Saving Projects

Hi @Ianties,

Yes indeed, it has been requested several times. It's on my list, so it will come for sure 😉

Saving/loading projects and also saving/loading of all settings in all menus.

Mabula

Fantastic news. Thank you

FYI, I gave a presentation to our Raleigh, NC Imaging club about APP and several people said the ability to do this - save a project - was something that was holding them back from trying APP.  

Cheers,

Rowland

Very good to know, thanks Rowland. Personally I wouldn't let that get in my way as it's producing some very unique things already, but when people do decide that to be the main issue, that's something that needs to be addressed.

I would really like this as I do a lot of multi-filter, multi session processing and as someone above mentions, it takes a great deal of concentration and time to load files correctly. 

Even just saving the Loaded Files would be a massive benefit - perhaps a good Phase 1 (Quick Win) of the Save Project change? 

On the same subject, it would be great if a report could be generated after loading files that would facilitate checking that the correct files had loaded.  

Checking is also hampered by there being no way (that I can find) to sort the file list on "Frame" - could this be added? I frequently find that, for example, the file list shows my Green lights with Reds in the middle. If I could sort by Filter and Session I coul dat least get them all together for checking.

Thanks

Jon 

Myself and 1 other are holding back in buying APP until you can save the default setting, it's so frustrating having to change all the different settings every time you you open the software only to find you have missed something

Andy 

I ve already bought an owner's license, but I, too, miss that feature.

But I also see that there are many other features being worked: GPU-support, more postprocessing tools (masks, sharpening, denoise), to name just a few most relevant to me.

So I am happily looking forward to APP 2.0 😊 

Stefan

It would be good to see some of the bugs fixed before further development is done, I'm wondering if I did the right thing buying an owners license.

The multi-session/multi filter processing needs looking at- reported it ages ago but no update on when it will be resolved.

Personally I bought a renters license because I want to keep supporting Mabula on an ongoing basis.  I don't use multi-session because I calibrate after every imaging session and then integrate the calibrated frames when I'm done.   

Mabula is just one person and what he has accomplished so far is pretty amazing - I think he has built the best pre-processing engine available.  

That said, I'll bet all of his users have different priorities on what he should be working on next.  It would save me time every time I pre-process to have some kind of project capability like this, so I'd still like to see it.  

Personally I'd like to see Mabula's attention turned away from the pre-processing phase for a few months - it feels like we might be reaching the point of diminishing returns there.  But just my opinion - and mostly because I'd love to see how he tackles the post-processing phase and some of the quality-of-life things like projects.  Today I use APP through integration, cropping, light pollution removal, and RGB combination.  I then take my masters over to PI to finish.  It would be great to be able to stay with APP through the whole process, especially if Mabula could do that phase as nicely as he has pre-processing.

Cheers,
Rowland

I can understand people wanting new features but I purchased it for pre-processing and having paid quite a lot for the full license its disappointing that bugs are not being given priority.

Any news on this subject? I think being able to save a project and come back to it whenever you want would be good. Its a pretty good feature in pi, you load your project and the screen is as it was when you last used it.

Yes, it's of a very high priority for Mabula and could be in the next version. However, I personally can't guarantee that as I'm not the programmer. 😉

Good to hear it's a priority.  I know of a couple of people who won't use APP unless it has the ability to at least save and load settings, although full projects (settings and files) would be even better.  Looking forward to it!

Rowland

Indeed and ofcourse we're always trying to please as many as possible. 😉

I really agree with Rowlands post of April 4th. Like Rowland, I use APP through integration, cropping, light pollution removal, and RGB combination. I then bring it to other programs to do final processing. I would much prefer to do all my processing in APP. I certainly can't complain about saving and loading settings but we soon will be reaching a point where the amount of effort that Mabula provides will do little to improve pre-processing. 

I have an owners license and would be willing to pay for an 'upgrade' to get the same quality of functions for the rest of the processing.

Possible alternative (or perhaps a means of implementation) for saving sessions -- provide a mechanism to save as a script. May provide a mechanism to re-load into the GUI as well as run in the background (cmd line).  Thanks!

I guess you received the latest email about 1.077? In there the priorities are mentioned as well, where the settings request is on top. 🙂

Hi @vincent-mod

Yes - I saw this was next on the list in 1.077 and got excited -- but three releases later, it's still not on the list for 1.080.  

I still use and promote APP without this capability, but I get a lot of pushback from people when they see there is no way to save settings.   I only nag about this because I think it will help you sell a lot more APP licenses.  I firmly believe this capability will help far more users than things like Fuji RAW support which have been prioritized ahead of it.

FYI, I've also heard from APP trial users that they want to save area selections (green boxes) in the Remove Light Pollution, Calibrate Background and Vignetting tools.  The reason is that they take images on multiple nights and want to process the accumulated data after each session to see how the image is coming along, and with other tools they can do this quickly using saved settings including sample selections.

All the best,

Rowland

Yes, I fully agree and I know Mabula understands this as well. I don't have influence on when it arrives unfortunately, the only thing I can do is to forward the wishes to Mabula @mabula-admin . Thank you for giving the insight to what you're hearing about this, of course we understand this is an important thing to implement and I'm sure Mabula is working on it. Hopefully, in the future, I can get a bit more insight into the roadmap and help out as well.

@vincent-mod thanks Vincent, I totally understand and Mabula is a genius, this is his baby and his decision.  I'm just a happy user who wants APP to continue to grow and be successful.  So like everyone else on the Internet, I can throw in my 2 cents with a few taps on the keyboard 🙂 .  Thanks for handling my nagging so well.

Cheers,

Rowland

No worries! APP wouldn't be successful if it wasn't for the users, so we appreciate any feedback a lot, without critical thinking there is no progress I'd say. 🙂 And I fully understand this thing to be annoying.

I heartily agree to give this a bump!

APP is brilliant in what it does. Heck, nowadays I even let integration run automatically, whithout worrying about the right integration parameters. My first mosaic was uneventful. It just worked.

But I have been burnt by not clicking "force cfa" and other basic parameters. I use the same camera 99% of the time, my APP directory is not in documents but in a logical space om my SSD. Please let me save and retrieve those settings at least.

Not saving projects for me as a low volume user is a mere nuisance. For others with more volume, it is downright annoying. I have also seen the comments of people that choose not to use APP because of this. And that is a shame, because APP really is a brilliant piece of software. 

So, thumbs up and a friendly request for Mabula. Make it so 😉

I really like APP, which I bought specifically for pre-processing, but I then also bought Pixinsight a couple of years ago for post-processing.

I've resisted using PI for pre-processing in the hope that it would be further developed in APP but have to say I have now tried it and been surprised how easy it is to use. I just dumped all my lights and calibration frames in a folder, pressed go with defaults and I couldn't tell the difference between the two stacks produced. Obviously both systems allow for a lot of customisation.

I'm at a cross-roads now, I bought APP outright so would like to continue using it, but PI already allows saving and is being further developed. I don't want to have to learn the vagaries of two different systems so would be good to know when APP pre-processing will be updated.

Thanks for the added opinions! Really appreciated. I'm starting to work more closely with Mabula on the product, so might get a bit more insight into the roadmap and/or why certain features take longer.

Regarding PI, that package has been around for many years of course, so that's always an uphill battle. I however do think APP has a basis which is more advanced and it is starting to show. Trying to make a proper mosaic takes a long time in PI, whereas APP can do this automatically (given the data is good etc.) and is the only one at the moment making that so easy while producing seamless results (due to true optical distortion correction etc, which is again a unique feature in the way APP is doing this). The new beta now also has SuperCCD and XTrans support. Now, those won't be very important to a lot of people, but doing processing on those formats takes ages in PI and PI can't do the stuff APP does with these formats. This is to say, we regularly are updating APP and are working on a basis that will make it a very good and alternative choice for very good reasons. We choose to get an excellent basis and focusing time on that, before implementing other features. This is slower, but in the end produces a high quality product.

This will remain the focus, whilst we of course try to implement features you all call for as well. It would've been nice to have the "save settings" implemented at the start, but that's just not how it came to be.

As much as I love APP, I find it ridiculous that there is no basic ability to save and recall projects. I am actively searching to switch to another program that has this feature. It is such a shame that an advanced program is crippled by the lack of such a needed basic function.

Hmm, any updates on that? Having project settings in a file that can be saved and loaded would be my most wanted feature. Especially if the project file is not binary. A textfile that could even be pre-generated with all frames / frame types set as well as the setting for stacking would make things much easier, more reliable and reproducable. I'm still working on a more automated workflow for myself (including automated upload of images during the image session to a cloud storage and stacking on a very powerful cloud machine). This feature would help a lot. 

I hope it is still on the list of features for the next version.

Cheers,
Mario. 

It is on the list, not for the next release I think, but only Mabula knows that for sure. We do know about the wish for this and of course it makes a lot of sense, I've mentioned this to him as well.

I too am anxiously awaiting this feature.  This is one thing that I most definitely leveraged with DeepSkyStacker.  It seems such a simple thing to write a text file with the list of files in a project.  I could absolutely see leveraging a bash or Powershell script to pre-generate a list of files for a project and importing them directly into APP.  A CSV or some other simple textual format would be a HUGE deal for many of us.

I'm coming up to the end of my trial period in APP and PI. I really would prefer to go APP for a bunch of reasons, but having to set every setting every time I login in APP is just crazy. Is this ever going to be fixed? It would be so easy to just export a file of current settings, and have an option to import it on launch. Wouldn't it?