Will this additional database support be available in the next release of SNPP7?

The problem I have with version 7 is the "Build Data file" in the menu is grey out, not selectable!

Why I have no clue.

Hi Denis, 

What Program?  Pro Plus or Pro?

What version of SN7?  Look in Help ---> About Starry Night.

What OS?

Thanks!

Well, the "build database" feature has been disabled in all Windows 7 & 8 versions of V7 (Beta and full release of Pro and Pro Plus) that I've received. Right after release and PURCHASE of V7 back in April, several of us noticed that many valuable V6 features had been removed from V7 including build database. We asked why this was and were told that y'all were either rethinking or reworking these features and that they MAY be available sometime in the future.

I need to know about my own Star for Build Data file I have already read NGC-IC Database and I need to know about star database. can you show me about it?? Thank you

Large star databases are not recommended in SN. A database with few thousand stars should not be a problem. The NGC-IC example is quite good to get you started. The format has mandatory fields which you must define follow by user fields then your data. Your data must be "tab" separated fields. The best way is to create the data fields in excel, add the header portion and save the file as a tab separated text file. Finally process with SN7, add the resulting file to Skydata folder. It will appear in the "Options menu" under "Option for Other Objects".

2019-12-22 : In a fresh SN8-ProPlus upgrade installation on a Win10 system I cannot get SN8 to compile the "baseline" version of "NGC-IC.txt" as posted here by Keiron Smith on September 08, 2011. The compilation fails with a single Error: "A syntax error was found on or near line 237 (the epoch was invalid of out of range)". Line 237 is the first "data" line in the file, but no active HEADER record with an Epoch declaration is present in the file. A commented-out "HEADER Epoch template" appears at line-12 (i.e. // HEADER Epoch 1975.0 ) but any addition to the file of an active HEADER declaration based on that template produces another Error msg: "syntax error (an unknown HEADER command was found)". I have verified that tab-delimited format of the input file is correct. Please HELP. As far as I can determine there is ZERO documentation of this issue. Thanks in advance, JimH (jaheflin@hotmail.com)

I want to echo the comments above by James Heflin. I have the identical same error.
Was his query addressed successfully?

Having just upgraded from V6SNProPlus to V8SNProPlus I also can not now build from the data files that I have previously built and used in V6SN. I get the above reported error.

There is no change in the NGC-IC example file, either in structure or format, from the previous version. Indeed the creation date of that NGC example file (downloaded today) is - Thursday 25 May 2006 at 19:58 - which it the same as when I originally downloaded this NGC example file when I started working on my data sets.

I have been working on a custom catalogue since Sept 2010 and now I appear to be dead in the water. I can't go back to SN6 because of OS X updates I can't proceed with SN8 because the Data Build process is giving an error.

Any information or assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Regards
Frank Concannon

Developers will review this issue. Thank you for your feedback, Frank.

DevOps reference: https://starrynight.unfuddle.com/a#/projects/7957/tickets/by_number/10343

Keiron
So what happens now? Will I receive notification of progress or suchlike?
I assume the link above does not apply to me as I can't access that site etc.
Regards
Frank Concannon

Frank,

I will make sure developers review this issue for the next SN8 update.

But, I can not offer any ETA on that update release.

Thanks.

Just a "bump" really.

Wed 15th Sept 2023. Still no sign of this issue to be addressed?

Having been reassured as to your commitment to customer satisfaction, I would have expected - something.

I'm sure the constant demands that the software to do what it is advertised to do, is just such a nuisance.

But then once you have the customers money, just roll out the platitudes.

Regards.
Frank C.

Frank,

Developers are not presently working on Starry Night. The next SN update will come in 2024. I can't give you an ETA. And I can't promise you a fix - as I don't know where this stacks up in the list of priority developments. But, developers will review the issue - and then make a decision.

Sorry for the disappointment.

Hello Frank Concannon ...
The SNP8 data-base compiler problem was at least partially "solved" in 2022 by another person (GRSmith) on this forum. If you will email me at "jahsig@gmail.com" (with a good return email address) I will assemble GRSmith's illuminating posts on this matter and forward them to you. Cutting to the chase his solution requires inserting a new column with epoch-date in the NGC example file. GRSmith doesn't explain how he figured it out but the NGC example database WILL compile if that epoch column is added to it. That might be all you need to finish your project. Hope to hear from you.

Best Regards,
James Heflin
Port Angeles, WA USA

Thanks, James!