›

Adding images, masks and processes to a project

Michael Lehv
in PixInsight
Hi Adam, 

In your Process and Image container videos, there are times when you open the History Explorer’s View Selector drop down list revealing dozens of images and masks in the current project.

I don’t understand how you are able to save all those images and masks in a project unless every one of them is open or iconized on the PI workspace at the moment you save or resave the project. For me, only the images currently open or iconized are included in the project when I resave it by overwriting it. All the other images that were in the project are gone. 

If you are saving the images and masks to disk then they won’t have a history other than the Initial State and wouldn’t be in the project when you open the History Explorer’s View list. 

Could you kindly explain how you are doing it? 

Thanks

Michael Lehv

Comments

  • BlockHeadBlockHead
    Hi Michael,

    The History states show the processes applied to a single view- so it is one image in that sense. In addition, as you mention, I may employ masks and apply processes with a mask in place- or *even* write another into the original image (using a mask). The masks and other images I might right into a view I keep on hand if they are important. Keep in mind, I often use a single mask - and modify it -- and apply this mask in multiple forms. So although I keep a copy of the mask- the exact state the mask was in when I applied it isn't recorded in the history. (Though I can see the History of the mask itself and figure out what the heck I was doing.)

    I like to keep a few images as possible that are the work products- and save as much of the history as I can. It gets confusing to have copies and clones of images with their own fractured history states. It is harder (for me) to figure out how one copy of an image is related to another. 

    If you can point at a particular example in a lesson that you were puzzled by..I can probably give a better explanation.

    Thanks,
    -the Blockhead
  • Michael Lehv
    Thanks Adam,

    Now I have a better understanding of what data your projects are saving and not saving. I see that you actually aren't saving some intermediate processing stages such as certain image clones. 

    I've been using PI for a while but haven't been using projects because I've been happy with my more simplistic method of saving to disk each processing step (see screen shot below).

    However, I'm becoming concerned about how much disk space I'm using. It's not an issue for the actual primary file storage and local backups with an NAS but is an issue for daily secondary additional cloud backups in terms of upload bandwidth and datacenter charges.  

    Using external drives was too slow and a bit clunky. So, I thought using projects might decrease the amount of primary data I'm saving. I'll try a few test projects and see whether they're a viable path. 

    (It's not just AP data I'm saving but 35 years of data from several realms.)

    BTW, your videos are extraordinary and I can only imagine how much time it takes to produce them.

    Thanks again.

    Michael

      
    MSL Sample Processing.JPG
    807 x 625 - 127K
  • Michael Lehv
    Hi Adam, 

    It certainly looks like the projects save disk space compared to saving individual processing stages to disk. 

    Thanks for your explanation of your project workflows. 

    Michael
  • BlockHeadBlockHead
    Oh yes... you do not need to save individual files to your disk. They are saved as a part of the project. 
    The project size will depend on the number images you have encapsulated- but it organizes everything and most importantly keeps the history states so that you can move backward and forward in time with respect to what looks like a single image (though is saved in multiple states as part of the project).

    -the Blockhead
Sign In or Register to comment.