Lin Evans

Hi Robert, Is there any particular image which is repeatedly not found, or is the error random as well and not finding different images? It seems, as I recall, that there used to be a 2 gigabyte size limit. I'm not one hundred percent certain whether I'm correct about this or whether this 32 bit limitation has changed or whether it's actually different for PTE in 64 bit systems. If that is the case, you may need to resize a number of the images to get the total executable size to under 2 gigabytes. Perhaps someone who has dabbled with larger file sizes can help here, or perhaps Igor has some input... This link may shed some light... http://www.picturest...h__1#entry94029 Best regards, Lin

Hi Judy, That's good news. After seeing what is happening with the ongoing "jerky video" thread, I'm even more inclined to keep my old system going even after purchasing the new one simply to test my various shows to be relatively certain that they will play smoothly on legacy systems as well. It seems that the world of video has revealed substantial differentiation in our forum user's hardware. Eventually perhaps these problems will be resolved, but right now it seems that we can't rest assured that our shows containing video will necessarily be perceived by all as we see them because of the differences in hardware, drivers and such. This issue is made even more troubling by the fact that 4K video is on the horizon. I remember only a few years ago that some of our French users such Patrick were experiencing grave difficulties even with fairly mild animations. I recall an instance when I created a show which I tried to demonstrate different types of snowfall. Patrick was seeing my softly falling snow in a few places as actually rising rather than falling. It was because of the relative antiquity of his hardware, but it brought the problems of the limitations of hardware into sharp focus for me. When Igor uploaded the two version ( 1080p and 720p ) of Bert's video, I immediately saw the weakness of my present system made manifest. My old nVidia 8800GT, which was state of art when I purchased it, simply can't keep up. Neither version was even remotely usable for me, yet those with optimal systems were seeing either perfectly smooth playback or mild stutter on the 1080p version. Now I absolutely know that I will have to upgrade. Indeed, I share some of your nostalgia for old times. I began with an Apple II, graduated to CPM and made my first sales by converting dBase II, WordStar and VisiCalc for users of Systel Word Processors (which were actually just nice little CPM computers in disguise) so they could use their $5,000+ dedicated word processors for general computing. This eventually evolved into founding a software development company and was one of the reasons I left teaching at the university to pursue a career in the computer industry. I would like to hear more about your "pan speed" in the kitchen - LOL. Cooking has always been a total mystery to me. Since my wife passed away three years ago I have actually learned to cook Butternut Squash, and I can now actually boil water without burning the pan. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks??? HA! Best regards, Lin

Hi Gilio, I do !!!! ( like it )... from the dark regions of our subconscious ... It kept me on the edge of my seat and was a mind twister trying to decipher possible feline intentions. I also loved the name of the bands (Cat Nymphony, Les Mutants, etc.). Nice subtle use of the blur/sharpen tool too! Best regards, Lin

Hey Tom, I'll check that out once I get the new system.... I wish I didn't HAVE to buy a new system, but after about seven years the old one is definitely getting long in the tooth and maybe not long for this world.... Sometimes I find it hard to believe that a few galleries are still using my DOS software. I think it's because I customized it for specific users until that became too much to keep up with. One gallery in Taos, NM is in the process of changing hands and "may" be the last one still using my ICP (Inventory Control Package) software. Perhaps the new owners will find something to replace it with and my "tech-support" will finally die - LOL. Not that I mind, but I'm not going to be around forever.... I'll definitely look into Start8. My only experience with Win 8 has been to play with it in the store displays. Hopefully, with a little time I'll be able to get used to the interface. I will always miss not being able to use the DOS prompt commands which make entirely too much sense for doing copy and sorts. There just is no convenient way, at least that I have found, to be able to conveniently do things like copy only the exe files from one folder to another. Or only look at the .jpg files. The "wildcard" features of DOS simply have not been improved on in any way with Windows in my opinion. I still use these old commands to quickly create multiple layers of folders, delete or copy only specific types of files and even to search a complex folder for a partial file name, etc. The same things apply to things like word processing. I can work faster and more efficiently with WordStar on my Kaypro 4/84 than I can with Microsoft Word 2013 !! Of course all the features are not available, but making bold, italics, underlines and such is soooo much faster with keystroke commands before and after than with the stop typing, pick up the mouse, highlight the word or sentence click on the appropriate icon, etc. I guess I'm just old-fashioned, but I think in "some ways" we've gone backward with the GUI interface. Best regards, Lin

Hi Judy, Thanks! Actually the only information I've been able to get about the CPU is "Intel® 4th Generation Core™ i7" 4770 - because of the Thanksgiving "Black Friday" crowd, I was unable to talk to anyone who actually knew much about the system which is only available via the web. It doesn't come with an SSD but I "think" the motherboard has provisions for installing one. Also they didn't specify the power supply size, but if I need to do so I can always upgrade that as I have done on my old Dell 530. I shoehorned a 750w power supply in so I could upgrade the integrated GPU to an nVidia 8800 GT card several years ago. The old 8800 GT works fine as long as I don't try to push it beyond the maximum of my attached 1600x1200 Nokia 445Xi CRT. Looking at the available power supplies from the ASUS site, I suspect that the installed one is around 550 watts which is probably marginal but sufficient for the "as installed" system. I have read numerous reviews on the installed GeForce GTX 760 and even though it's actually designed for a 1920x1080 gaming machine, all users with experience with higher resolution displays have reported that they have had no problems maintaining 30 fps gaming with 2560x1440 displays, so I hope it will be more than sufficient for my intended use with PTE animation. I will probably try Win 8 and see if it will suffice before attempting to install Win 7 Pro. Best regards, Lin

Hi Davy, Thanks for the suggestion! I'll try to do that if there is a spare internal bay for a drive. Best regards, Lin

Hi Douglas, I hope Igor may have some suggestions.... Best regards, Lin

Hi Gary, I'll have a look at that - it might be useful. Unfortunately, I still have a number of clients who refuse to give up the data management and inventory control software I developed and sold them back in the mid 80's if you can believe it !!! I still get support calls now and then and have to be able to pull up the software in real time to help them. It's been so many years I've forgotten some of the procedures I wrote myself - LOL. I have to go back to my notes and pull up the old software to answer questions about 28 year old software. I was hoping someone would have written something new and better for the art gallery inventory business by now, but I suppose it's such a niche market that older gallery owners still are more comfortable with my old commercial software than with trying new things. Some things never die it seems .... Best regards, Lin

Hi Douglas, That is strange. I'm wondering if you could try to install PTE on another drive such as D: if you have an internal hard disk drive. Something isn't right because your folder shouldn't be locked as far as I know. I suspect it's a system setting which is causing the issue, but I don't know enough about the new OS software to help figure it out. Maybe if Stu is reading he or maybe Tom could help here... Also, you may want to read this: http://www.computerhope.com/forum/index.php?topic=109724.0 Best regards, Lin

Hi Douglas, Something is definitely not right. PTE should use only a tiny amount of CPU - on my system less than 1%. When you install PTE did you change the default for installation from C:\program files\Wnsoft PicturesToExe? If so, this may have something to do with the problem. If you haven't already done so, try deleting PTE via the Control Panel and re-install on the SSD taking all the defaults and see if it then works. Best regards, Lin

Hi Gary, I was a developer back in the stone age of computing and I still use one of my commercial programs as a data management tool. It is strictly a DOS tool but runs well under Windows on my Windows 7 Pro notebook. I think Windows 8 has done away with a true DOS prompt emulation with Win 8 - correct me if I'm wrong about that. I can index eight indices each containing about two million records in about fifteen seconds on my own data management software. To do this under Windows with something like Access takes hours even on a very fast machine. I don't want to give up a very good data management tool to the comparatively crude, Windows systems data management - I have over 260,000 lines of code and numerous utilities in this software which are very useful and too important for my own use to start over and try to build a similar system with SQL, Access or similar environment. Best regards, Lin

Hi Jt, I'll probably just disable the hibernate mode and use the "sleep" mode so I don't think that will be a problem. I've never cared for "hibernate" anyway and usually just allow the sleep mode to function when I'm not on the system. I almost never power down my desktops. This system doesn't have an SSD but uses a SATA 7200 rpm disk drive for the C: and D: partitions. Best regards, Lin

Thanks Dave, I "think" everything will be fine. I only hope that I can install WinDoz 7 to replace Windows 8 without too many hoops to jump through. I know it will be infinitely better than my existing old Dell and the video card is right up there - about the fourth down in performance among the nVidia cards. I like the idea of having the extra speed of USB 3. Right now I only have USB 2 and I plan to buy some 4 terabyte external media to back up my shows, videos and photos. I just checked my existing "Program Files" folder and I think the 149 gig C: partition will be quite adequate. At first I was afraid that it would be tight, but apparently even with the literally hundreds of application programs I have installed, I'm using less than 30 gigabytes in the Program Files folder. It really will be great to use some of the newer software which doesn't work with XP and to be able to do video editing without waiting overnight for rendering - LOL. It's amazing how long my present system has lasted and been relatively trouble free. I occasionally get a blue-screen which requires a re-boot. That "could" be an omen so it makes me a bit nervous. I leave the system on 24/7 and I don't know how many hours the HD can run before the bearings freeze up. I think it shuts down until needed, but still...... It will be a huge task migrating all my existing software to a new system, but it has to be done sooner or later. Thanks, Lin

Hi Eric, The entire system is essentially "as is" so no customization choices for me. The specs at the source "BestBuy" don't list the power supply size, but since it's more or less a "brand name" system. I assume it's adequate. It's definitely a gamer system, but because it's relatively inexpensive for all the bells and whistles (about $1400 USD) it's probably less expensive than building one to my own specifications. With a total 10 USB ports and such, I suspect the PowerSupply is probably fairly healthy. If I were building my own, I would prefer a large solid state drive for C: which would make booting much faster and I would probably put a secondary internal 4 terabyte 7200 rpm sata drive in. But having priced building one to custom specs, I think it's less expensive to go with the "canned" system and my resources are severely limited. I'm not even certain of the brand HD they use, or how much of it is partitioned for C: versus storage. (Edit - Only 149 gig dedicated to C My old system still works fine, but my HD is over six years old now and I suspect it won't be good for too much longer which is why I'm considering this new system. I've looked at custom building a Hewlett-Packard and I don't think I can match the specifications of this one for less than about $1600. Best regards, Lin

Hi Guys, I'm considering a new desktop and looking at the ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) desktop with 32 gig DDR3 RAM, Intel 4th Gen i7 CPU with 3.4GHz speed and turbo boost to 3.9 GHz. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 with 3GB DDR5 (dedicated), SonicMaster 8 channel MaxxAudio, a 1TB 7200 Sata Drive, 6 USB 3.0 ports, 4 USB 2 ports and, unfortunately, Windows 8 which I will "try" to replace with Windows 7. Anyone have any experience with this system? Good or bad comments appreciated. It appears to be a solid system with sufficient case size to handle cooling, etc. I know there have been questions about ASUS and quality control so I keep that in mind. I want to be able to edit video and of course continue with PTE shows. The video card is much more than sufficient to handle about anything I could conceive of with PTE. I will probably end up with a fairly large 2560 x 1440 display and I will keep my old XP system with my 8800 GT card to be sure I don't create shows which won't run on less than optimal machines. Best regards, Lin

Hi Folks, If you are like me, you are a pretty good speller, but still make typo's and sometimes just spelling mistakes which you may regret after publishing your project and finding out too late that you have made a really dumb spelling error. For a number of years, I've been using a little freeware product called tinySpell which has a minuscule footprint (900k) and sits in memory and watches for spelling errors which it flags both visually and audibly. I highly recommend this very good little tool because it works perfectly with PTE. http://tinyspell.numerit.com/ This checker has multiple language dictionaries so can be useful to most users of PTE. Best regards, Lin

LOL - Back to the future. Everyone wanted the old IBM keyboards "because" of the click/tactile nature. One company, Northgate, made their fortune with really great copies of the IBM concept. I would still be using the two Northgate's I have left which were parts of custom systems I built and sold years ago, but the function keys in those days only went to 10 so....... LIn

Hi Tom, Hard to say - probably in the interest of compatibility like you surmise. Pay particular attention to the "copy/paste" of the frame and content which essentially duplicates the entire animation, but on the opposite layer which makes it exceedingly easy to simply opacity keyframe the object on the top layer out for passage behind another object, or leave it as is for passage in front. Essentially there are duplicate animations happening simultaneously but with no real overhead because of the way PTE works. Yes, JPD was not only a great guy who unselfishly shared his ideas and amazing constructs, he also was one of the most innovative thinkers I've had the pleasure of knowing, even if it was only via the internet. He, like some others, were taken way too soon by a damned disease which should have had cures twenty years ago. Best regards, Lin

Hi Tom, Actually, although as Peter has discussed above, there may be a much better method in store for the future, it's actually not so difficult to do this for a complex animation as my little example might imply. I just used a very simple child example to demonstrate the "sandwich" idea, but in practice, were there to be several objects with complex motions and different circumstances, there is another very logical way to accomplish this as explained in my #33 tutorial here: Link to relevant tutorial #33 Even though the tutorial linked above is titled: Move an Object in Elliptical Orbit and Make The Object Pass Both In Front Of And Behind Another Object the principles are very relevant. It might be worth the few minutes to download and watch. Best regards, Lin

Hi Colin, I've got an older desktop still in service which also has an nVidia 8600-GT - not the mobile version - and it runs it smoothly too. I think the 8600 was the first GPU I used to do 3D animations with - pretty good old card for its day for sure. You know, at our age we have to do something to keep our minds occupied so senility doesn't creep up on us - HA! Making these fantasy shows is lots of fun for me so I don't mind putting in the time and effort. The new features of PTE 8 really speeds up the process and lets the user take advantage of bits and parts of other productions to help ease the journey. Best regards, Lin uote]

Hi Tom, Here's a quickie for how I would proceed... I intentionally made it "not perfect" so you can see the "sandwich" http://www.lin-evans...m/objectzip.zip Lin

Hi Tom, The answer is no. In order to make the red square disappear behind the blue one and apparently pass in front, etc., requires duplicating the red as a child of the blue, etc., and playing with opacity, position and size. It takes a bit of "trickery" to create the illusion. Best regards, Lin

So someone uploads a file to dropbox for you and you have not downloaded it and it magically appears on your own hard drive? Doesn't work that way for me... If it worked that way, Dropbox would have to have a really great crystal ball which would automatically know the URL of every computer which might ever request a file from someone else who had uploaded it. That would be a pretty good trick if it could be done. The assumption is that the OP wants to attach to something other than his own files which are presumably already on his hard disk. Personally, I think you are playing word games here. What I said in my post is correct. You don't find someone's files which they have posted to dropbox for download until such time as you have them on your own system. Lin

Hi Canico, You don't actually "move" your images. Just put them all on either your hard drive or on some other form of local media and navigate to that place from PTE. You will not be able to attach to images in Drop Box - you have to download them to your system first. On the top of your opening screen in PTE there is a small "drive" icon. Generally it will be found on the left side of the tool bar line just under the word "help." Click on this icon to navigate to attached devices including your internal hard disk and then look below and you will see the "tree" structure of that device. Click on the appropriate folder and you will find your images located on that device. You may then either double click an image, drag and drop an image to the slide list or right click on the list and take the appropriate steps from the drop-down table. Best regards, Lin

Hi Gary, Most laptops do not have a dedicated GPU and it "could be" you are running into a bottleneck because of that, but I seriously doubt that this is the complete problem. I've played video via my USB 2 ports on my own laptops without problems and they are not top-end units at all so I would suspect that the salesman may be correct in this case. Actually, if you get a higher end laptop which has both a dedicated GPU and the integrated "shared" version you should have no problems running your shows. Bottom line - when you go to pick up your new laptop, try it before you leave the store. If it doesn't work, cancel the sale. Best regards, Lin