## Selecting Frame Axes

An alternative to changing the number of FrameFrame axes, which is not allowed, is to create a new Frame by selecting axes from an existing one. The method of doing this is very similar to the way astPermAxesastPermAxes is used (§7.9), in that we supply an integer array filled with the numbers of the axes we want, in their new order. In this case, however, the number of array elements need not equal the number of Frame axes.

For example, we could select axes 3 and 2 (in that order) from a 3-dimensional Frame as follows:

119#119

This would return a pointer to a 2-dimensional Frame (“frame2”) which contains the information associated with axes 3 and 2, in that order, from the original Frame (“frame1”). The original Frame is not altered by this process. Beware, however, that the axis information may still be shared by both Frames, so if you wish to alter either of them independently you may first need to use astCopyastCopy (§4.13) to make an independent copy.

In addition to the new Frame pointer, astPickAxesastPickAxes will also return a pointer to a new MappingMapping via its fourth argument (you may supply a NULL pointer as an argument if you do not want this Mapping). This Mapping will inter-relate the two Frames. By this we mean that its forward transformation will convert coordinates originally in the coordinate system represented by “frame1” into that represented by “frame2”, while its inverse transformation will convert in the opposite direction. In this particular case, the Mapping would be a PermMapPermMap (§5.11) and would implement the following transformations:

120#120

This is our first introduction to the idea of inter-relating pairs of Frames via a Mapping, but this will assume a central role later on.

Note that when using astPickAxes, it is also possible to request more axes than there were in the original Frame. This will involve selecting axes from the original Frame that do not exist. To do this, the corresponding axis number (in the “pick” array) should be set to zero and the effect is to introduce an additional new axis which is not derived from the original Frame. This axis will have default values for all its attributes. You will need to do this because astPickAxes does not allow you to select any of the original axes more than once.