2 naming bugs in Capture Flats tool

[zerolatitude]

Hi,

As in title, these are small, but irritating as they break the flow of naming and create inconsistencies in PI and scripts.

These are when making flats with Capture >Capture Flat and both are in the naming of the flats file.

1. If you use Date:Y (for yesterdays date) in the naming scheme, along with "Yes" File>Sharpcap Settings>Filenames>Use Sortable date format (YYYY-MM-DD), the date format is not respected in the flats filename. So, it shows as DD-MM-YYYY even if the option is set to YYYY-MM-DD. Note that
a) this is an issue only when the Y flag is used for dates, AND
b) this is an issue only for flatfile namimg. Regular captured file names do not have this problem, i.e., the Y flag will respect the sortable date format setting.

Request: flat file names using Date:Y should also respect the sortable date format


2. When taking flats for different filters, its common to move to the next filter while the files are averaging out. However, if the filter is changed before the averaging and saving is complete, it saves as the name of the current filter. So if I have taken flats for L, and after capture, but while averaging I move to B, so that B is the filter in use when the flat is actually saved, the flat will be saved with B in the filename.

Note that in the FITS header, the correct filter (L) is mentioned. So that is taking the filter at the start of the capture and not the end.

Request: Flatfile names should take filter names etc at start of the process, not the end, to be consistent with the settings file and also the FITS header.

Hopefully these are easy to correct.

[admin]

Hi,

I just had a look at the code, and the flat file naming uses the video capture template on the grounds that it is creating a single output file rather than a series of individual files (Capture_00001, Capture_00002, etc). So, if you put the sortable tag onto the video capture template, I think it should work for the date/time formats of the flat frames.

On the other point, I will move the code to capture the filter name etc to a point that means it should happen before you start adjusting filters for the next option - this will go into the next SharpCap 4.1 update.

cheers,

Robin

[zerolatitude]

Thanks.

Will change on the single file template and confirm.

[zerolatitude]

Hi Robin,

That didnt work.

I have set "Use Sortable Date format" to yes (i.e., ticked the box).

My manual template for single filename (actually all files) is "{TargetName}\S_{Date:Y}_Dt_{Date:S}_{Time}_{Filter}"

In the Sample Filename box, this is what shows (emphasis mine): :C:\Users\Astro\Desktop\SharpCap Captures\M42\S_16-04-2023_Dt_2023-04-16_12_51_48_OIII.avi"

The sortable date format is not being used for both Date flags.

For Date:S, the Usable date Format is used.

For Date:Y, it is reverting to the system default. Looks like the code is not checking for the Date format when using Date:Y.

Am I missing something?

Thanks

DateYFormatIssue.png (47.04 KiB) Viewed 1445 times

[admin]

Hi,

if you want sortable dates *and* to use the Y option so that it continues to use the previous day's date until noon, then you need to use :YS in your template - ie

Code: Select all

{Date:YS}\{TargetName}\{Time}_{Filter}

Actually, you can even have :YSZ which means 'Yesterday until noon, sortable, UTC dates rather than local dates'!

cheers,

Robin