How do I save all steps in the process explorer?

[Nocturnal]

Hi,

I'd like to save my processing history along with my images for later reference. How do I save all steps in the process explorer in one step? I see how to save individual steps as code snippets but there must be a way to save all of them in one shot, right?

Thanks,

    Sander

[Juan Conejero]

Hi Sander,

Sure, you can save your entire processing as a .psm file. Do the following:

1. Open the History Explorer window and select your image. Or even better, right-click on your image and select Load History Explorer.

2. Click on the New Instance icon of History Explorer (blue, triangular, lower left corner) and drag it to the workspace. This will create a new process icon.

3. The newly created icon transports an instance of ProcessContainer, with the list of processes that you have applied to your image. You can double-click it and the ProcessContainer interface will be loaded with the icon's contents. Note that a ProcessContainer is freely editable (unlike a processing history). You can enable/disable individual processes, and alter their order, to name two easy actions. Of course, you can drag the icon to any view to apply the whole set of processes again.

4. Now that you have an icon, you can save it. Right-click on the workspace and select Save Process Icons. This will generate a .psm file (PSM = Process Set Module) that you can load later (right-click, Load Process Icons, etc.).

This is the basic procedure. Note that every view has an associated processing history in PixInsight. This includes all main views and previews.

[Nocturnal]

Hi Juan,

great, I'll give that a try later tonight when I attempt to reprocess IC1396.

Do you have any plans for a 'project' type file that contains the image, undo information, mask and processing history? Or a project file with paths to the other files ala DSS, something like that. Basically a means to save and restore the current state of PI.

Best,

   Sander

[Juan Conejero]

Hi Sander,

Yes, of course I have plans about that. In fact, the idea is to define a new image file format: the PixInsight Document Format (but with no .pdf extension, for obvious reasons 8)  )

The new format would be able to store:

- Multiple images in all formats supported by PI: from 8-bit integers to 64-bit floating point.

- Mask relations between images.

- All accessory data items associated with images (ICC profiles, color management and transparency settings, metadata, resolution, etc.).

- The previews defined on each image.

- The processing histories and initial states of all views stored (main views and previews).

- Process icons.

- Saved image states (as an option, as this could multiply the space requirements by orders of magnitude).

- Optional image compression (nondestructive). The 7-zip format is IMO an interesting option, and it is open source, very well documented and freely available on all platforms.

This is the basic idea. I think that now that PixInsight is approaching to a "mature" state (although I am probably the worst person in the world to say that), it's time to start thinking on a custom document format.

I am open to any suggestions, ideas and contributions on this topic. This is a complex and critical task and I'd like to avoid as many errors as possible

[Nocturnal]

Hi Juan,

how do I save an individual process icon? I have several icons on my workspace but I want to save just one, my processing history. It seems like a good idea to save this with the same name as my result file. I mean I could close the other icons first but there is probably a way to do it without resorting to that. Perhaps move it to a different (empty) workspace first?

Thanks,

   Sander

[Nocturnal]

Hi,

in a related note, I wanted to move a process item from one container to another as I had saved the file and proceeded with another step. This resulted in two different process histories that I wanted to merge. I opened one process container, double clicked the process I wanted to copy and it appeared in the workspace. I then opened the other container and dragged an instance icon onto the container. Is this the best way to do this?

Thanks,

   Sander

[Juan Conejero]

Hi Sander,

Sorry for my late answers; I missed your latest posts to this thread.

I then opened the other container and dragged an instance icon onto the container. Is this the best way to do this?

Yes, you did it well. ProcessContainer allows you to freely edit and merge ProcessContainer instances. You did it perfectly by dragging a ProcessContainer icon to the ProcessContainer interface.

how do I save an individual process icon? I have several icons on my workspace but I want to save just one, my processing history. It seems like a good idea to save this with the same name as my result file. I mean I could close the other icons first but there is probably a way to do it without resorting to that. Perhaps move it to a different (empty) workspace first?

Indeed, right now you can't save an individual icon (or a partial selection of icons). The only way is to delete the undesired icons then save the psm file.

But your last suggestion is very interesting. Definitely, I'll add an option to save a .psm file with only the icons in the current workspace. This is very useful and adds more value to the multiple workspaces functionality. Thank you for this good idea!

[Nocturnal]

Hi Juan,

I'd rather have the ability to save a single process container as that makes the most sense from a process perspective. I can't imaging a situation where I want the processing sequence for more than one image in the same file.