New User, cant get my head round this, please help

[Birder]

Hi Folks, i also posted this in the template section but thought it best to post it here as well.

File downloaded: Template1.ffc

Open the template.
Drag a cube face from the initial pano you want to use, to the first thumbnail
Click "Plugins>Tourificator"
In the left list, you will see "CUBE" in the top, and the name of your initial pano on second place.
Click your pano
Tick the "Set as Initial Pano" tickbox
Click on "CUBE" and hit the DELETE button on your keyboard.
Return to adding panos to the thumbs, then replace the thumb images with new ones etc. etc. etc.

I am new to FFC and am having difficulties in using the program, I dont like trying demos so i take the developers blurb as what i am buying and after seeing TerryCM's site (regal360) i purchased before trying.
Anyway I thought a way to get round this was to download the template above, so i can see how it works and modify it for my own use.

I do as the instructions said, plus have watched the video but whatever i do, when i save or save as nothing seems to happen. If i "save as" I cant tell where its saving so if i search my whole W7 system I can find a shortcut that is saved but it does not go to a file. No text appears in the yellow panel just below "actions" as normally does when you save or publish a file.

I can make and save a simple file which works, i can open it and edit it and resave it and it reopens OK but not this template. I have tried renaming the file but that does not help.
I also notice that in the template under each Hotspot the source file path is "files/hotspotFiles/images/xxx.jpg" and when i change the image by clicking source in the program the selected image shows in the pano but it still has a path starting with "files/hotspotFiles/" which as far as i can see is not on my system.

I thought I was well versed in W7 and PC systems but just cant get my head round this one considering others seem to have said thanks for sharing the template,

Could someone help please as at the moment the program is pretty much useless.

Thanks in advance

Update: I have just noticed that when i load the template, the action "Close Project" does nothing

Edit: first Posted also in the template section

[Birder]

Several hours trying to use this program and its now starting to get to me. Simple things just dont work every time. You seem to have to do everything in a certain order or it just does not work how you think it would.

An example, the dashboard rotator works in a brand new project but once you change a few things or add another hotspot it stops. Once it stops working i can never seem to get it to go again.
Loading the pano at the start to grey should be simple if the tutorial is correct, but its changed and If you dont set it at the start of your project, you seem to be stuffed. The tutorials show programs of differing versions that you follow instructions only to find what you are told to do is no longer there.

What use is a program where you cant change your mind later.

I am feeling that this program is more for people who have used it from the start, who have grown with its quirks and not for a new user. I just spent an hour trying to do something that should take seconds, I finally made it work and now something else stops working.

Do you do a refund as i can see this is going to take an age to master, and even then i am not sure i could trust the results?

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

Hi. Sorry for the initial issues you are having.

I have just tried the template, and am not encountering the problems you mention, but as it is with everything digital, anything can happen.

The file path you notice in the hotspot source text box "files/hotspotFiles/images/xxx.jpg" is not one you will find on your computer. This is the path to the file in the project folder, when you publish the project. Before you publish the project, it is the path to the file in the temporary file system.

If you publish the project to the desktop (Action>Publish to... then select the desktop as the destination for publishing) and it is named "My Project", a project folder with that name will be published. If you open the folder, you will see that a sub folder named "files" and under that you find a sub folder named "hotspotFiles" and a sub folder named "images" and there you find the hotspot images that are in use with the project.

The paths are relative to the project in question, and while the project is not published, the paths are relative to the project as it exists in the temporary files folder on your system... normally hidden files and folders. On Windows systems the temporary folder will be assigned a random tmp name so you will not find it in an easy way, nor should anyone have to make changes to the temporary files folder for a project.

Changing to grayscale image loading at the start is one of the things that can not be done within FFC after the project has been provided with loadPano functions... but if a change is needed, and you have put too much work into the project to start all over again, you can make the change manually by replacing all the "grayscale_" images for the panos in the project. They are named "grayscale" regardless of them being in color or not. To do that you would start a new project, go to the Pre Pano tool tab and set up the look for the pre-panos as you would like it to be. When ready to move on, you would drag and drop cube faces from all the other panos for the project into tourificator's left panel, then activate PicMenu (to have the loadPano functions created fast). Publish the project, copy all the "grayscale" images from the "ProjectFolderName/files/visualFiles" folder and replace the grayscale images in the final project folder. Not the most logical or easy way of doing something as trivial as changing the look of the low res panos... but to make it more user friendly was not possible when it finally implemented, due to the structure of FPP and also the structure of FFC itself.

Please check your Private Messages box.

[Birder]

Hi

Seen your message and answered it.

First thing i want to say is i really do want this program to work for me, i can see advantages but at the moment i just see problems. Out of date tutorials do not help and in fact confuse.

I support many websites (1000+) and one of the biggest problems i have in support is explaining "Paths" so I dont use my desktop for anything other than shortcuts to current work folders. As the desktop is virtual I find getting clients to store files in a real directory (C:/directory) easier than trying to get them to find a file in C:/user/name/my documents/file if you understand.
From what i have read you use the desktop for everything which is something i never do. Trying to explain to a client that a file on the desktop is not actually there is often a problem so i structure my project files which are stored in directories that have real names such as D:/Client Name/work/file (D:/fred/pano). I can have 100's of jobs on the go at any one time so when i am working on for a client i simply drag a shortcut to the clients folder to my desktop for ease of use. When finished i delete the shortcut and my structure is still intact. My D drive (Data 2TB) it backed up with every change made (Synced to another drive)

My programs are on my C: Drive and my work projects are on my D Drive and I would rather not use the desktop if possible other than for a folder shortcut.

All i have been doing is opening a new project in FFC and saving using save as in the clients directory. This is logical and works fine (Other than the rotator button not working) and i am using "Publish to" for the tour to save my tour files in the client folder which is also logical.

This works for all my other programs and has done for years, yes there are a few programs that use a directory "My Documents" but i back these automatically to my data drive and then sync the to my backup drive.

However in the case of your template it does not work.

The zip contains just the template.ffc file and no directory structure or files so what i have done is unzipped the template in the clients directory.
To clarify my clients directory on my D drive has the template.ffc file, and sub-directories /images containing all the images i am going to use, a sub-directory /panos containing all the pano images i am going to use and a sub-directory /published for the published tour.
I opened template.ffc in FFC from the clients directory. It opens and looks OK and seems to work. I would expect that the path to the images would be using the ffc file as root, so when I change things such as the logo image the path in the hotspot would change to /images/logo.jpg but as i said it does not. I also expected that when i saved it the file (using Save or save as) it would make the folders it needs in the same way as it does when i make a new project.

In my case doing save or save as does nothing. If i close the project using action>close project the confirm (Yes or No) prompt comes up, i confirm Yes but nothing happens. In fact when i use the template none of the items under the action tab do anything whatsoever.

I can only close the project (using the template) by exiting FFC.

You say "The paths are relative to the project in question, and while the project is not published, the paths are relative to the project as it exists in the temporary files folder on your system... normally hidden files and folders. On Windows systems the temporary folder will be assigned a random tmp name so you will not find it in an easy way, nor should anyone have to make changes to the temporary files folder for a project."

Well as i cant publish the template project, save the template project or close the template project there is not a lot i can do.

As to the greyscale problem, as i have said earlier FFC is quirky and I will have to get used to its quirky ways however i must say that having a program button to only works if you use it at the start of a project is one thing, but as its still there all the time and allows you to use it afterwards, does not make sense to me. Standard practice is If you cant use something, grey it out. As you say "Not logical" to which i agree.

Anyway, as i have been trying to get this to work all day I can waste no more time on it until i get an answer.

Regards

[Birder]

Could not sleep so thought i would try again while its quiet.

I have been trying to use Template1 but as i have downloaded the 4 templates I thought i would try another one.

Here is what i did.

Made a client directory on my D: drive called ffctest
I copied the 4 .ffc template files and pasted them into this directory, these being GridTour, Template_1_With_10_Thumbs_Version2, Template1 and Template2

I then pasted them again renaming the copies to tour1, tour2, tour3 and tour4

1) Opened D:/ffctest/GridTour,ffc, OK.
2) Saved using actions>save. Info panel showed, "Your project was saved to: D:\ffctest\GridTour.ffc" which is logical and exactly what i expected to happen. However there was No directory written that i can see, and it is logical to me that there should be one containing all the files used.
3) Published using actions>publish Info panel showed the tour and the info panel showed, Your project was published to: D:\WB\flash\GridTour with an Open link. WB is the clients name i was working in earlier. this is not what i expected and not at all logical.
On checking the D:/WB/flash a new directory has been formed called GridTour containing the files which is not logical but in fact could have been a disaster as it could overwrite previous. FFC does not warn its overwriting. (BAD)
4) On clicking the Open link i get a plain white browser panel showing nothing, again not what i expected as all the graphics are there in D:/WB/flash/GridTour.

5) Next i tried actions>publish to.., Info says "Your project was published to: D:\ffctest\GridTour" with an Open link and a new directory was written at D:\ffctest\GridTour.

On clicking the Open link i get a plain white browser panel showing nothing, again not what i expected as all the graphics are there

Next i deleted the D:/WB/flash/GridTour and D:\ffctest\GridTour directories. It is logical that FFC would now publish to the last directory it published too if i just click publish. It did and produced the directory D:\ffctest\GridTour

I now closed FFC fully and double clicked the GridTour.ffc and it opened in FFC. I then clicked Publish and the info panel showed Your project was published to: D:\WB\flash\GridTour and built a new directory

THATS DOWNRIGHT STUPID and ILLOGICAL.

I then tested all the other templates

Template2 and Template2 will open but not save, publish or close, so have some sort of fault.

GridTour and Template_1_With_10_Thumbs_Version2 will open, save, publish and close but save the published items in an illogical place sort of where the hell it feels like.

The copies (tour1 to tour4) do the same as their parents.

Either FFC is illogical to how my brain works or the program only works for some, either way I have done the tour I wanted to do in another program which took just a few seconds to complete and strangely that program worked just how i expected it too.

I think its time for me to give up on this program and move on

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

Point 2:
The logic is there if you remember that the .ffc file is not a part of the final project. It is simply the project container for FFC, holding all files and settings for the prject, therefore no directory structure is created. Consider being as a .zip file, and it will make more sense why there is no directory.

Point3:
You say that it published to: D:\WB\flash\GridTour This is not a default location for FFC to publish a project, so you must have directed it to publish in: D:\WB\flash\ and since the project name is "GridTour", and a project is always created with the main project folder named the same as the project, it would logically be "D:\WB\flash\GridTour" and a directory structure for the project would be down under GridTour folder.
The "Are you sure you want to overwrite the existing file/folder(s)?" is now on the "To-Do" list for upcoming changes.... better safe than sorry. That it hasn't been implmented already is simply because of having gotten used to the current way (in the past it would write a new folder every time a project was saved, and that was a major inconvenience for cleaning up afterwards).

Point 4:
The white screen is an indication of your Flash Security settings not being updated to permit Flash to run from the selected drive/location.
To fix that: Open some flash content online... for example this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYCcSKlQAqQ
When it starts, RIGHT click on:
"Global Settings"
Then click:
"Advanced" and scroll down
Click "Trusted Location Settings"
Now add the location(s) you would like to permit Flash to run from on your system.
Click "Close" button and then close the Global settings" window.

Without doing this, you will not be able to use any Flash content from the location you were trying to view it from.

Point 5: See point 4.
Remember that you are producing a web-ready output when you PUBLISH. That is why you get a Published project folder with all the files in it. Please see Point 3.

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

Had a one on one session with Birder, and out of that came that two of the 3 templates in the free templates forum were corrupt... bad... not compatible with the latest version.... and probably not been compatible for a long time.

I will be making new templates today and those should be fail free, but of course we can not count on them working with old versions due to new features having been introduced in Flashificator.

My most sincere apologies for the problems this has caused, but hopefully things will only be getting easier and better from now on.

Trausti

[Birder]

Thanks for spending the time in join.me. After many many hours being told its not FFC its good that you admit that its down to out of date downloads and not me, however i need to comment on what you say so others do not take notice of the problems you caused me.

Point 2:
The logic is there if you remember that the .ffc file is not a part of the final project. It is simply the project container for FFC, holding all files and settings for the prject, therefore no directory structure is created. Consider being as a .zip file, and it will make more sense why there is no directory.

I agree, however when using the out of date templates strange things were happening and not at all as you was saying.

Point3:
You say that it published to: D:\WB\flash\GridTour This is not a default location for FFC to publish a project, so you must have directed it to publish in: D:\WB\flash\ and since the project name is "GridTour", and a project is always created with the main project folder named the same as the project, it would logically be "D:\WB\flash\GridTour" and a directory structure for the project would be down under GridTour folder.
The "Are you sure you want to overwrite the existing file/folder(s)?" is now on the "To-Do" list for upcoming changes.... better safe than sorry. That it hasn't been implmented already is simply because of having gotten used to the current way (in the past it would write a new folder every time a project was saved, and that was a major inconvenience for cleaning up afterwards).

D:\WB\flash\GridTour is in fact nothing to do with the project using the template i was working on at the time, but the path of a previous project. When using the out of date templates this path was being used by FFC as a default. It certainly did not always create the files as you say. D:\WB\flash\GridTour was in fact the directory i had been using before i even downloaded the out of date templates.

Point 4:
The white screen is an indication of your Flash Security settings not being updated to permit Flash to run from the selected drive/location.

Without doing this, you will not be able to use any Flash content from the location you were trying to view it from.

Bullshit, I use Flash all the time. While online I confirmed that I had these settings correct and checked for you. If you recall you asked if i had the latest version of Flash and mine was in fact later than yours.
In my case the white screen was due to the out of date templates and nothing else.

Point 5: See point 4.
Remember that you are producing a web-ready output when you PUBLISH. That is why you get a Published project folder with all the files in it. Please see Point 3.

Not when using the out of date templates, these did not produce anything.

Had a one on one session with Birder, and out of that came that two of the 3 templates in the free templates forum were corrupt... bad... not compatible with the latest version.... and probably not been compatible for a long time

In fact 3 of the 4 templates were corrupt and the only one that works as you said is "Template_1_With_10_Thumbs_Version2.ffc" and considering I had tried the other 3 and i do not need 10 thumbs i had not tried it.

As we said online, there are a number of things that are peculiar in FFC such as the layer positions being backwards to other common programs where normally layer 1 would be the top one and higher number below it, yet in FFC its the other way round. You explained that this is an Adobe problems so can I suggest a tab under hotspots called "hotspot order" where users can use an up and down arrow like you do for pano's in Tourificater to put them in order. This would get rid of the layer numbering system and the depth setting which is a pain.

Once again i thank you for your help, your offer to give more if needed and for your apology.

I hope your new site with new tutorials will go live in the next few days as you said it would so i dont need to ask.

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

I only tried the template with the 10 thumbs, which happened to be the only functional template... and by testing that template and finding it working correctly, I provided my findings in the answers I gave. Ironically, that was the only template you had not tried. If I had tested the other templates, I would have become aware of the problems you were having, and thereby been able to provide better and more correct answers.

All the current templates will be removed and new ones provided, and I hope I will be able to make many more templates this time.

My apologies again, and a mental note to self to do my darn homework properly when there are problems to be checked.

[Birder]

The very first post explains i was using Template1, yet you tested another one. Thats like having no brakes on your car and taking the wifes in to get it fixed

In support speak thats an RTFS error on your part

READ THE F**KING SCREEN

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

I understand your frustration, but there is no need to be rude at this point.

I have admitted my mistake in not checking more than one of the templates that were available. The templates you were checking were bad... but they used to be good when they were made many versions ago (2.063 or so), and apart from me not checking the templates since they were made (lack of time on that front as it has been on so many other fronts), no one else has reported problems with them.

I am about to upload 7 new templates (basically just 2 templates, where the second one is provided in 6 different colour schemes, and the info screen should provide useful information on the basics of what and how to do.

We can all do some quick reading, not catching the essence of what we read. NOT with bad intentions or selective blindness, but simply because we are human and we can and do make mistakes.

From one of your PM's quoted from my PM:

k) If you can meet with me on http://www.join.me around 19:00-20:00 your time today (sunday), you should send me a confirmation on that, and I will send you a link for you to click and view my desktop in real time. If some other time fits you better, please let me know and I will do my best to accommodate your wish.

To which you replied:

- send me the link and a UK time

I did state YOUR TIME for the meeting, yet you didn't register that... as I didn't register that you were using a template I hadn't downloaded. Your template was named "Template 1" while the one I downloaded was named "Template_1_With_10_Thumbs_Version2". I only read the first part of the file name. You read all but the part about the YOUR time in the message. Mistakes can and will be made for as long as we are a part of the human race.

[Birder]

Sorry if i hit a nerve.

The icon after my post was to show it was a joke. To me that was obvious but British Humor is not understood all over.

When i read "If you can meet with me on www.join.me around 19:00-20:00 your time today (sunday)" I thought the "your" was a typo as if fact its not my time its UK time or Britsh Summer time. Thats the reason i replied asking what UK time, but now i read it again i understand what you mean.

The last thing i wanted to do was be rude to you and I do hope you forgive me.

By the way could I ask to not forget to do a "Grey at the start" version of the templates if you get time as its difficult to do this afterwards as you explained.

I have a few more questions but think i better not ask them in a few days. --- Just joking

All the best to you and once again I am sorry

[Trausti Hraunfjord]

No harm done... being Icelandic, I can take most things thrown at me... but it can be difficult at times to get the spirit of what is written, I think i must have felt that the extra sized font overshadowed the smiley.

I actually did the templates with grayscale as default (black/white)... but you can decide from the start whether it should be grayscale or in colour. If you want it in grayscale, you simply drop cubefaces onto the desired thumbnails for linking, reload, remove the black initial panorama (first assign the first real pano to be the initial pano) and all the panos in the project will be grayscale. If you want to have the panos in colour, you first go to "Plugins>PrePano and set the saturation to 1 and adjust the blur component. For the time being the image will show full colour and no blur, even though the template is defaulted to grayscale with blur at 7... this is a minor bug (the PrePano doesn't update the image on startup... to be fixed before next updated version). Then drop the corresponding cubefaces onto thumbs, Reload and assign the first pano and remove the black one. Now all the panos will have coloured PrePanos.

... and I may just have found the bug that removes functions, and has been reported a few times, but never with a clear indication of what was causing the disappearance of said functions ... Proggy will have a look at this today (it has finally been possible for me to recreate the problem again and again, so I expect it to be fixed, and then we'll have a new version out).