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Photo: how to use the macro library?


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Hi,

I can't seem to figure out something really simple: how to execute a macro stored in the library.

I have my image open along with the library window but clicking, double-clicking or dragging a macro onto the image has no effect. Tried it with self-made ones and with some that came with the software. Only way I can apply macros seems to be to right click it in the library and choose 'Edit', then press play in the macro panel.

This is on a Mac, running version 1.6.11

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11 hours ago, MEB said:

Hi thomasp,
You have to click the macro's name in the Library. Are you using a mouse or a pen/tablet? There's a know issue with pen/tables where clicking sometimes doesn't run the macro.

There is a big, big mouse-bug in all kinds of "preset-panels" escpacilliy the macro-panel. Its obvious a mouse-trigger-issue. Sometimes a macro run with a click, sometimes it needs two clicks (no double-click), sometimes you need to hit 3,4 times.... seems random....That "happens" in such panels (maybe styles) but yes "feeled"  often in macro-library as most.

I hope 1.7 will fix that that really nasty behavior.... in the meantime look at your PROTOCOLL, a runed macro will appear as one step... but yeah... this is not a solution, just for indicating for yourself, the bug is still really annoying... Macros wich takes less 2 seconds will (if "correct" clicked) run, without a screen. Macros which needs longer, will show up as "slider-rainbow". In last case you see/indicate that the macro is running... in  the 2second macros... you have to ask the "history"...  Really nasty. A click is a click... without riddle! And if the process takes longer 0.5 secondes the user want to see "progress"....  And no, Serif, most of "render" is not INSTANTAN, so the the user is happy to see, how really fast this "still-computing-animation-box" will say DONE and disapear... even if only needs 0.7 seconds....!

 

Maybe SERIF "things" NO process-bar "LOOKS/FEELS" very fast... the opposite is: I would say for all steps, which are not REALLY INSTANTAN (<0.3 secondes) a "progress bar" speed up your feeling: There is an indictor which does it job in 0.2 secondes... thats FEEL very fast... even if there is no difference... 

But however... i get a visuaell feedback the job i want, was going.... In macros/styles, etc... the job will not done by normal-clicks, even after 2,3 tryes... the user does not know (except with history, or the macro/style... itself... visibilty changes... does the action run or not...)) This is REALLY REALLY nasty! A click is a click--- normally i do not need a history.... but i like a "progress-bar", even if the action just take 0.3 secondes...

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11 hours ago, Polygonius said:

A click is a click... without riddle!

It isn't as simple as you might think. A click is a sequence of events involving a device driver, the I/O system of the OS, & the app.

The first event is "mouse down" -- the button or the equivalent on the input device is depressed. The I/O system detects that event when it periodically polls the device through whatever method the driver provides, which could involve both a generic class driver & a specialized one that supports any device features the class driver does not. This event is then evaluated to determine the current context (where the pointer is on the screen, which app has the focus, & so on) & if appropriate the event & context are passed on to the app.

At that point, the app must decide what (if any) action the "mouse down" event should trigger immediately, & if it should wait to be notified of a "mouse up" or a keypress or equivalent event or a context change (like a change in the pointer's screen location) to decide what (if anything) it should do next.

So in a sense, every click is a riddle, one that involves a lot of different processes working cooperatively to solve.

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11 minutes ago, Polygonius said:

Than let my specify: Left-Button-Down is an unique single event on an unique x/y point! So ist absolutely UNIQUE, no room for interpretation.

Of course there's room for interpretation.

"Button down" may be an event, but it is really only part of an event. A complete event would be "button down + button  up" or possibly "button down + drag + button up".

Invoking a macro, for example, would have to be "button down + button up" without an intervening drag or press of the Esc key.

-- Walt
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2 hours ago, Polygonius said:

Than let my specify: Left-Button-Down is an unique single event on an unique x/y point! So ist absolutely UNIQUE, no room for interpretation.

But what is the x/y point? A little thought should make it obvious that is context sensitive & therefore not unique. At best, the only thing absolute about it is the screen coordinates of the pointer when the event occurs, but even that does not necessarily map 1:1 to the coordinates of whatever object it is displaying in whatever window of whatever app is frontmost at that time.

Remember, everything on the screen is a virtual representation of something that has no physical presence, including the pointer itself.

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@RCR yes screen-coordinates was what i meaning with x/y.

@walt: Most coding-enviorments will use a mousedown as a value ONE and and the "mouse-button-left" as the value ZERO. But in most enviroments you can easy re-value to whatever you want or completly filter out eg. the ZERO.... But the base is just a 1 and 0, its on you how this will used further... you can code that the 1 (mousedown) is filtered and only the zero by the mouse-left is used or viceversa or both of them are used to different things.... Its completely open and by the developer how to use. But the both events DOWN/LEFT  ITSELF are absolutely UNIQUE states, no room for interpretation.

 

OSX 12.5  / iMac Retina 27" / Radeon Pro 580X / Metall: on! --- WWG1WGA WW!

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1 hour ago, Polygonius said:

@RCR yes screen-coordinates was what i meaning with x/y.

But that is context sensitive & thus not unique. If you still don't understand what that means or how complex processing a simple click really is, please refer to the references @v_kyr mentioned in this earlier post.

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Jein (yes and no). Normally you have a mouse-area-filed which gives out absolute coordinates (depending on screen) and intern-cordinates depending on its OWN size. Under this (invisible) mousearea maybe 100x30 pix you have normallly a picture, lets say a YES and NO dialog. The intern coordinates exactly know where the pointer is on this 100x30, over the YES or the NO, or outside both. And a click will (depending on the function you have coded) do the related action. But in ALL cases the mouse-area has its UNIQUE (in this case 100x30 cordinates doesnt matter where it is absolut on the screen - top-right or upper-left....  in absolut screen, the intern coordinates of the mousearea will be give out a complete UNIQUE coordinates -point. It lives in own closed absolut UNIQUE world;-)

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Well it depends, since GUI programming consists of components and their inherited events and attributes here, further many components are composite components like panels, which in turn might have and consist of other embedded components (titles, lists, buttons etc.). Further components can be set to react or not (active/inactive),mouse clickable or not etc. There a some aspects which do play a role here. And usually every component recognizes itself if the mouse cursor is inside/over it's boundaries and what events it has to fire, react on and look for, though these are usually customizable.

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6 minutes ago, Polygonius said:

... in absolut screen, the intern coordinates of the mousearea will be give out a complete UNIQUE coordinates -point. It lives in own closed absolut UNIQUE world;-)

Nothing about this process lives in its own unique closed world. To begin with, the area that responds to mouse movements varies depending on what screen object 'owns' that view. This area has nothing to do with the size of the pointer or its hot spot, if that is what you mean by "mousearea." It could be as large as the entire area of a displayed menu item, which of course could be owned by something other than the app, or a defined area of something owned by the app, like a button or text object. So before the app is even sent an event notification like that a mouse down occurred & can respond to it, the system 'world' has to determine what, if anything, it should send to it, & when.

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  • 1 year later...
On 12/17/2018 at 12:38 PM, MEB said:

Hi thomasp,
You have to click the macro's name in the Library. Are you using a mouse or a pen/tablet? There's a known issue with pen/tablets where clicking sometimes doesn't run the macro.

 

Hi MEB,

Quick question has there been any updates addressing this issue? Asking because I am not able to run Macros from the Library Panel with a Wacom pen.

OS: macOS Catalina v 10.15.2
Affinity Photo: 1.7.3
Wacom: Intuos Pro
Wacom control panel version: 6.3.37-3
Wacom driver version:  6.3.37-3

I can get around it by right-clicking the macro, then "Edit Macro" and then running it from the Macro Panel.

 

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2 hours ago, Sofa Gas Rue said:

 

Hi MEB,

Quick question has there been any updates addressing this issue? Asking because I am not able to run Macros from the Library Panel with a Wacom pen.

OS: macOS Catalina v 10.15.2
Affinity Photo: 1.7.3
Wacom: Intuos Pro
Wacom control panel version: 6.3.37-3
Wacom driver version:  6.3.37-3

I can get around it by right-clicking the macro, then "Edit Macro" and then running it from the Macro Panel.

 

I am attaching a link to @MEB for you here, because unless you quoted him, an alert wouldn’t go out to him regarding your question.   I hope you will be able to resolve your issue.


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On 1/24/2020 at 8:03 AM, Sofa Gas Rue said:

I can get around it by right-clicking the macro, then "Edit Macro" and then running it from the Macro Panel.

This bugs me so much I made one of the buttons on the tablet "Click", really useless workaround in that I need to use both hands instead of just click with the pen.1134228744_ScreenShot2020-01-30at7_56_19AM.png.ca464f852f981e21772d2124ddd9f01d.png

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I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

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