Digital Light & Color

I have been trying out this transformation, but am encountering a couple issues that I can't understand. I am hoping someone can give me some guidance.

The biggest issue is the size of a panel. I start by opening three images and they are the only ones open when I open the Transformation. Regardless of the size of the current image, the panel size dimensions show as some numbers that are not even close to any of the open images and a grey box of those dimensions appears in the centre of the background image. When I choose one of the images in the Panel 1 Properties box, the chosen image is centred within the dimensions of the borders of the grey box (which does not change the size to reflect the image) and, of course, when I press the "Shrink rectangle to match image" button, the image stays the same size and the rectangle encompasses the image. The problem with this is the image is not represented as the correct size. Regardless of whether I delete all panels, close out the Transformation or anything else I have tried, I can't get the dialogue to start fresh as the same dimensions continue to return.

As the noted dimensions continue to show up, I suspect I somehow saved a layout from prior use of this Transform (although I do not recall doing so...), so I tried the "Load saved layouts" to see if I could confirm this, but there was no saved layout that I could find.

My questions are these:

Are the saved layouts held in a particular location that I may not have checked? If I did inadvertently save a layout, I would like to delete it so the program does not repeatedly use the same panel dimensions.

Regardless of whether I have/have not saved a previous layout, how do I get the Transformation to open fresh with no prior attributes (it appears some of the recent attributes are sticky, such as background size but that is easily changed). I would assume that, at least, the dimensions of one of the open images would be represented until a saved layout is recalled???

I presume the Snap Grid button is not one of those items which is sticky? I can enter a number, say 10, close and re-open the Transformation and that number is different (sometimes 9.90 but occasionally 3000.00).

Why is the Layout Transformation not accessible in the program's Help menu? Mine is green in colour and I can't open it. I have read the Layout Transformation article on the web-site but it does not describe the various buttons shown on the panel (like "Create grid layout").

Thanks,

Marv

Sorry,

Should have mentioned, I am using Version 5.

Marv

You might want to start with the Layout white paper:

http://ftp2.bmtmicro.com/dlc/Layout.pdf

You are correct, there is a problem with the link to the Layout transformation in the help file, but you can find the help page by searching for "Layout".

Thanks Jonathan,

I have done some reading and experimenting and it seems my confusion is in large part due to operator error (boy that's a surprise!!). However, it also stems from the method currently used to set a panel image onto the background.

When opening the Transformation and pressing the "add image" button, the program comes up with a seemingly arbitrarily sized grey box (which is why I thought it was from a prior operation) that is not the exact size of the image intended for the panel (and I now understand why as it does not know which image is intended for use yet). I, mistakenly assumed that one could merely identify an image from the Panel dialogue and it would be imported onto the background image (or colour) without resizing, and then the user could press the "Shrink rectangle to match image" button and the rectangle would "wrap" around the image. However, if the size of the "box" is not the same as the image, the image is reduced or enlarged in size, to fit as best as possible into the box.

Even though I now have an understanding on how to set the image size, unfortunately, the control to alter the box size, by clicking on and moving the lines, is too inexact (i.e. I was given an image that is 1301 pixels and I could not attain that size exactly, it would allow 1303 or 1297 or similar but not exactly 1301. I know it's only a couple pixels, but still...). This would be much easier and quicker if the user could just enter numbers similar to the way the background size is determined. Having to re-adjust the grey box for each image is quite slow and frustrating, especially if there are many images to deal with which are not exactly sized in increments of ten pixels.

And thanks for pointing out how to access the Help topic.

Marv