Some description of the Hugin GUI

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Bruno Postle

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Oct 16, 2009, 5:19:01 PM10/16/09
to Hugin ptx
With the discussions about future Hugin GUI direction I thought it
would be relevant to describe the existing Hugin GUI in terms of the
data it represents, and some of the problems with the way we do it
now.

There are only a few ways Hugin represents data:

== Lists of photos ==

The Images, Camera and Lens, and Crop tabs are 'lists of photos with
their variables'. Functionally they are all very similar - You can
select single or multiple photos and edit the variables.

The Camera and Lens tab is really two lists, but only the Geometric
variables are represented in the list - This is an ommision, but
missing Photometric variables have never been reported as a bug,
maybe these columns are just not very useful? These variables
reappear in a less repetitive fashion in the 'variable groups' tabs
later on (see below).

There is some functionality that seems out of place:

* In the Images tab, We have Clean control points, Remove points,
Create control points and run Celeste, which have little to do with
the Position variables in this tab.

* EXIF data isn't particularly relevant to Position variables, and
again isn't displayed as columns in the list.

* 'Anchor this image for exposure' should be with the Photometric
variables on the Camera and Lens tab.

* The photo filename is shown in the Images tab and Camera and Lens
tab, but not in the Crop tab.

In order to display all possible information, these three tabs could
be split out into six tabs:

1. Image and EXIF attributes (EXIF currently not listed at all)
2. Positions (roll/pitch/yaw, but with XYZ positions soon to be added)
3. Lens variables (geometric parameters)
4. Photometric sensor variables (currently not listed at all)
5. Control points (number of points is currently listed in the Images tab)
6. Crop variables

I'm not saying this reorganisation should happen, but the
information that is currently presented and not presented is
arbitrary and somewhat accidental.

== Pairs of photos ==

The Control Points tab shows two images at a time, obviously there
are a number of minor improvements that can be made here.

There is also the Control Points table which is really an extension
of the Control Points tab, i.e it isn't any use combined with any
other part of Hugin.

== Variable groups ==

An aspect of the Hugin model that isn't at all obvious is that we
have this concept of 'variable groups'. The Optimizer and Exposure
tabs would appear to be lists of photos with checkboxes for
variables to be optimised - but this isn't what they are at all,
they are really lists of these 'variable groups'.

This is most obvious with the 'lens number' system - If you only
have one 'lens' in your project, then there is only one entry in the
'Lens Parameters' and 'Camera and Lens Variables' lists at the
bottom of the Optimizer and Exposure tabs.

Similarly, the Image Orientation (roll, pitch & yaw) list on the
Optimizer tab is a list of 'stacks' rather than a list of photos,
e.g. with the gsoc2009_layout branch you can link the positions of
photos together into 'stacks' and it is these groups that are listed
here rather than a list of photos.

Other future ways of grouping would be to separate 'lens' stuff
(barrel and vignetting) from 'sensor' stuff (EMoR) and to be able to
link XYZ camera positions in a similar way to 'stacks'.

== Project overviews ==

We have four project overviews, discussed in other threads:

1. Assistant tab
2. Fast Preview
3. Preview window
3. Stitcher tab

The Stitcher tab is really just a collection of general project
settings. I'd like to see 'actions' removed altogether, i.e. we
have a Stitch now! button that duplicates the Create panorama button
on the Assistant. Also, surely all stitching should be done through
the Batch Processor? if not, what is wrong with the Batch Processor
that needs fixing?

--
Bruno

Dane

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Oct 17, 2009, 12:23:46 AM10/17/09
to hugin and other free panoramic software

You bring up some good points. I can't argue with any of them.
Interesting what can be observed when you step back and look at the
whole picture.
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