Mathematica: AbsoluteOptions not working properly

Question

According to the documentation of AbsoluteOptions[expr,name] "an absolute setting is given for the option name".

" AbsoluteOptions gives the actual settings for the parameters used inside Mathematica when the set value is Automatic or All.

Here is an example that they show:

 << AbsoluteOptions[Plot[Sin[x], {x, 0, 2 Pi}, PlotRange -> Automatic], PlotRange] >> {PlotRange -> {{0., 6.28319}, {-1., 1.}}} 

Here I use <to denote Input and → to denote output.

It seems to be working fine. However, when I try to get an AspectRatio graph, it just gives me Automatic. Try it,

 AbsoluteOptions[ ListPlot3D[{{1, 1, 1, 1}, {1, 2, 1, 2}, {1, 1, 3, 1}, {1, 2, 1, 4}}, AspectRatio -> Automatic], AspectRatio ] 

A similar format, as in the example they show, but the output I get is simply

 {AspectRatio->Automatic} 

Does this mean that the expr argument can only be a Graphics object, not a Graphics3D ? This doesn't make sense because it works fine if I try to get the PlotRange a Graphics3D object. Is this a mistake or is my math broken? Another thing is that the documentation is not very specific. Which one? Here is the link to the documentation:

http://reference.wolfram.com/mathematica/ref/AbsoluteOptions.html

I am using Mathematica 7.0.1.0.

Answer 1

You can apply ImageDimensions directly to Graphics3D to get its ImageSize .

It seems that AbsoluteOptions just has not been changed since Mathematica 4 (see the bottom of the corresponding documentation page ). This function is very buggy (often gives the wrong value for PlotRange for 2D graphics created, for example, by Show ) and sometimes does not work at all, as you indicated in your question. Compare this to FullOptions and FullGraphics , which were not seemingly changed from version 2 ... Sometimes FullOptions gives the correct value when AbsoluteOptions gives an error or doesn't work at all.

Answer 2

Perhaps BoxRatios is the one you are looking for. NTN.