Frustrated by active dynamic interface

[GaryP]

When I start a new process and attempt to apply it, I often encounter the error message: "This file being used by an active dynamic interface". Some explanation would be welcome. The problem was also noted by @bitli, who received no answer, back in 2012 I think.

[georg.viehoever]

+1

[GaryP]

I have pondered deeply on the possible meanings of "+1". A reference to a well-documented keystroke that I should have seen? A rank number for an active window? I finally guessed it must be a forum convention for meaning something like "add one more to the list".

[bitli]

+2 

The difficulty is to find which process was active and where the hell may the icon be on one of the workspace.  If you remember which interactive process you used last, you can launch the process from the menu and this will activate the interactive window again, so you can close it.  It is somewhat user belligerent, IMHO. The error popup should probably raise the interactive window or at least state which process is using it.
-- bitli
IMHO: Convention for In My Humble Opinion  (I could not resist)

[GJL]

>> The error popup should probably raise the interactive window or at least state which process is using it. <<

I agree, but as long as it`s not possible, it´s important to deposit the tool icons on the desktop. If not, open the history explorer and relaunch the tools in question.

Gerhard

[GaryP]

There is some satisfaction in knowing I hadn't missed a crucial bit of documentation. I will follow the suggestions and hope the problem goes away some day. Thanks all.

[pfile]

well, there is a clue - the rightmost cursor mode selector in the top toolbar should be the icon of the current dynamic process which is open. so while not necessarily obvious immediately you can at least look at the icons for the various dynamic processes in the menu and see which one matches.

rob

[Alejandro Tombolini]

Hi,

A short video about it.

Saludos, Alejandro.

[cdesselles]

+3   

Gotta love the new Pixinsight Resources website for that video.

[GaryP]

It appears that only processes with "Dynamic" in the title appear in the resources panel. The icon for HDRMultiscaleTransform does not appear, even though it contains "Dynamic" implicitly in the "HDR".

What is it that makes a process "Dynamic"? Is there any practical reason for the user to know, other than to avoid the conflict warning?

[pfile]

dynamic processes are modal processes. once you select an image you are working on, you're "locked in" to that image with the dynamic interface. you can still apply other non-dynamic processes to other images while the dynamic interface is open, but in terms of interactivity with an image, only the current dynamic process can interact with the target image.

i don't think HDRMultiscaleTransform is a dynamic process, because it does not need to interact with the target image until it's applied.

in DBE, you have to place samples on the image. in DynamicPSF you have to choose stars so it can do the PSF fitting. in DynamicCrop you have to set the rotation and crop with the mouse, etc. other processes just get set up independently and then applied to images.

rob

[GaryP]

I'm not sure what is meant by "modal", but it sounds to me like "Dynamic" means that the process depends on the image, either because, prior to application, it alters some information in the image file or has obtained some information from it. Then one would not want other processes to alter the file prior to completion of the dynamic process.

[Carlos Milovic]

Yes Gary. Dynamic processes interacts with the images, and need them to set their own parameter values. DynamicCrop is another example, where a rectangle is drawn over the image. It needs the image.
HDR processes, on the other hand, stands for High Dynamic Range, which is a whole different animal. It means that there is a huge difference in physical intensities between blacks and whites. An HDR process may be also a Dynamic process, in the sense of PixInsight's interface, but currently there is none.

[GaryP]

Thanks for the explanations.

[lowbyte]

GaryP

Did you every figure out how to fix the dynamic interface issue?



Don