>1. How do you obtain the dimensions of a Pict resource from within FB?

Like this:

myRect;8 = [pictHndl&] + 2

Yeah, that looks a little arcane. The first two bytes of the PICT handle 
are no longer used (they used to contain the size of the picture). The 
next eight bytes of the handle are the picture's rectangle. So if you 
look two bytes in to the handle, that's your picture's dimensions.

-Mars