New Feature : Drag and Drop into SharpCap

[admin]

This is a new convenience feature that I have added to the latest SharpCap update (4.1.12516) to make it easier to use certain features in SharpCap.

You can now drag and drop certain types of file into the main image area in SharpCap, with results as follows:

* Dropping an SER video file into SharpCap

This will automatically open 'Test Camera 2 (High Speed)' and select the SER file as the source of the images that the test camera shows. Note that this effect is not available if SharpCap already has a real, hardware based, camera open (All cameras count as real cameras except for the two 'Test Cameras' and the 'Folder Monitor' camera

* Dropping an image file into SharpCap (FITS/PNG/JPG/TIF)

This will open the 'Test Camera 1 (Deep Sky)' and select the image file as the image that the camera shows. As for dropping in an SER file, the effect is not available if a real, hardware based, camera is open in SharpCap.

If the 'Test Camera 2 (High Speed)' is already open then the image will be selected into that camera, rather than 'Test Camera 1 (Deep Sky)' being used.

* Dropping a SharpCap sequencer script (SCS file) into SharpCap

This will start the sequencer running the script that has been dropped. This effect is not available if the sequencer is already running

* Dropping a .CameraSettings.txt file into SharpCap

This will load the settings in the CameraSettings.txt as if they were a capture profile - setting all the camera properties like exposure, gain, bit depth, etc, to the values in the CameraSettings.txt file.

This effect is only available if the camera currently open in SharpCap matches the one in the CameraSettings file.

* Dropping a folder into SharpCap

This will automatically open the 'Folder Monitor Camera' and select the folder as the source of files for that camera to show. The folder should (of course!) contain one or more image files that SharpCap can show...

As for many of the other drop possibilities above, this is not available if a real, hardware-based, camera is already open.


Hope that these prove useful,

Robin

[Menno555]

Great new features Robin!
To make it even more convenient, do you think it's possible to make it so that if a file/folder is dropped on the SC shortcut, it will open SC and work that way?

Menno

[admin]

Hi,

I'd have to investigate how that might work - I have also considered having an 'Open with SharpCap' option in the right click menus too, but again, needs investigation.

cheers,

Robin

[T-Studio]

Thank you for the great work.

This is a feature I've been waiting for, so I tried it out right away.

I dragged and dropped an existing image to display it, selected PlateSolving, and saved it as Fits.

This operation does not seem to save the WCS information.

SHARPSOLVER is fast and stable, so I would like to use it to apply WCS to existing images as well.

I would be happy if this feature were added.

[admin]

Hi,

glad that you like the drag+drop - I use it a lot in testing

Recent versions of SharpCap do save WCS related information to FITS (the CRVAL1/2, CRPIX1/2 and CDX_Y headers) if you have plate solved recently. However, there is a small issue with this... The information is added just after the image is captured from the camera ('captured' for the test camera I suppose!). But, if you have just opened the image in the test camera, that happens *before* you have plate solved, so that first image doesn't get the WCS information added. If you wait for the test camera to deliver another copy of the same image after the plate solve is complete, then save that, you should get the WCS information added. That's at least a workaround for now.

cheers,

Robin

[T-Studio]

Thank you for your reply.

This is a very important feature for me, so could you please explain it in more detail?

Is the image being sent automatically after PlateSolving, or does the user have to explicitly do it?

Currently, dragging and dropping an existing image only seems to work for "PlateSolving only."

I would like this feature to be supported as an "Open" or "Save" command as well.

[admin]

Hi,

you need to explicitly choose to plate solve the image after loading it by drag/drop - SharpCap doesn't do this automatically. Once the plate solve has succeeded, wait for the frame progress bar at the lower right to complete one more frame (by default they are 8s exposure in the Test Camera 1). Once the next frame has happened, saving will include the plate solve information.

I don't really intend to add load/save to SharpCap for this sort of thing, but I have wondered about the possibility of a stand-alone plate solving tool using the SharpSolve engine - probably a command line tool that could be used from other applications.

cheers,

Robin

[T-Studio]

Hmm... it's not working.

Procedure
Drag and drop the file → Menu: Tools → Run Plate Solve Only → Confirm that the frames have been counted, then export to FITS using a snapshot.

I also tried Preferences the header information to the bottom, but the coordinates aren't reflected in Aladin.

Am I following the wrong procedure?

[admin]

Hi,

do you see the relevant FITS headers in the saved file as shown below?

Screenshot 2025-09-19 135700.jpg (105.28 KiB) Viewed 1654 times

If those are not showing up then re-check your SharpCap version - adding these headers was a change that only happened maybe 6 weeks ago, so a slightly out-of-date version would not show them.

cheers,

Robin

[T-Studio]

I couldn't figure out how to display the header in SharpCap, so I tried looking at the header in another app.

It appears that the coordinates are being obtained, but the WCS information doesn't seem to be available in other apps such as Aladin, CCDCiel, KStars, or Tenmon.