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 Topic: Saving and Editing a Tour |
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| callgary |
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Standard Member
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United States
November-19-2002
59 Posts |
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Tourweaver 2.0 is a great program with many improvements and advancements. But it does have some issues that need to be resolved (yes, I'm also submitting a bug report).
Unless I am really confused - which is entirely plausible - there seem to be two different "save" features with distinctly different functions:
1) File > Save (or pressing the floppy disk icon) and File > Save As both produce/update a set of "project folders" containing tour files, encapsulated within a single outer folder plus a single file with a .tw extension. The only difference between Save and Save As, as expected, is that "Save As" allows us the option of specifying a filename and directory path. Otherwise, Tourweaver uses its own default naming convention and directory path.
It seems that using the proprietary .tw file is the only way to reopen a tour in Tourweaver. Ergo, if you don't use the File > Save" or File > Save As function, there is apparently no way to reopen a tour in Tourweaver at a later time - even five minutes later - once you've closed the tour, and if you can't reopen the tour, you can't edit it. If you need to edit it, you'll just have to re-create it - from scratch! Please correct me if I am mistaken. On the plus side, experimentation reveals that Tourweaver 2.0 automatically creates and saves a .tw file (with a corresponding set of project folders and files) for us, names it "Project___.tw" and places it in Tourweaver's default "Workspace" folder (such as C"\Program Files\Easypano\Tourweaver 2.00 Professional Edition\Workspace). Thank you Easypano! Now all we would have to do is figure out which Project___.tw tour goes with which tour, but that's a whole lot better than having no .tw file.
2) File > Publish > Publish (or clicking the "Publish" icon, then clicking "Publish") produces a couple folders containing compressed scenes with a ".jpe" extension and sounds; two html files, neither of which is useful for editing the tour (again, please correct me if I am mistaken), and a handful of additional files. The tour which used to be editable through a primary html file is now a combination of files including a compressed and encrypted .js file, a compressed images___.ZIP file, and a config___.txt file. I am not proficient at coding (HTML or otherwise) but it appears that the config___.txt file may be equivalent to the prior version's .HTML file, in which case the tour IS editable outside of Tourweaver and without a .tw file. (If you haven't already figured it out, I'm experimenting with the program and testing hypotheses as I write this.)
CAUTION #1- the SAVE option under PUBLISH (File > Publish > Save or Publish icon > Save) seems to do NOTHING!
For a new tour which has not yet been published, this "Save" feature does not create any files or folders (at least none that I have discovered).
For a previously published tour, this Save feature does not save any changes, edits, or additions made since the the last time you clicked "Publish." Clicking this Save feature does not, as far as I can tell, create or update any files at all. This is not just buggy - unless I am completely mistaken, this is downright dangerous!
Easypano - what's up???
There is currently no way (at least none that I have found) to directly close a tour in TW2. Indirectly, we are able to close the open tour by one of two methods:
a) open another tour (new or existing)
b) close the Tourweaver program
Of course, rebooting or killing the power to the computer also works.
CAUTION #2: When an open tour is indirectly closed TW2 automatically saves/updates any changes to the Project___.tw file. It doesn't ask; it doesn't warn. It saves. There is an obvious "good" feature to this action. However, there is a less obvious problem that this creates.
I am creating a set of tours for a developer. He has several models. Each tour will have the same interface (buttons, background, viewer window size, etc.). So I create a tour without a title and without any scenes. Now I save it (File>SaveAs) and name it modeltemplate, resulting in a set of project folders and files and a file called modeltemplate.tw.
With modeltemplate.tw open, I now load panoramas and still images, create hotspots and a mapping feature, set the parameters for each panorama, etc., give it a title - The Willowbrook - and SaveAs, naming it willowbrook. Now I have modeltemplate.tw and willowbrook.tw. Then I publish the tour (File>Publish>Publish), naming it willowbrook.html to complete this tour.
Next, I change the title to The Asbury, replace the panoramas and still images, insert a new mapping function, new hotspots and pano parameters, etc. I publish this tour, naming it asbury.html.
I repeat this process to create a tour for each of the remaining models. The final model is the Phoenix. When I am finished. I close Tourweaver.
The next day I get a call from the developer. He gave me the wrong phone number and I need to put the correct phone number on each of the tours. O.K. No problem. Should be a quick fix. Right?
So I open willowbrook.tw to quickly edit the phone number on this model and guess what - I get the Phoenix tour.
Here's what went wrong. After finishing each tour, instead of editing it and replacing files to create the next tour, I should have re-opened the modeltemplate.tw file, starting each new tour with modeltemplate.tw. Instead, after publishing tour #1, I changed the title, deleted the scenes, added new scenes, made edits, and published tour #2, and so on.
The individual tours (created by Publish) are preserved. They are safe and fully functionable. However the project___.tw file for each tour has been lost - written over each time I made changes to the open tour without creating (through File>SaveAs) a new ___.tw file.
Without a ___.tw file for each model, I must now recreate each model tour in order to change the phone number.
CAUTION #3: As a final step, before exiting Tourweaver or before opening a tour of a different design, reopen the template for your current project (modeltemplate.tw) and return it to its pristine "template" state, deleting any titles, scenes, etc. that may be left over from the tours you just created. Otherwise your template file will end up being saved containing the attributes of your last tour.
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callgary
E-mail Gary
Every moment is a learning experience. What have I learned today? What have I taught today?
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| mstoss |
Gold Member
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Germany
December-26-2006
141 Posts |
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Yes, that seems to be the same with me. Selling Tourweaver 2.0 as a PRO software with a PRO price let's me expect, that this kind of workflow has to be possible. I don't want to start from scratch every time.
Yours,
Michael
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http://www.premiumpano.de
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| smooth |
Forum Moderator
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Australia
November-23-2002
5401 Posts |
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You MUST save each tour to an individual folder and NOT continue to save tours to one folder. It is a simple as that! Not all that hard to work out I wouldn't have thought?
Simply spend less time worrying about what you name the tour and more on naming the folder and using the folder as the reference to the tour.
IF you choose "Save" your work is overwritten and any "old" files, redundant or not! will remain in the same folder. IF you choose "Save As" and create a NEW folder only the required files are saved.
You can then "edit" any given tour anytime you like by referring to the tour "within" the correct folder.
Regards, Smooth 
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| mstoss |
Gold Member
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Germany
December-26-2006
141 Posts |
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Thank you Smooth, this will do the job in most cases. However, when you only want to create slightly different tours, it would really make sense, if the differences (text) are stored in the project file.
Michael
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http://www.premiumpano.de
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| callgary |
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Standard Member
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United States
November-19-2002
59 Posts |
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While I agree that its "not all that hard to work out", neither is it an intuitive or even a logical process. In every other program that I am familiar with, when I perform a "save" or a "save as" action, I get exactly the result I expected and I do not get any undesirable effects on any other files. this is not the case with the "save" functions in TW2. Due to the late hour (4:30 a.m.) I can't do this subject justice right now, but promise to revisit the topic at a more reasonable hour.
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callgary
E-mail Gary
Every moment is a learning experience. What have I learned today? What have I taught today?
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| smooth |
Forum Moderator
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Australia
November-23-2002
5401 Posts |
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LOL Logic doesn't come into it I don't think? It it did we wouldn't be playing with Java. I offer only the answer to how "this" program works.
Regards, Smooth
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