LyX ⇒ Too many unprocessed floats... \clearpage produces void page

[rwrmanns]

Hi, I am typesetting with LyX a thesis with two volumes. The first volume contains mainly text, everything works fine. The second volume contains more than 250 figures, 200 of them bigger than half a page. This means, that nearly every page is filled by an image nearly as big as a page.
Document class: book (KOMA Script).
Three issues I do not get resolved:

- the major one: I have to insert the \clearpage command, otherwise I get the Too-Many-Unprocessed-Floats Error. But inserting the \clearpage command produces void pages (I really do not understand why, it does not seem to be necessary). How to avoid them? I tried inserting afterpage{\clearpage} without any effect. I tried a bunch of options at Document Settings > Float Placement, but nothing worked.

- then: most figures need a full page, even if they do not fill the whole page. LyX will position two images on two adjacent pages at different heights if they do not have the same size (instead of giving them the same bottom line).

- finally: the numbering scheme follows the 0.nn pattern, i.e. 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 ... since in this second volume there are no chapters, sections ...
How I may get rid of this leading zero?

Any help appreciated!

LyX 2.0.5.1;

[kaiserkarl13]

You might try putting figures with the [p] optional argument (that is, \begin{figure}[p] or similar). Also make sure there is a paragraph break between figures. The paragraph break may also eliminate the need for \clearpage, though it depends on what you're doing.

For the numbering problem, try redefining \thefigure. You can use \show\thefigure to see how it's defined now, and then renew it to do what you want in an informed way.

[rwrmanns]

Thank you for your immediate answer!
The problem is, I am working with LyX (you may say LaTeX is easy, but it needs its time to learn). In LyX you may insert some LaTeX directives into the LyX-code, but it is not not possible to modify LaTeX directives that are the result of the LyX-compiler. Therefore one can not modify the \begin{figure} directive (LyX output) - afaik.

Meanwhile I learned, that the underlying problem is a LaTeX one (http://projekte.dante.de/DanteFAQ/UnprocessedFloats in german): if there is no text in which floating elements can float, the floating algorithm simply will not work. Therefore it is suggested to use a non floating environment, if there is little text and a lot of figures (my case). Unfortunately I do not know a non floating environment (in LyX) that offers figures + captions.

I do not understand, what a "paragraph break" is: in my LaTeX User's Guide (a some way storical 1985-edition) I found "line break" and "page break". An both do not change the "Too many unprocessed ..." issue.

I will try our \show\thefigure hint. Thank you!

[kaiserkarl13]

Sorry for the delayed reply; I hope you have found the answer, but if not:

If you right-click on the "float:figure" box in LyX, it gives you a Settings... menu. If you check the "Page of floats" box, it will insert \begin{figure}[p] instead of the default (no [p]) figure float.

A paragraph break is just a hard return in LyX. In LaTeX, it's a blank line. You can also insert "\par" to force one without the blank line.