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SN8P "Window" pulldown becomes useless

SN8P won't let me use "File Open" to open multiple .snf files, but it will let me open different favourites -e.g. "Venus transits" and " Solar System" - in different viewers and I can use the "Window" pulldown to switch between viewers.  See the first screen below.  If I want to show the position of the earth and Venus in 2117 versus 2012 and open the "Venus transit" favourite in the "Solar System" window, then the SN8P window pulldown can no longer distinguish between the two window and the pulldown becomes inoperable.  See the second screen below.  What would be really nice would be to fix this problem and at the same time make the "File Open" function in a manner similar to "Favorites" so that I don't have to dump a whole bunch of file into my favorites folder to use them in this fashion.

 

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8 comments

  • 1
    Avatar
    Ron Blackwell

    You're right: drag-drop is better than dumping everything into favourites.  So if dropping a file onto a window opens it in that window, why can't File Open do the same thing?  Maybe the Starry Night folks can answer that.

    Unfortunately, drag-drop doesn't fix the problem with the window pulldown.  Fortunately, Windows provides a way to switch from one viewer to another (see the first screen below).

    While experiment with this I found that changing the earth Surface Image/Model in one window caused it to change in both and that opening another file in a third window (again with drag-drop) caused the first two to match the new one (see the second screen below).  It makes me wonder how independent the viewer windows really are.

     

  • 0
    Avatar
    Growflavor

    re: "make the "File Open" function in a manner similar to "Favorites""

    I see you found my same/related feature request...

    Multiple Viewer Windows: Open .snf file in Viewer Window Used To Select FILE > OPEN

    Since the 'favorites' behaves OK I am wonder what the obstacles are for File-->Open 

    I hope others encourage this useful basic functionality as well. 

  • 0
    Avatar
    Growflavor

    Also, here is another work around I found that is a bit easier for me than using 'favorites'...it is  a feature added a while ago:

    --open a bunch of new viewer windows then

    --drag the various .snf you want directly into whichever window you want

    ___________________________________

    7.4.1 Release Notes -- New Features:

    - Added Drag-Drop support for dropping SNFs onto the Starry Night sky to open.

    ___________________________________

    Still requires having something like file explorer open, but for me that is easier than going to 'favorites' in each window...

  • 0
    Avatar
    Growflavor

    well that's no good...have you asked Keiron about that yet in case there is some setting?  If not I will...

    I really have wanted SimC to focus on data improvement...but being able to compare the data is also important...

    (I have been exploring the Gaia DR2 with Gaia Sky & assess this dataset a huge opportunity for SN)

    this obviously blows out of the water my upcoming plan to study the Moon using multiple viewers to compare data sets at the same time...

    So far seems to be only the surface image model...stars, time, distance spheres, various lines, shadow cones seem to behave on a per viewer basis...

  • 0
    Avatar
    Ron Blackwell

    You should still be able to study the moon: you would most likely just use the default surface image/model in all windows anyway. Everything else works as you would expect.

    With the earth the default changed from no clouds in V6, which is best for seeing the track of eclipses of the sun, to clouds in V7 so that means I have to change all my V6 simulations to use them with V7 and V8.  (Also V6 would show the shadow of the moon on the earth when the moon was hidden, but V7 and V8 will not, so I often just use V6 instead.)  

  • 0
    Avatar
    Growflavor

    1) In your install of SN8, are you able to create/add new folders in Favorites & save to Favorites when you have multiple viewers open?  Mine seems to not add folders then to crash when I close a viewer window...

    2) Moon project: visual observation & imaging of dramatic shadows especially of very steep regions or regions of much greater elevation change than possible on Earth...

    • so the topography & slope & LRO maps are useful for planning observation locations...I can run google Moon to solve that...but
    • then the Iron, Mg, K & crustal thickness maps are useful to speculate about the type of rock/magma associated with the steep region and/or differences from the floor from which it protrudes...
    • I had assumed I would be able to open each surface image model in a different viewer when studying specific regions & images over time...

    3) & thanks for the useful info about the different behavior between SN versions

     

  • 0
    Avatar
    Ron Blackwell

    1) I added a new folder to favourites with 3 viewers open but the folder did not show up until I exited and started Starry Night again so I couldn't try adding anything to it the first time.  My SN8 didn't crash when I exited.  On restarting it, I could see the new folder in the favourites list but could not find a way to add anything to it.  Maybe the only way is to save the new favourite then use File Explorer to move it to the new folder which is just a subfolder in /documents/starry night pro.   It looks like Starry Night only looks at the favourites when it starts up and doesn't have any mechanism for looking at changes on-the-fly.

    2) I see your problem with your moon project.  Maybe you should add a new item to the forum for the surface image/model problem.  I don't think the Starry Night people are paying much attention to my posts while they are busy with 8.0.3.   

  • 0
    Avatar
    Growflavor

    Thanks for confirming the broken drag & drop 'favorites' behavior. For now then, I'll keep using .snf drag & drop from explorer instead of using the Favorites menu

     

    I am sure SimC has their coding plates more than full with smoothing out LiveSky.  I do hope that LiveSky creates a steady cash stream for SimC so that they can focus more capacity on improving content & indexes for the Star datasets like they did for the DSOs.

     

    i created the request "Please Enable Per Viewer display of different "Surface Image/Model" (link)"

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