 enabled.
entering extended mode
(./diagram.tex
LaTeX2e <2011/06/27>
Babel <3.9k> and hyphenation patterns for 78 languages loaded.
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No file diagram.aux.
ABD: EveryShipout initializing macros
(c:/texlive/2013/texmf-dist/tex/context/base/supp-pdf.mkii
[Loading MPS to PDF converter (version 2006.09.02).]
) (c:/texlive/2013/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/pdftexcmds.sty)
(c:/texlive/2013/texmf-dist/tex/latex/oberdiek/epstopdf-base.sty
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(c:/texlive/2013/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/kvdefinekeys.sty))
(c:/texlive/2013/texmf-dist/tex/latex/oberdiek/kvoptions.sty
(c:/texlive/2013/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/kvsetkeys.sty
(c:/texlive/2013/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/etexcmds.sty)))
(c:/texlive/2013/texmf-dist/tex/latex/latexconfig/epstopdf-sys.cfg)) [1]
[2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] (./diagram.aux) )
Output written on diagram.pdf (10 pages, 3756 bytes).
Transcript written on diagram.log.


LaTeX Warning: Writing file `./diagram.tex'.


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[Loading MPS to PDF converter (version 2006.09.02).]
))
No file main.aux.
 <./diagram.pdf> <1> <./diagram.pdf> <2> <./diagram.pdf> <3> <./diagram.pdf>
<4> <./diagram.pdf> <5> <./diagram.pdf> <6> <./diagram.pdf> <7> <./diagram.pdf>
<8> <./diagram.pdf> <9> <./diagram.pdf> <10>

LaTeX Warning: Reference `LastPage' on page 1 undefined on input line 27.

[1{c:/texlive/2013/texmf-var/fonts/map/pdftex/updmap/pdftex.map}] (./main.aux

Package atenddvi Warning: Rerun LaTeX, last page not yet found.

)

LaTeX Warning: There were undefined references.


LaTeX Warning: Label(s) may have changed. Rerun to get cross-references right.

 )<c:/texlive/2013/texmf-dist/fonts/type1/public/amsfonts/cm/cmr10.pfb>
Output written on main.pdf (1 page, 22297 bytes).
Transcript written on main.log.
kiss my armpit
  • 36,086

1 Answers1

5

Remove preview from the class options. It is not necessary and it causes a problem during compilation. Without, the resulting PDF with the animation is ok.

BTW, older versions of standalone used to set preview option by default. Recent versions set option crop instead.

My test file (pdflatex --shell-escape):

%\documentclass[border=12pt]{standalone} % <-- works as well
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{filecontents}

\begin{filecontents*}{diagram.tex}

\documentclass[pstricks,border=12pt]{standalone}
\begin{document}
\foreach \x in {1,...,10}{
\begin{pspicture}[showgrid](5,5)
    \pscircle(2.5,2.5){!\x\space 10 div}
\end{pspicture}}
\end{document}

\end{filecontents*}


\usepackage{pgffor}
\foreach \compiler/\ext in {latex/tex,dvips/dvi,{ps2pdf -dAutoRotatePages=/None}/ps}{\immediate\write18{\compiler\space diagram.\ext}}

\usepackage{animate}
\begin{document}
\animategraphics[autoplay,controls,loop,scale=1]{3}{diagram}{}{}
\end{document}
AlexG
  • 54,894
  • But you definitely don't need it in the main.tex document which embeds the animation. As for the document which contains the animation frames you may do what you want. – AlexG May 06 '14 at 08:38
  • standalone without preview already produces a tight page border (12pt, as specified) around the animation, including the controls. So why do you need preview here? It fiddles around with TeX's page shipping routine in a manner that is somehow incompatible with animate. – AlexG May 06 '14 at 09:30
  • @IamwhoIsayIam No problem here with \documentclass{article} instead of \documentclass[preview,border=12pt]{standalone} in your main.tex. – AlexG May 07 '14 at 07:08
  • I tried with AR-11.0.0.379 (Win) without problem. Not sure whether your version is more recent. – AlexG May 07 '14 at 15:01
  • Would you please test the examples in the animate doc (animate.pdf)? – AlexG May 07 '14 at 15:08
  • @IamwhoIsayIam That's a weight off my mind! – AlexG May 07 '14 at 15:14
  • @IamwhoIsayIam Do you get TeX errors or warnings when compiling main.tex? – AlexG May 07 '14 at 15:16
  • More precisely, it needs at least 2 compilations. – kiss my armpit May 07 '14 at 15:43
  • It seems weird. The current animate does not work with preview but the previous animate worked. It breaks backward compatibility. – kiss my armpit May 07 '14 at 18:31
  • This answer seems to be not working. – D G Jul 16 '18 at 17:31
  • Which are the symptoms? – AlexG Jul 16 '18 at 19:37