PSICAT Development

I’m happy to announce the release of PSICAT v 0.7.  The big change in this version is support for multiple sections within a project and multiple diagrams open at the same time:

This version also offers an enhanced Import Image Wizard that shows you a table of the images it found and allows you to edit the top, base, etc. before importing:

Finally, all of the various diagram export menu options have been consolidated into a single wizard:

This dialog will let you export all of your sections as a single diagram, each section as a separate diagram, or a specific section.  Also, all supported diagram formats are accessible from this dialog.

The full list of closed bugs and enhancements are available here.  The user manual is being updated to reflect the new screenshots and features, and will be available later this evening.  Going forward, there aren’t many more huge structural changes like the 0.6 -> 0.7 jump so the focus will shift to adding new import/export formats and data/column types.

Version 0.6.1 has been released.  This is a maintenance release that fixes a major bug preventing saved diagrams from being re-opened on Windows.  Sorry to anyone bit by this, I’ve rebuilt my Windows environment and will be more diligent about testing.  I’ve also fixed a bug where the ‘Render Header’ and ‘Render Footer’ checkboxes were not being honored when exporting to PDF or JPEG, and updated the ‘Change Units’ functionality to preserve the view scaling.  There will likely be at least one more maintenance release before 0.7 comes out.

Special thanks to Anders for the feedback.  As always, comments, criticism, and questions appreciated.

Changelog:

• Open diagram doesn’t work on Windows
• Turn off header/footer when exporting
• Keep view scaling when changing units

I’ve created a mailing list for people interested in receiving emails when new versions of PSICAT are released.  This will be a low volume (1-2 emails a month) list just for announcing new versions.

Version 0.6 has been released.  It includes a working Image Import option as well as significant improvements in performance and the legacy import option.  Looking forward, I’m planning at least one maintenance release with improved documentation and videos.  Work has also begun on a diagram editor which will allow you to create and customize your diagrams.

I’ve been making steady progress on the 0.6 release.  The focus of this release is to really polish the UI and improve the user experience.  To that end, I’ve revamped the tooltips that are shown when you mouse over an object:

It shows you the depth/height where the mouse is at as well as some info about the object the mouse is over.  The description of the object will also show up if it is set.  The other new feature will be an option to import images into your diagrams.  This should allow people to start playing around with the better image handling support.

I’ve also been focusing a lot of performance improvements as well.  The new version of PSICAT feels pretty snappy for small projects but can get very sluggish to unusable with large projects like the 1285 meters of detailed description in the ANDRILL MIS hole.  I checked in a few changes today that speed things up dramatically.  Rendering in 0.6 should be at least as fast as the original version of PSICAT for large projects (and possibly faster).

I’m shooting for a release this week, so check back.  Thanks to all that have been providing feedback.  Keep it coming!

I’ve added a few screencast videos to the Documentation section.  The first video shows how to get started using PSICAT and the second video shows how to create your own lithology and symbol schemes for use with PSICAT.  The audio quality isn’t as good as I’d like, so I will likely re-do them in the future with a better microphone.

Just a quick note to let everyone know that version 0.5 has been released.  This version offers a much improved legacy import option as well as support for grain sizes on intervals.  I also fixed a major bug in the SchemeEditor that prevented use of custom images.  The full list of closed issues is available here.

With grain size support added, the next challenge is an editor for creating and editing diagram, e.g. which columns and in what order.  This and various UI and usability enhancements will be the priority for 0.6.  I will update the docs and post the full list of proposed 0.6 enhancements later this week.

Special thanks to Jeff for the feedback.  As always, comments, criticism, and questions appreciated.

Sorry for the radio silence, I’ve been working hard on the 0.5 release.  It will be a fairly ambitious release with a big focus on closing the functionality gap between the development and stable versions of PSICAT.  Here are the main features in the roadmap:

• Grain Size Support
• Image Import
• Importing previous data/diagrams
• Documentation updates including a quickstart video showing how to get up and running with a customized lithology and symbol scheme

I’m working on the last few things and plan to make the release this weekend.  As always, comments, criticism, and questions appreciated.

This is just a quick update on the status of version 0.4.  Things are wrapping up nicely with about 10 new issues resolved.  I have decided to punt three issues to the next release, mainly because I wanted to get 0.4 out the door for feedback this week.  The three issues are:

• Grain Size Support – I am not happy with how the previous version of PSICAT handled grain sizes and wanted to think it through a bit more this time.
• Image Import – There’s several different naming schemes that I’m aware of.  I want to think through this a bit more before implementing.
• LabelProvider Adapter – The infrastructure for this is in place, just need to update the existing tracks/columns to use it.

I am currently updating the docs to reflect the changes in 0.4.  Afterward, I’ll spin out the official 0.4 release and update the download links.

UPDATE: new docs and new download links are up.

Special thanks to Diane and Kerry for their feedback.

The initial version of the User Guide is complete.  A few of the advanced chapters still need to be fleshed out, but all features in PSICAT v0.3 are documented in the guide.  Updates to the guide will be released concurrently with new versions of PSICAT.