Macro with User Interaction

[ciscrh]

Affinity Photo v1.7.1.404 (Windows)

After viewing the macro tutorial video I generated the macro following the steps then clicked the settings icon to activate user interaction on how much to grow the selections before triggering the inpainting process. When I run the macro it displays a box with the text Preview: Inpaint after Rotate CRH1, as well as the Grow/Shrink radius settings dialogue box. However, after a couple of seconds the macro continues without waiting for the user input (that is, I haven't clicked the Apply button) & completes the operation with the settings dialogue still visible. If I then click the Cancel button the macro actions are undone, or if I click the Apply button it seems to run the macro a second time, although nothing changes.

In the tutorial video a Preview box is not seen, so I do not understand why it appears when I run the macro. Also, I was expecting the macro to wait until I click the Apply button. Is the macro behaving as expected, & if so, how do I get it to let me change the grow/shrink radius value interactively when running it?

I attach a screenshot showing the two boxes as described above, & the .afmacro file of the exported macro.

crh1.afmacro

[carl123]

Firstly you cant pause a macro, even when you ask for an input, the rest of the macro still runs, which is why you see it initially perform the inPainting despite giving you an input box to enter your grow/shrink value.

In your macro your grow/shrink value has an initial setting of 2px which is what the inPainting uses to do the inPainting the first time it runs.

If you are happy with the result you see on screen you can simply click the Apply button and the macro will end.

If you are not happy with the result and you think that 3px may have been a better value you can simply enter 3px in the input box and use the Tab key to set it, then the macro automatically resets & reruns using 3px for the inPainting part.  Likewise you can experiment with other values such as 4 or 5px, etc etc etc.

You can keep changing these values as often as you like as long as you don't press the Apply button

So by asking for an input for the grow/shrink part of your macro you get to try different values until what you see on screen is the result you are looking for. Only then should you click Apply

So it is working but just not in the way you expect it to work.

Specifically when asking for an input the macro does not stop at that point until you input something, it continues running until the end of the macro using the default value for that input.  You just get to tweak that default value and have the macro rerun itself automatically with your tweaked input.

Hope that makes sense 

[ciscrh]

 

 

 

1 hour ago, carl123 said:

Firstly you can't pause a macro, even when you ask for an input, the rest of the macro still runs, which is why you see it initially perform the inPainting despite giving you an input box to enter your grow/shrink value.

...

Hope that makes sense 

It sounds reasonable & is probably what is happening, but I'm not convinced it's the whole story. Also, I can't see the effect of any chosen radius value without committing to the change.

I have another macro that adds a graduated ND filter effect & it is configured to allow you to set the strength, brightness & contrast interactively when the macro is run. It puts up a dialogue box & waits for me to choose the required values (which it does on the fly: I can see what effect changing the sliders has on the image) before clicking the Apply button to get the macro to complete, & at no point is a Preview box displayed. In fairness, I have other macros that don't let me preview their effect.