Update Version set.

[Hesmith1029]

New to Photo Supreme so this will be the first of many questions. I have read through the many help files but still am not clear on a lot of things. For background I am looking for a replacement for Adobe Elements Organizer, a little over 100,000 primary photos (mostly TIF) with additional original raws(multiple formats from different cameras) and the jpgs. Probably 200,000+ photos.

Before asking questions which may end up being seen as critical, let me say that the DAM is far better than anything else I have been able to locate. Not perfect but does a lot right. The general approach as exemplified in manuals is spot on. The fundamentals of the project seem sound. The approach is spot on. I hope this product succeeds and has long future.

Now for the first question. I have imported couple of thousand photos using the default settings. It did create version sets but the jpg is on top. The manual implies that I can create a "custom mask". Then from a given photo set right click, select versions->version detection and it would reset top photo. This does not work.

I thought I saw version detection could be rerun on entire folders. That is why I tried this rather than individually setting the top item on each existing stack.

What is the best way to to Fix all these existing version sets?

Thanks

[Hert]

I have created a script for this.

1. Select your version thumbs
2. Right click on a selected thumb
3. Select "Run Script from Repository -> Version -> Redetect Main Versions"

Tip; test it on a few thumbs first before running it massively.

Hope that helps

[Hesmith1029]

Attached is a screen shot of my mask.

Every time I run it, I get no changes needed. I have tried on one and 4 images at time same result. I have tried a number of variations such blank spaces after the commas. Tried different order of the items. Tried when the second image is a dng and also when it is RAF.

Most of my version sets have a TIF as the finished product, one of number raw formats, and then a jpg. My goal is to get the TIF on top and the JPG on the bottom.

Clearly I am missing something.

Thanks
Herb Smith

[Hert]

Is that the File Mask rule for the Main Version detection?

If so, shouldn't that be simply *.tif to identify the TIF as the main version?

[Hesmith1029]

Tried that. In some cases there may not be a tif. But on the version stacks I was working there was a jpg on top and dng underneath. No tif in the stack this particular stack. Tested elsewhere where there was a tif. no luck

Always No Changes Needed.

Interestingly, elsewhere I found a bunch of raws with matching jpgs that had not been versioned on import. I selected two of them and said to version and it did so properly.

Is by any chance the mask case sensitive?

[Hert]

Did you see my question as well? Your screenshot is heavily cropped and so I cannot tell what rule you are editing.

[Hesmith1029]

[Hesmith1029]

Ok Try again

[fbungarz]

I am not sure I understand what you want. Your custom file mask includes virtually any image format to be selected as album display. I am not surprised that this doesn't work. How is the program supposed to know which image format it should use as album display???
If you include just any in your file mask, and have a version set that includes several different files with these formats, there is no way PSu can detect which one you would like as album display.

Just to explain this a bit better using my own setup as an example:
I shoot Nikon, the camera is set to capture a image pairs, both JPG and NEF. My NEFs get converted to DNGs, but I also keep the original NEFS. This means, I originally have three image files: JPG, NEF, DNG forming one version set.
Now, I also have a lot of slides that were originally scanned as TIFFs. These have no NEFs associated with them, and no DNGs either.
Personally, I prefer not to use the "album display", but instead prefer that my main version is always displayed on top. So, I have my "main version detection method" set to custom file mask detecting "*.tif, *.jpg". This means the TIFFs from my scanner become the main version or the JPGs from my camera. My NEFs become a custom version that I call "original" (file mask: *.nef), and for the DNG I have a custom version "digital negative" (file mask: *.dng). And my "album display" version is disabled.
Now, I routinely develop the NEFs in DxO PhotoLab, the developed versions are then saved as JPGs, but the file name gets "_print" added to the file name. In PSU I have set the print version to custom file mask "*_print.jpg". If I wanted to always first see these edited files, I could change "album display" to custom file mask "*_print.jpg" and, provided that there exists a version that was processed in DxO PhotoLab, these files would then be displayed instead of the main version.
But...
If I configured the "album display" with custom file mask "*.jpg, *.tif, *.dng, *.nef, *_print.jpg" - which one of my images in the version set is the program to choose as album display? This would simply end up in complete chaos.

My point is: the custom file masks will only work if their file selection criteria are reasonably unique. You cannot just dump any file name extension in there and expect the program to pick the right one.

I would suggest you re-assess your workflow. What do you want to use the different versions for? The logic of using versions is this: people typically like to archive their original, unaltered images and then use different derivatives for a particular purpose. You develop your raw files, some perhaps to be printed, others for a slide show, others for your website. The print versions need to be your highest quality, high-resolution, perhaps in Adobe RGB, the web versions can be smaller and probably should be sRGB.
To organize these files, you probably want to assign the original images in your version set to a particular version, and the developed derivatives to a different version. Using ONLY the file extensions this might be not possible. In my case I have at least two different JPGs, the one straight from the camera and another one processed in DxO.
Now, the album display is a bit special. My understanding is that people use it for the one version they always want to see on top. If that version doesn't exists, the main version is instead displayed. This still means the program needs a unique identifier to know what that album display version is. If you use "*.jpg" any JPGs will always be displayed and in my case the program would probably randomly choose the original JPG from the camera, or the one developed in DxO. So, that wouldn't work.
There is a little bit of a twitch to this: my scanner files... Here, my main versions are TIFs and the derivatives are JPGs. Since my custom file mask is set to first look for "*.tif" and then "*.jpg" the TIFFs are usually assigned correctly to the main version. But I guess that also works, because the developed JPGS from the scanner also have the "*_print.jpg" naming extension. And for the few files where PSu gets confused, I manually change it.

I hope this helps.

[Mke]

I am not sure I understand what you want. Your custom file mask includes virtually any image format to be selected as album display. I am not surprised that this doesn't work. How is the program supposed to know which image format it should use as album display???
If you include just any...

...I would suggest you re-assess your workflow.

I agree that this seems to be the problem, and probably the solution!

Now, the album display is a bit special. My understanding is that people use it for the one version they always want to see on top. If that version doesn't exists, the main version is instead displayed. This still means the program needs a unique identifier to know what that album display version is. If you use "*.jpg" any JPGs will always be displayed and in my case the program would probably randomly choose the original JPG from the camera, or the one developed in DxO. So, that wouldn't work.

It can work, but you need to structure the folders so that the display JPEG is closer to the root, then use 'First JPEG else RAW' (or 'First JPEG Found' if you don't use RAW). For my hierarchy, see here: Folder structure: Should I separate raw/jpg?

If the display version isn't always a JPEG, then a custom mask, combined with structured folders with the display version closest to the root, should - I think - work.

[Hesmith1029]

I was under the belief that the mask chose items in the order in which they were presented in the list. That is what I got out of the examples I saw.

I had expected that with the mask I had in the screen shots that the dng files would be on top after I ran script suggested. And on some of the groups that did not have dng would then have tif, if it existed, and so on down the line.

The screen shot is of the mask for the "Main Version Detection". I have run the redo script with the Album set to the same mask and with Album set to no mask. I have ever been able to get script suggested by Hert to do anything. It always says no changes needed.

I have run across un-versioned photos in my catalog. If I select two that should be versioned and then right click and select versions->version Detection I get the desired results.

But I have large number that were versioned at the default setting of jpg, then raw. Hert recommended the script to correct the issue. And for me it is doing nothing.

[Hesmith1029]

I just ran some more experiments. I found photos where I had a RAF and JPG unstacked and unversersioned. I selected a matching pair. Right clicked selected Versions->version detection. The mask was displayed above. It put the RAF on top. I then select 6 photos which consisted of 3 pairs. Ran the version->version detection and ended up with 3 version stacks with RAF on top.

I then went back into setting and changed the album mask from custom to No Matching. Then found some more unmatched pairs. Ran on two and got the correct result of the RAF on top. Found 3 pairs (6 photos) and tried again. Again I got the correct result.

So the masks are working as I would expect on clean unversioned photos. What is not working is the script.

[MarqsM]

I can confirm that the script "Redetect Main Versions" does nothing for me either.

If I change the mask for main version detection and then run this script on an existing version set, all I got is a pop-up saying "No changes needed". If I destroy that version set, however, and recreate it, then the changes of the main version detection get included.

[Hesmith1029]

Destroying the version set and then running version detection also works for me.