There are two main ways to run ImAdjSoft.
1. Design mode - Running ImAdjSoft by clicking on it's icon will load the design interface. A new Layout can then be defined that identifies the processing steps, text overlays and output options that you want to apply to images. This layout is then processed by ImAdjSoft in Execution mode, either remotely by the included CCDSoft plugin, External Scheduler or directly from the interface .
2. Execution Mode - The idea of automated execution is so ImAdjSoft can be launched by a seperate process, such as a script, scheduler or camera control software and passed images to process in more-or-less realtime.
ImAdjSoft processes the steps previously defined and saved in a layout. Execution can be done from within the ImAdjSoft program by clicking the Run button after a layout has been defined and saved, or ImAdjSoft can be called and passed the parameters for the path to a layout or image(s) to process.
This is all done automatically if using the included ImAdjSoftCCD CCDSoft plugin.
Using Execution Mode: if you want to write your own interfaces to call ImadjSoft to process a layout, you would call ImAdjSoft as in the example below, which allows the layout setup to control which files are to be processed.
c:\program files\imadjsoft\imadjsoft.exe X c:\images\
The first parameter is an 'X' indicating that ImAdjSoft is to silently execute a layout specified by the next parameter, which can be either a Path or an Image.
If ImAdjSoft is called with a path as the second parameter (as in the example above), then the software will expect a pre-defined layout to exist in that directory, as well as the images to be processed.
Automatically with an Image - Execution from Command Line, Script or Scheduler with only one file to process.
e.g. c:\program files\imadjsoft\imadjsoft.exe X c:\images\lastimage.fts
If ImAdjSoft is passed a path that includes an image filename (as the previous example), then this image will be the only one processed regardless of the file input settings in the associated layout. As with all automated running modes, a layout is expected to exist in the same directory for a reference image that matches the image being passed in.
In 'X' mode ImAdjSoft runs and exits silently regardless of any errors encountered.
Processing Captured images
- Included with ImAdjSoft is a Camera Event Plugin for the CCDSoft CCD camera control software, called ImAdjSoftCCD . This plugin will automatically call ImAdjSoft, whenever CCDSoft saves an image, so that ImAdjSoft works as a natural extension to CCDSoft.. The plugin also has some configuration options designed for AllSky cameras, such as the ability to schedule imaging between set times and execute a final ImAdjSoft process after the stop time has been reached. This is useful for AllSky cameras as they can be set to stop imaging at sunrise and then process a final image for the daytime, possibly from a different directory containing a specific image created for this purpose.
Although ImAdjSoft can be called from any application, this ImAdjSoftCCD plugin will only work with CCDSoft.
Using External Scheduler Software -
In ImAdjSoft's first application of processing AllSky camera images, the software was scheduled via WinCron to run every 60 seconds, while the imaging software was taking 5-second images with a 45-second delay. The remaining 10 seconds were taken up by the image download from the camera.
In this case sequencing between images being taken and ImAdjSoft processing them was prone to errors. To avoid problems, ImAdjSoft will not complain if images are missing. It will simply try again the next time it is sequenced to run.
Sequencing errors can also cause unprocessed files to remain on the disc, if you have ImAdjSoft set to clean-up after itself by deleting processed images, for example. So scheduling is not the option of choice for processing images in realtime. A script called from the image creation software, such as the plugin above, is preferable.
A shareware sequencing application called WinCron, is available. Just send me an email requesting WinCron if you would like to try it. It works quite well and was successfully running ImAdjSoft for six months or so.