Lost Work

[Marpel]

I spent quite a while generating a mask (using the Mask transform alone, not during another transform), as the area which had to be masked was so close in tone/hue to surrounding areas, it took seemingly forever. I chose to slowly move along edges with the pen and flood fill tools, constantly changing opacity and removing some overspill, etc.

At the time, 5 images were open (no transforms, just single images), while I worked on one for the mask. It was my intention to use the mask on each of the images, but I don't know if the other 4 had not been open if that would have affected the outcome.

After a number of minutes, PWP crashed.

I re-opened PWP which came along with a message which asked if I wanted the program to be opened with the lost workflow re-enacted (can't recall exact wording). Of course, I indicated yes.

PWP opened, with the same 5 images along the top of the Browser, but the Mask Dialogue did not, nor did the mask I had made prior to crashing.

So, I guess my question is, what is the purpose of this message/action if all it does is re-open the images but loses all the work? If all it does is open images, I suppose that could have been accomplished with a couple mouse clicks.

As I was not anticipating a crash, I did no saving along the way (I know, my bad).

Marv

[jsachs]

Sorry about that.

The workspace is only saved after certain events such as clicking OK on a transformation or copying transformations from one place to another. Work done within a transformation before clicking OK is not saved. This is a tradeoff since saving more frequently would start to affect performance and would also make the list of the last five autosaved workspaces less useful. To force PWP to save all of your work, you would need to click OK in the transformation dialog box and then re-open it and then reopen the mask. This can admittedly be annoyingly slow if the mask is very complicated.

A safer (and faster) workflow might be to create the mask in stages and save it as a black and white image between each stage. This avoids having to rebuild the mask each time you open the workspace although it does make it more complicated to revise the mask since you may need to rebuild several images.

Do you remember which mask tool you were using when PWP crashed?

[jsachs]

Another suggestion -- a good tool for when you need to isolate subtle variations may be the Mask Separate tool.

[Marpel]

No need to apologize...stuff happens.

I was going back and forth between the Freehand, Flood Fill and Paint tools, and also going back and forth between the Add and Subtract buttons, but do not remember which tool I was using at the time of the crash.

Although I have often saved a mask as an image file, it has always been after the mask is complete or part of the way through when I intended to close the program and pick up the operation at a later day/time. If I saved midway, does that not mean I have to name it and place it in a location, then if I continue, and save a couple more times during the workflow, will I not have a bunch of masks, representing the mask at different stages, with different names? Or is there an easy way to save multiple times during the process that will just overwrite the initial saved mask?

And, I will look into the Mask Separate tool.

Marv

[jsachs]

When you save a mask as an image there is nothing stopping you, if you want, from overwriting an existing file. This can potentially get you into trouble if some transformation references the old mask file, but if you are just building a mask in stages for subsequent use you should be OK.

Another way to build complex masks in stages that does not involve saving masks as image files is to use a series of Masks transformations. You can build the first mask stage (as Mask 1) and then click OK when done. Next, insert another Masks transformation after the first one and set its initial mask to be Mask 1 from the previous transformation. Refine the mask and click OK and then repeat as necessary. Each time you click OK on a Masks transformation, the workspace is saved so in the event of a crash you only lose the last stage. This technique has the advantage that you can go back later and edit any of the mask stages if you discover a flaw in the mask or something you want to improve, and the results will still propagate through the image tree. The disadvantage is that is needs to rebuild the mask one operation at a time which can be slow for a complicated mask. Of course, you could still save the final mask as an image file and then start a new workspace that references the mask file. I rarely create really complicated masks, so I am just throwing out ideas here -- there are probably other ways to do this.

[tomczak]

Is the current Workspace saved after hitting the Apply button?

[jsachs]

Yes