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What does the .fit() method of a picture do in the following Asymptote code? 

picture pic1;
real size=50;
size(pic1,size);
fill(pic1,(0,0)--(50,100)--(100,0)--cycle,red);

picture pic2;
size(pic2,size);
fill(pic2,unitcircle,green);

picture pic3;
size(pic3,size);
fill(pic3,unitsquare,blue);

picture pic;
add(pic,pic1.fit(),(0,0),N);
add(pic,pic2.fit(),(0,0),10S);

add(pic.fit(),(0,0),N);
add(pic3.fit(),(0,0),10S);

This is from the manual of Asymptote: http://asymptote.sourceforge.net/doc/Frames-and-pictures.html

The result is

enter image description here

Without the .fit() method the code fails with the error

fun.asy: 15.4: no matching function 'add(picture, picture, pair, pair)'

The function does not seem to be documented anywhere. There is however a cryptic comment on that same page dealing with fitting pictures to frames which says

A picture pic can be explicitly fit to a frame by calling

frame pic.fit(real xsize=pic.xsize, real ysize=pic.ysize, bool keepAspect=pic.keepAspect);

I am not sure I understand this properly. Is there a simple example which can explain the behaviour of this function?

smilingbuddha
  • 2,421
  • 3
    Basically this method converts a picture to a frame. In a picture, there are two coordinate systems -- one for drawing, and one for pen nibs. So, for instance, if you multiply a picture by scale(2.0), the lines get longer but not thicker. Once you convert a picture to a frame, there is only one coordinate system; if you scale the frame size, it rescales both the length and the thickness of lines. (And if you rescale a frame by different x and y scales, your dots become ovals.) – Charles Staats Nov 19 '18 at 16:35
  • Ok thanks! Can you also explain how the add function is used in the example above? From the asymptote terminal, I found that the appropriate function type of the add function being used is <void add(picture dest=<default>, frame src, pair position, pair align, bool group=<default>, filltype filltype=<default>, bool above=<default>)> I am not sure what position and align mean. If I had not seen the output of the code above, I would have guessed that the lower left corner of the triangle would have been directly vertically over the center of the circle, but it isn't so in the output. – smilingbuddha Nov 19 '18 at 18:50

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