Copyright: Copyright © 1996-2000 PanaVue
Citation: Copyright © 1996-2000 PanaVue


What is PanaVue ImageAssembler

PanaVue ImageAssembler is a professional, high precision, and easy to use software for stitching a wide variety of images.

Use it to stitch -or assemble- together panoramic photos, photos of an art object like a painting, a tapestry, technical photos for architecture or engineering, aerial or satellite photos, medical imagery, microscope slides, photos of houses for real estate sales, multiple part scans of an image too large to fit on your scanner like maps, blue prints, posters…

The result can be anywhere between low-resolution images for web publishing to very high resolution output for quality paper printing. In the case of 360° panoramic photos, they can be saved in a format suitable for viewing with a Virtual Reality viewer.

New with version 2.0, you can select to do the stitch (assemblage) in an all-automatic mode or completely manually. You have the choice!

In the manual mode, the interface relies on what users would intuitively do when assembling images together: simply click and drag flags to pinpoint some common details lying on the overlapping part of consecutive images. This way, throughout all of the stitching process, you keep complete control on how images are assembled, and at any step, you can bring a manual correction at the "pixel level" since you work on the full images with full zooming capacities. All this in a familiar environment with multiple windows.

PanaVue ImageAssembler is also packed with powerful features you can selectively activate to customize your working environment. If you want, it will interactively assist you in placing the flags, it can use an advanced algorithm to remove color discrepancies between images, warp photos, blend them together, wrap a 360 degrees panorama, etc.

PanaVue ImageAssembler is the essential companion to scanners and conventional or digital cameras.

Related topic:

How to use PanaVue ImageAssembler


How to use PanaVue ImageAssembler

With PanaVue ImageAssembler you will work with what is called projects. A project includes all the information needed to do a stitch, find your lens parameters, or crop the images. When you want the software to do a job, you order it to execute a project you have created. Projects can be saved for future references.

Depending on which kind of images you want to stitch, follow these simple steps. As you will see, instructions are given in terms of projects, to get more information on each type of project, just follow the appropriate link.

Case 1:

To stitch panoramic photos, follow these steps

1-	(Optional) If you used a conventional camera (not digital) and had to scan the photos, the slides, or the negatives, you may make all photos the same size and at the same time crop any excess scan around photos with a Cropping Project.

2-	(Optional) If you do not know what type of lens you used, you may have the software finds your lens parameters for you. Do it with a Lens Wizard Project. The parameters found there can be saved and used in the next step or at any future time.

3-	(Mandatory) Stitch and warp the photos with a Photo Stitching Project.

4-	(Optional) Crop the stitched image with a Cropping Project. If the image is a 360 degree panorama and you want to visualize it with a virtual reality viewer, you should use a 360° Wrapping Project instead. In this case, you can save the resulting image as a QuickTime VR Panorama.

Instead of just a single row or column, if you need to stitch a whole mosaic of panoramic photos, you should first warp and stitch them in rows (or columns) using a Photo Stitching Project. Finally, you stitch the rows (or columns) together in an Image Stitching Project, since no warping has to be done this time.

Case 2:

For aerial or satellite photos, scanning of a large image like map, blue print, poster, photos of a painting or a tapestry, microscope slides, medical imagery. For any case where a relatively flat subject is shot by moving the camera over it to cover the entire surface, follow these steps

1-	(Optional) Crop any excess scan around photos with a Cropping Project.

2-	(Mandatory) Stitch the parts together with an Image Stitching Project.

3-	(Optional) Crop the resulting image with a Cropping Project.

tip:	When scanning a very large image, it is often easier to stitch it in rows (or columns) after which the rows (or columns) are stitched together in another project. But when scanning an image of smaller size, it is faster to stitch the mosaic in a single Image Stitching Project.

Note that if you place a project and its component images in the same folder, you can rename that folder or move the project and images all together to another folder. The project will update itself automatically with the new address of its images.

Related topics:

Image Stitching Project

Photo Stitching Project

360° Wrapping Project

Lens Wizard Project

Cropping Project


Photo Shooting Techniques

You can take pictures with a digital or conventional camera, but in the latter case, you have to digitize your photos, negative, or slides. There are some simple techniques however you should follow in order to obtain best looking stitched image.

For shooting a panorama (i.e. rotating the camera over a fixed point), follow these recommendations:

Ideally, there should be a 20 to 50% overlap between adjacent photos.

You can use an ordinary (rectilinear) lens between 14 and 300mm or a full-frame fisheye lens (square photos with 180° diagonal field). The shorter the focal length will be, the less photos you will need to shoot.

Contrarily to most other stitching software, PanaVue ImageAssembler lets you stitch photos even if the camera was tilted (not held parallel to the ground). Also, you do not need to know which type of lens you used since the software can find it for you.

Beware of moving objects, especially moving clouds. Try not to take too much time between shootings and do not rely on them for placing flags.

While it is perfectly possible to hand-hold the camera and shoot a panorama, using a tripod and ideally a special panhead (a panoramic bracket) to accurately position each exposure will give you the best results. A sturdy tripod is recommended. The panhead is most useful for indoor shootings where objects are close by and more precision is therefore needed. While you can make your own simple bracket to position the optical center of the lenses precisely over the rotation axis of the tripod, companies like Kaidan, Peace Rivers, and Bogen offer a wide selection to choose from.

Stitch the photos in a Photo Stitching Project optionally followed by a 360° Wrapping Project.

For shooting a subject by moving the camera over it*, follow these recommendations:

Ideally, there should be a 10 to 50% overlap between adjacent photos.

Move the camera along the subject, always keeping the camera perpendicular to the surface of your subject (e.g. facing it).

Do not use deforming lenses like fisheyes, but any ordinary (rectilinear) lens will do.

Stitch the photos in an Image Stitching Project.

* : like aerial photos, multiple photos or scans of a painting, a map, a plan or a blue print.


Scanning Photos

When using a conventional camera, the first thing you will have to do is scan the photos, slides, or negatives. Here are some tips to follow when scanning them.

Try not to select an area larger than the image itself, otherwise, there will be an excess margin around the scan. If it is the case, remove the margin with a Cropping Project before any attempt to warp the photos.

Define the same scanning area for each photo since PanaVue ImageAssembler Photo Stitching Project works best with equal-size photos. This restriction does not apply to Image Stitching Project.

Finally, try to make the center of your scans coincide with the center of the photos. For optical reasons, warping will not be as effective if the centers do not match.


Scanning a Large Image

Scanning a Large Image in Parts

When scanning a large image in smaller scans, there are some simple tricks to follow to ensure a good quality stitch.

Try to get about 2 to 12 cm (1 to 5 inches) overlap between adjacent scans.

Depending on the type of scanner used, try not to select in your scans the extreme 1 cm (0.5 inch) on the border of the scanner glass. This is preferable because the scanner frame usually raises above from the glass and this creates a small "air gap" between the image and the glass along a narrow band as is illustrated below.

Along the band where this gap lies, the digitized image will appear darker than it really is and this might show up in the final stitched image.


Stitching a Large Image

Image Stitching Project

An Image Stitching project is used for aerial or satellite photos, scanning of a large image like a map, a blue print, a poster, photos of a painting or a tapestry, microscope slides, medical imagery, or any case where a relatively flat subject is shot by moving the camera over it to cover the whole surface.

When a new Image Stitching Project is created it does not contain any source image. You have to add images to the project and assign numbers to them. The numbers tell PanaVue ImageAssembler where to place the images. Here is what you should do for the three situations likely to occur:

Stitching a row of images.

You should assign number 1, 2, 3, 4, etc, to consecutive images starting from the left.

Stitching a column of images.

You should assign number 1, 101, 201, 301, etc, to consecutive images starting from the top.

Stitching a mosaic of images.

In this case, there are two different methods you can use.  See the tutorials for an example of each method. In general Method 2 is faster, but Method 1 is easier, specially when dealing with more than 4 or 6 images and the input method (scanning or photo shooting) cannot insure an equal overlapping between images.

Method 1- In a first step, you stitch the images by rows (or by columns). You create one project for each row (or column) and save the resulting images. In a second step, you stitch all the rows (or columns) together to produce the final image. Note that at this step you must set on the option "Source images are stitched images from a previous ImageAssembler Project".

Method 2- You can directly stitch every images in a single project. For an illustration on how to number the images in this method, see the last diagram at the bottom of this page.

Tip: when adding images to a project, you can select and open multiple files in one time by using the CTRL (control) or SHIFT key.

Ounce you have opened and numbered the images to stitch, you select the options you want in the "Options" tab of the Project Manager. If you do not know how to set the options, you can proceed with their default values. At anytime, the "Reset" button will reset the buttons to their default values.

About flags

If you select the option "Automatic stitch", then you do not have to use the flags, they are disabled (gray color). When executing the project the ImageAssembler will automatically find the relative position of the images and will also place the flags for you.

If instead you select the option "Manual stitch with flags" then you have to click and drag the flags with your mouse. You place the flags on some common details lying on the overlapping part of consecutive images. When you execute the project, PanaVue ImageAssembler will stitch the images by placing corresponding flags with the same number one on top of the other.

Tip: clicking on this toolbar button [image] lets the ImageAssembler assist you in positioning the flags.

The next three diagrams show you how PanaVue ImageAssembler uses flags to stitch the images (to keep diagrams small, only a limited number of images are represented).

For a row of images:

For a column of images:

For a mosaic of images:

Related topics:

Options (Image Stitching Project)

Scanning a Large Image in Parts


Stitching Photos

Photo Stitching Project

A Photo Stitching project is used to stitch photos of a panorama. The difference between an Image Stitching Project and a Photo Stitching Project lies in the warping. In a Photo Stitching Project, a special type of warping is applied on the photos immediately before they are stitched together. This special warping is equivalent to projecting the individual images over a sphere or a cylinder. PanaVue ImageAssembler takes care of all the technical details so you might not even realize it is doing this kind of projection except when you will look at the resulting image.

When a new Photo Stitching Project is created it does not contain any source image. You have to add photos to the project and assign numbers to them. The numbers tell the ImageAssembler where to place the photos. Here is what you should do for the three situations likely to occur:

Stitching a row of photos.

You should assign number 1, 2, 3, 4, etc, to consecutive photos starting from the left.

Stitching a column of photos.

You should assign number 1, 2, 3, 4, etc, to consecutive photos starting from the top.

Stitching a mosaic of photos.

You should first stitch photos by rows with a Photo Stitching Project, then stitch the resulting images in a column with an Image Stitching Project.

Tip: when adding images to a project, you can select and open multiple files in one time by using the CTRL (control) or SHIFT key.

About flags

If you select the option "Automatic stitch", then you do not have to use the flags, they are disabled (gray color). When executing the project the ImageAssembler will automatically find the relative position of the images and will also place the flags for you.

If instead you select the option "Manual stitch with 2 flags" then you have to click and drag the flags with your mouse. There are two flags between each pair of images. You place the flags on some common details lying on the overlapping part of consecutive images. When you execute the project, PanaVue ImageAssembler will stitch the images by placing corresponding flags with the same number one on top of the other.

The option "Manual Stitch with 1 flag"  allows you to use only one flag between each pair of images.

Using only one flag instead of two has many advantages. It is faster, it forces the images to follow a straight line (no rotation allowed), and it keeps all images at their original size. With two flags, images can be rotated and scaled in the stitching process, so you should use the two flag option only for particular situations.

Tip: clicking on this toolbar button [image] lets the ImageAssembler assist you in positioning the flags.

Related topics:

Options (Photo Stitching Project)

Lens Selection

Photo Shooting Techniques

Scanning Photos


Wrapping 360 degrees

360° Wrapping Project

A 360° Wrapping project is the last project you will use to finalize a 360° panorama. This project uses the resulting stitched image from a Photo Stitching Project and crops the image as well as aligns, color adjusts, and blends the left and right ends. The output image from this project is ready to be saved in a format compatible with one of the VR Viewers available on the market (like Apple QuickTime). When the panorama will be displayed in the VR Viewer, the joint between the two extremities will be seamless and invisible thanks to the process done in the 360° Wrapping Project. PanaVue ImageAssembler lets you save a panorama in Apple QuickTime VR format, see Making QuickTime VR Panoramas for more information.

Tip: It is important not to crop the 360° panorama prior to bringing it into the 360° Wrapping Project. This Project needs the whole image including the overlapping part of the two extremities to do an efficient color adjustment and image blending.

If you use this kind of project to crop an ordinary image (that is not 360 degrees), set to 0% the image blending option and clear the color adjustment box of the Options tab of the Project Manager

About flags

Using your mouse, click and drag the two flags to an appropriate position. The two flags should be placed over the same image detail lying on the overlapping parts of two extremities of the panorama. One flag is placed on the left end the other on the right end. The rectangular lines on the panorama represent the area that will be cropped. You can click and drag the top and bottom lines to resize the cropping area.

Tip: clicking on this toolbar button [image] lets PanaVue ImageAssembler assist you in positioning the flags.

Related topics:

Options (360° Wrapping Project)

Making QuickTime VR Panoramas


Making QuickTime VR Panoramas

PanaVue ImageAssembler lets you save panoramas in QuickTime VR format from Apple Computer, Inc. To make a QuickTime VR Panorama do the following:

1-	(Optional) Crop any excess scan around photos with a Cropping Project

2-	Warp and Stitch the photos with a Photo Stitching Project

3-	Finalize the Panorama with a 360° Wrapping Project and save the resulting image from this project. In the Save As dialog box, select the "QuickTime VR Panorama (*.mov)" type.

To create QuickTime VR Panoramas, you need to have QuickTime 3 (or higher) installed on your system. You must install QuickTime with authoring capabilities, to do that, choose the "Full" installation type or "Custom" type and select at least "QuickTime Essentials", "QuickTime Internet Extras", and "QuickTime Authoring".

To visualize the panorama, use the MoviePlayer application that comes with QuickTime 3 or the QuickTime Player application that comes with QuickTime 4. You can also use a web browser (Netscape or Microsoft Explorer) with the QuickTime plugin properly installed. This plugin should install itself automatically at the same time you install QuickTime provided you have one of the web browsers on your machine at the time of the installation.

You can get QuickTime from the Apple website at www.apple.com

Here are some other reasons why you could not create a QuickTime:

- Not enough free space on the hard disk where is located your "TEMP" folder.

- The size ratio of the image is incorrect, image must be more wide than high.

- Too large image size. PanaVue ImageAssembler has the capacity to create images much bigger than what can handle QuickTime. You should try first to create QuickTimes from relatively small images, like images that are less than 1 MB when uncompressed.


Lens Wizard

Lens Wizard Project

A Lens Wizard project will determine the focal length, the distortion, and the type (ordinary of fisheye) of your lens. It will also find the tilt angle of your camera for a particular group of photos. All these parameters are found in a single step.

When a new Lens Wizard Project is created it does not contain any source image. You need to add only two or three consecutive photos into a Lens Wizard Project in order to compute the lens parameters. If possible, it is better to use three photos. Once these parameters are computed, you can save them and later use them to stitch as many photos as wanted with a Photo Stitching Project.

Note: If the focal length found is very long (150, 200, or 300mm) and it does not represent your lens at all, this is not necessarily an error. It indicates that there is no need to project the photos inside a sphere in order to stitch them. This is normal if the photos are not part of a panorama.  For example, this is normal for photos to stitch with an Image Stitching Project (aerial or satellite photos, photos of a painting or a tapestry, microscope slides, medical imagery, any case where the subject is shot by moving the camera over it to cover the whole area). In this case, you can still compute a distortion value with a Lens Wizard Project and use it to stitch photos with an Image Stitching Project.

When you add photos to a Lens Wizard Project, PanaVue ImageAssembler will ask for a number. This number tells the software where to place the photo.

For finding parameters for a row of photos.

You should assign number 1, 2, and 3  to consecutive photos starting from the left.

For finding parameters for a column of photos.

You should assign number 1, 2, and 3 to consecutive photos starting from the top.

Tip: when adding images to a project, you can select and open multiple files in one time by using the CTRL (control) or SHIFT key.

About flags

In a Lens Wizard Project you must take your mouse and place every flag to an appropriate position. If your project contains two images, there will be seven flags on each image. If your project contains three images, then images number 1 and 3 have four flags each, while image number 2 has eight flags (four to stitch it with image 1 and four other to stitch it with image 3)

You place the flags on some common details lying on the overlapping part of consecutive images. When you execute the project, PanaVue ImageAssembler will use these flags to compute all the parameters and stitch the images.

Tip: clicking on this toolbar button [image] lets the ImageAssembler assist you in positioning the flags.

Important note: In a Lens Wizard Project, to find accurate parameter values, try to spread the flags over the overlapping regions, do not cluster them. It helps the software a lot to place some flags closed to the corners whenever it is possible. Look at flags 1, 3, and 4 between image #2 and #3 in the following image.

Here is an example on how to place the flags:

Related topic:

Options (Lens Wizard Project)


Cropping

Cropping Project

A Cropping project is used to extract part of (to crop) one or many images. It is useful in removing any excess scan around source images or finalizing a stitched image.

The PanaVue ImageAssembler cropping tool is somehow different but more powerful than what is usually found in image-editing software.

Following the usual ImageAssembler interface, you click and drag flags with your mouse.

Cropping rules:

1)	The round flag represents the upper left corner and the triangular flag the lower right corner of the cropped image.

2)	The line going through the round and the square flag always corresponds to the top of the cropped image.

According to these simple rules, not only can you crop images, but you can flip and rotate them with arbitrarily angle in the same step.

By default, cropped and source images are saved in the same folder, but cropped images have the "cropped" suffix appended to their filename.


To Order PanaVue ImageAssembler

If you have an internet access, you should go to our website at www.panavue.com to obtain up-to-date information, pricing and order facilities for PanaVue ImageAssembler. An electronic version is available for download.

If you do not have access to the internet, print or copy to a text editor the following order form, fill it out and return it one of the following ways:

1)	Fax:	1-418-688-4723

2)	Phone:	1-418-688-4720

4)	Mail:	attn Sales Department

PanaVue

616 boul. Rene-Levesque Ouest

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Canada G1S 1S8


Order Form

PanaVue Order Form

All prices are in Canadian (CAD) dollars with equivalent US dollar (USD) values given as information purpose only (an exchange rate of $0.65 USD for $1.00 CAD was used here, it represents a good approximate of the actual rate). You should not worry for currency exchange as your credit card company will charge you in the currency of your own country.

Prices may change with time. If the actual price is lower than the price listed here, the actual price will be charged. If the actual price is higher, we will contact you to get your authorization before proceeding to any shipping, so please provide your fax, phone, or email address.

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4)	Mail:	attn Sales Department

PanaVue

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Canada G1S 1S8


To Contact Us

To get support:

First, you should check our Help Desk at PanaVue’s web site www.panavue.com. It gives answers to the most frequently asked questions (FAQ) and also contains tricks and tips about the ImageAssembler. If you do not find a satisfactory answer there, try the following:

Email:	support@panavue.com with detailed information concerning the problem

Fax:	1-418-688-4723

To contact PanaVue:

Internet:	www.panavue.com

Fax:	1-418-688-4723

Mail:	PanaVue

616 boul. Rene-Levesque Ouest

Quebec (Qc)

Canada G1S 1S8

To order PanaVue ImageAssembler click here.


The process of bending and stretching photos in order to stitch them seamlessly. For panoramic photos in a Photo Stitching Project, warping is equivalent to projecting the images inside a sphere or a cylinder. The wider your lens' field of view is, the more important warping becomes. In an Image Stitching Project, images are warped only if a lens distortion value different than 0 is selected.


The process of seamlessly assembling images, where many source images are assembled into a single resulting image.


Photos that cover a wide field of view, which can extend as much as 360° around. Panoramas are taken by standing over a fixed point and rotating the camera (usually from the left to the right but it can be from top to bottom). The use of a tripod is recommended. Panoramas can be taken indoors or outdoors.


A matrix (rows and columns) of contiguous images stitched into a single image.

In an Image Stitching Project, PanaVue ImageAssembler lets you directly stitch a mosaic of small parts of a large image (like a blue print or a map), but to stitch a mosaic of panoramic photos, you need to warp and stitch them in rows (or columns) with a Photo Stitching Project, and finally stitch the rows (or columns) with an Image Stitching Project.


A horizontal, left to right sequence of overlapping photos or scans.


A vertical, top down sequence of overlapping photos or scans.


A visual object used to pinpoint an image. By placing flags on images, you indicate to the ImageAssembler how you want the images to be stitched, or cropped. The crossing of the two lines shows the exact location of a flag.


A Virtual Reality Viewer is a special software that displays 360° panoramas in such a way that users can navigate in the image. Panoramas have to be saved in the appropriate format. Many companies make VR Viewers and each one has its own specific file format. PanaVue ImageAssembler lets you save panoramas in QuickTime VR file format from Apple Computer Inc.


A lens without any distortion is one that always represents a straight line subject as a straight line on the photo (without any curvature). Unfortunately, it is not always the case. Lens distortion can be convex (also called "barrel") or concave ("pin cushion"). Zoom lens with their variable focal length will distort the image in the following way: convex distortion for short focal lengths, concave for long ones. For example a 28 to 80mm zoom will induce a convex distortion at 28mm and a concave distortion at 80mm. Somewhere in the middle, the lens is relatively "perfect".

Good quality fixed focal length lenses tend to be non distorted.


The tilt is the vertical angle of the camera (when shooting an horizontal  row of photos). A tilt of 0 degree means the camera is pointing toward the horizon (it is held parallel to the ground), with a tilt of 90 degrees, the camera is pointing directly upward toward the sky, and with a tilt of -90 degrees, the camera is facing the ground.


The focal length of a lens is the distance between the optical center of your lens and the exposed surface (the film of a conventional camera or the sensors of a digital camera). It is usually expressed in millimeters (mm). The longer the focal length is, the closer the subject appears and the narrower the field of view is. The opposite is also true. Zoom lenses have variable focal length (for example 28 to 80mm) while fixed lenses have a unique focal length (for example a 24mm lens).


A "project" includes reference to all the individual photos or images you want to process together with the option setting you selected, the relative position of the images, the camera lens type, etc… In other words, a project includes all the information the ImageAssembler needs to effectively perform a job.

PanaVue ImageAssembler is divided into 5 different types of projects. Each type of project does a particular kind of job: Image Stitching, Photo Stitching, 360° wrapping, Lens Wizard and Cropping. When you start a new project, you select its type depending on what you want to do with the images. Projects can be saved for future references.

Note that if you place a project and its component images in the same folder, you can rename that folder or move the project and images all together to another folder. The project will update itself automatically with the new address of its images.


File menu commands

The File menu offers the following commands:

New Project	Create a new project
Open Project	Open an existing project
Close Project	Close an opened project
Save Project	Save an opened project using the same file name
Save Project As	Save an opened project to a specified file name
Add  Image	Open an image and adds it to the project
Close Image	Close the active image window
Save Image As	Save the active image under new name and new file format
Remove Image	Remove the active image from the project
Open All Images	Opens every image belonging to the project that is not already opened.
Print	Print an image
Print Preview	Display the image on the screen as it would appear printed
Print Setup	Select a printer and printer connection
Acquire	Acquire an image with a TWAIN scanner or digital camera and adds it to the project
Select Source	Select an available TWAIN compliant source
Exit	Exit from PanaVue ImageAssembler


Edit menu commands

The Edit menu offers the following commands:

Copy	Copy the active image to the clipboard


Images menu commands

The Images menu offers the following commands:

Flag Assistant	Automatically adjust flags on mouse drag
Sharpen	Sharpen the active image
Unsharpen	Unsharpen the active image
Image Size	Resize the active image
Zoom In	Zoom in around last-moved flag for every opened image
Zoom out	Zoom out from every image
Zoom In single image	Zoom in around last-moved flag for the active image
Zoom out single image	Zoom out from the active image
Snap to Window	Resize every opened image to its respective window size
Rotate All CCW	Rotate all images 90 counterclockwise
Rotate All CW	Rotate all images 90 clockwise


Action menu commands

The Action menu offers the following commands:

Preview Run	Start execution of the active project in the low resolution preview mode
Full Run	Start execution of the active project
Stop Running	Stop the execution
Scheduler	Schedule a delayed execution


View menu commands

The View menu offers the following commands:

Project Manager	Show or hide the Project Manager Window
Toolbar	Show or hide the toolbar
Status Bar	Show or hide the status bar


Window menu commands

The Window menu offers the following commands, which enable you to arrange multiple documents in the application window:

Cascade	Arrange windows in an overlapped fashion
Tile Horizontally	Arrange windows in non-overlapped tiles
Tile Vertically	Arrange windows in non-overlapped tiles
Arrange Icons	Arrange icons of closed windows
Window 1, 2, ...	Go to specified window


Help menu commands

The Help menu offers the following commands, which provide you assistance with this application:

Help Topics	Offer you an index to topics on which you can get help
Context help	Allow you to click on the item on which you want help
Tips	Some useful tips for productive work
To Order PanaVue ImageAssembler	Give information about how to purchase PanaVue ImageAssembler
To Contact Us	Ways of contacting PanaVue
About	Display the version number of this application


File New Project command

New Project command (File menu)

Use this command to create a new project. PanaVue ImageAssembler displays the New Project dialog box to let you select the type of project you want to create.

You can open an existing project with the Open Project command.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:

Keys:	CTRL+N


New Project Dialog Box

The New Project Dialog Box is used to create a new project, you are asked to choose among five different project types. Select the project type you want more information on:

Image Stitching Project

Photo Stitching Project

360° Wrapping Project

Lens Wizard Project

Cropping Project

Related topic:

How to use PanaVue ImageAssembler


File Open Project command

Open Project command (File menu)

Use this command to open an existing project. You cannot open multiple projects at once. PanaVue ImageAssembler displays the File Open dialog box, and lets you select the name of the project you want to open.

You can create new projects with the New Project command.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:

Keys:	CTRL+O


File Open dialog box

The following options let you specify which file to open:

File Name

Type or select the filename you want to open. This box lists files with the extension you select in the List Files of Type box.

List Files of Type

Select the type of file you want to open:

PanaVue ImageAssembler Project’s type is ".vst"

Drives

Select the drive in which PanaVue ImageAssembler stores the file that you want to open.

Directories

Select the directory in which PanaVue ImageAssembler stores the file that you want to open.

Network...

Choose this button to connect to a network location, assigning it a new drive letter.


File Close Project command

Close Project command (File menu)

Use this command to close the project and all related images. PanaVue ImageAssembler suggests that you save changes to your project before you close it. If you close a project without saving it, you lose all changes made since the last time you saved it. Before closing an untitled project, PanaVue ImageAssembler displays the Save As dialog box and suggests that you name and save the project.

You can also close a project by using the Close icon on the Project Manager window, as shown below:


File Save command

Save Project command (File menu)

Use this command to save the project with its current name and folder (directory). When you save a project for the first time, PanaVue ImageAssembler displays the Save As dialog box so that you can name your project. If you want to change the name and folder of an existing project, before saving it choose the Save As command.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:

Keys:	CTRL+S


File Save As command
Save Project As command (File menu)

Use this command to save and name the active project. PanaVue ImageAssembler displays the Save As dialog box so that you can name your project.

To save a project with its existing name and directory use the Save Project command.

Shortcut

Keys:	CTRL+A


File Save As dialog box

The following options allow you to specify the name and location of the file you're about to save:

File Name

Type a new filename to save a document with a different name. PanaVue ImageAssembler adds its standard ".vst" extension.

Drives

Select the drive in which you want to store the document.

Directories

Select the directory in which you want to store the document.

Network...

Choose this button to connect to a network location, assigning it a new drive letter.


File Open Image command

Add Image command (File menu)

Use this command to open an image and add it to the project. PanaVue ImageAssembler displays the File Open dialog box. Except in 360° Wrapping Project, you can select many images at the same time to open them fast.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:

Project Manager:

Keys:	ALT+I


Information Gathering (Photo Stitching Project)

Enter here whether the photos are to be stitched as a row  or a column with this new Photo Stitching project.


Information Gathering (Lens Wizard Project)

A Lens Wizard Project contains only two or three photos. Please enter here the number of photos you intend to use to compute the lens parameters. Once these parameters are computed, you can save them and later use them to stitch as many photos as wanted with a Photo Stitching Project.

Enter whether the photos are ordered along a row  or a column.


Image Numbering (Image Stitching Project)

Enter an Image Number and click OK, or click Cancel to cancel the opening of this image.

In an Image Stitching Project, you can assign a number ranging from 1 to 9999 to an image. The number you assign to a source image indicates the position it will have in the stitched image. Images are placed in an ascending order with numbers ranging from #1 to #100 from left to right in the first (upper) row; on the second row, from left to right again in increasing number starting from #101, and on third row starting from #201 and so on. Two images cannot share the same number.


Photo Numbering (Photo Stitching Project)

Enter a Photo Number and click OK, or click Cancel if you do not want to open this image.

In a Photo Stitching Project, the number you assign to a source image indicates the position it will have in the stitched image.

If you are stitching a row of photos, images are placed in an ascending order with numbers ranging from #1 to #99 from left to right. So you should assign number 1 to the fist photo on the left, number 2 to its right neighbor, etc….

If you are stitching a column of photos, images are placed in an ascending order with numbers ranging from #1 to #99 from top to bottom. So you should assign number 1 to the fist photo on the top, number 2 to its neighbor below, etc….

Two photos cannot share the same number.


Photo Numbering (Lens Wizard Project with 2 photos)

Enter a Photo Number and click OK, or click Cancel to cancel the opening of this image.

In a Lens WIzard Project, the number you assign to a source image indicates the position it has in the stitched image.

If you work on a row of photos, you should assign number 1 to the fist photo on the left, and number 2 to its right neighbor.

If you work on column of photos, you should assign number 1 to the fist photo on the top, and number 2 to its neighbor below.

Two photos cannot share the same number.


Photo Numbering (Lens Wizard Project with 3 photos)

Enter a Photo Number and click OK, or click Cancel to cancel the opening of this image.

In a Lens WIzard Project, the number you assign to a source image indicates the position it has in the stitched image.

If you work on a row of photos, you should assign number 1 to the fist photo on the left, number 2 to its right neighbor, and number 3 to the last photo on the right.

If you work on column of photos, you should assign number 1 to the fist photo on the top, number 2 to its neighbor below, and .number 3 to the last photo at the bottom.

Two photos cannot share the same number.


File Close Image command

Close Image command (File menu)

Use this command to close the active image window. The image is not removed from the project. If you want to remove the image from the project, use the Remove Image command instead.

Shortcuts

Project Manager:

Keys:	ALT+C


File Save Image As command

Save Image As (File menu)

Use this command to save the active image under a new name or under a new image file format.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:

Keys:	ALT+A


File Remove Image command

Remove Image command (File menu)

Use this command to remove the active image from the project and close the image window. All information relating to the position of the flags on this image will be lost.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:

Project Manager:

Keys:	ALT+R


File Open All Images command

Open All Images command (File menu)

Use this command to open every image that belongs to the project and is actually closed.

Shortcuts

Keys:	ALT+O


File Acquire command

Acquire command (File menu)

Use this command to capture an image with a TWAIN compliant scanner or digital camera device. If your scanner or digital camera is not TWAIN compliant, you should first save the image in a file, then open the file with PanaVue ImageAssembler.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:

Keys:	ALT+Q


File Select Source command

Select Source command (File menu)

Use this command to select a TWAIN compliant scanner or digital camera device. The next time you will acquire an image using the Acquire command, you will use the scanner or digital camera you have selected here.


File 1, 2, 3, 4 command

1, 2, 3, 4 command (File menu)

Use the numbers and filenames listed at the bottom of the File menu to open the last four projects you closed. Choose the number that corresponds with the project you want to open.


File: Exit command

Exit command (File menu)

Use this command to end your PanaVue ImageAssembler session. You can also use the Close command on the application Control menu. PanaVue ImageAssembler prompts you to save projects with unsaved changes.

Shortcuts

Mouse:	Double-click the application's Control menu button.

Keys:	ALT+F4


Edit: Copy command

Copy command (Edit menu)

Use this command to copy selected data onto the clipboard. This command is unavailable if there is no active image window. The part of the image copied to the clipboard corresponds exactly to the part shown in the image window, you do not have to do anything else to select an area. Use the Zoom command or UnZoom command to select wider or narrower area.

Copying data to the clipboard replaces the contents previously stored there.

Shortcut

Keys:	CTRL+C


Images: Adjust on Click command

Flag Assistant command (Images menu)

By checking this command, PanaVue ImageAssembler will interactively assist you in positioning the flags. You still need to use your mouse to drag and position the flags, but on mouse release the ImageAssembler attempts to locate the optimal position. The search takes place in a small area close to where you dropped the flag.

Flags are at the center of the PanaVue ImageAssembler interface. They are used to pinpoint the images in every type of project. To stitch images together, you place flags on the same detail lying on the overlapping part of two consecutive images.

Shortcut

Toolbar:

Keys:	ALT+F


Images: Sharpen command

Sharpen command (Images menu)

Use this command to sharpen the active image. Sharpening can improve a resulting image. To unsharpen, see the Unsharpen command.

You can click on this command as many time as wanted to obtain clear looking images. Another way to obtain sharp image is to deselect the Anti-aliasing option in the Project Manager.

Shortcuts

Keys:	ALT+S


Images: Unsharpen command

Unsharpen command (Images menu)

Use this command to unsharpen the active image. To sharpen see the Sharpen command.

Shortcuts

Keys:	ALT+U


Images: Size command

Image Size command (Images menu)

Use this command to resample the active image. If you rather want to resize an image by cropping it, you should create a new "Cropping" project and crop all your images there.

Shortcuts

Keys:	CTRL+SHIFT+Z


Images: Size dialog box

Image Size dialog box

Width: enter the new width of the image. You can enter the width in pixels or as a percentage of the current image width.

Height: enter the new height of the image. You can enter the height in pixels or as a percentage of the current image height.

Pixel Dimensions: indicates the dimension of the resized image. It is computed the following way: "width" x "height" x "pixel depth in bytes", where the pixel depth is equal to "1" for a 256 grayscale image, and "3" for a 24-bit color image. Note that internally PanaVue Image Assembler works in either 256 grayscale or 24-bit color. Images with other pixel depths are transformed to one of these two formats on file openings.

The actual file size will be smaller than this value if the image is saved in a compressed format (like jpeg) or if a lower pixel depth is selected on file saving.

Use this dialog to resample the active image. If you rather want to resize an image by cropping it, you should create a new "Cropping" project and crop all your images there.

The image is resample with a fixed aspect ratio, this is why the proportions are constrained.


Images: Zoom In command

Zoom In command (Images menu)

Use this command to zoom the view of all the opened images. The zoom factor ranges from 1/16 to 16 times the original image size (by powers of 2). The zoom is centered around the last flag that was moved with the mouse.

To zoom out, see the Zoom out command.

To zoom only the active image, see the Zoom In Single Image command

Shortcuts

Toolbar:

Keys:	CTRL+Z


Images: Zoom Out command

Zoom out command (Images menu)

Use this command to zoom out your view of all the opened image. The zoom factor ranges from 1/16 to 16 times the original image size (by powers of 2).

To Zoom see the Zoom command.

To zoom out only the active image, see the Zoom Out Single Image command

Shortcuts

Toolbar:

Keys:	ALT+Z


Images: Zoom In Single Image command

Zoom In Single Image command (Images menu)

Use this command to zoom the view of the active image. The zoom factor ranges from 1/16 to 16 times the original image size (by powers of 2).

To zoom out from the active image, see the Zoom Out Single Image command.

Shortcuts

Keys:	CTRL+B


Images: Zoom Out Single Image command

Zoom Out Single Image command (Images menu)

Use this command to zoom out the view of every opened image. The zoom factor ranges from 1/16 to 16 times the original image size (by powers of 2).

To zoom in the active image, see the Zoom In Single Image command.

Shortcuts

Keys:	ALT+B


Images: Snap All to Window command

Snap to Window command (Images menu)

Use this command to resize every opened image to the size of its respective window.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:

Keys:	CTRL+W


Images: Rotate All CCWcommand

Rotate All CCW command (Images menu)

Use this command to rotate every opened image 90 counterclockwise.

You do not have to save a rotated image for PanaVue ImageAssembler to remember it has been rotated. In fact, if you save a rotated image, you will alter the image file on the disk, and when the project will execute, the image will be rotated a second time, which is probably not what you want.

When you rotate the images, PanaVue ImageAssembler just place a tag on the project to remember that it should rotate every image when it opens or stitches them. So after you rotated every image, if you decide to add another image to the project, it will be automatically rotated on opening.

Shortcut

Toolbar:


Images: Rotate All CWcommand

Rotate All CW command (Images menu)

Use this command to rotate every opened image 90 clockwise.

You do not have to save a rotated image for PanaVue ImageAssembler to remember it has been rotated. In fact, if you save a rotated image, you will alter the image file on the disk, and when the project will execute, the image will be rotated a second time, which is probably not what you want.

When you rotate the images, PanaVue ImageAssembler just place a tag on the project to remember that it should rotate every image when it opens or stitches them. So after you rotated every image, if you decide to add another image to the project, it will be automatically rotated on opening.

Shortcut

Toolbar:


Action: Run Preview command

Preview Run command (Action menu)

Use this command to start the execution of the opened project in a low-resolution mode. This is particularly useful if you work on large image files, to get a quick view of the result.

To execute a project at full resolution, use the Full Run command.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:


Action: Execute command

Full Run command (Action menu)

Use this command to start the execution of the opened project. Depending on the type of project you are working with, PanaVue ImageAssembler will stitch, warp, 360 degree wrap, find the lens parameters, or crop the source images present in the project. To stop an execution, use the Stop command.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:

Keys:	CTRL+E


Action: Stop command

Stop Running command (Action menu)

Use this command to stop the execution of a running project. To start the execution, use the Full Run command.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:

Keys:	CTRL+T


Action: Scheduler command

Scheduler command (Action menu)

Use this command to set in advance when a project will be executed. PanaVue ImageAssembler displays the Scheduler dialog box so that you can set the execution time. For projects involving large images, It can be useful to execute them at night when computer resources are more available.

In order to start execution at the scheduled time, PanaVue ImageAssembler must remain opened (though it can be iconified or reduced) and the project you want to execute must remain opened inside PanaVue ImageAssembler. If you want to execute many projects during the same night, start as many instances of PanaVue ImageAssembler, each one having the appropriate project opened in it.


Scheduler dialog box

Use this dialog box to set a time when a project will be executed.

The year when the project will be executed is automatically set to the present year

Enter a number between 1 and 12 for the month when you want the project to be executed.

Enter a number between 1 and 31 for the day when you want the project to be executed.

Enter a number between 0 and 23 for the hour of the day  (on a 24 hour scale) when you want the project to be executed.

Enter a number between 0 and 59 for the minute in the hour when you want the project to execute.

Press "On" if you want to activate the scheduler. PanaVue ImageAssembler will immediately verify the conformity of the whole project to see if it will be able to execute it at the specified time.

Press "Off" if you want to deactivate the scheduler. PanaVue ImageAssembler will not verify the conformity of the project, and the project execution will not start at the scheduled time.

In order to start execution at the scheduled time, PanaVue ImageAssembler must remain opened (though it can be iconified or reduced) and the project you want to execute must remain opened inside PanaVue ImageAssembler. If you want to execute many projects during the same night, start as many instances of PanaVue ImageAssembler, each one having the appropriate project opened in it.


View: Project Manager command

Project Manager command (View menu)

Use this command to display and hide the Project Manager window.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:

Keys:	CTRL+M


Project Manager Window

The Project Manager is the main window that gets opened when an old project is opened or a new one is created. Through it, you see the type of project you are working with: Image Stitching, Photo Stitching, 360° Wrapping, Lens Wizard, or Cropping; you can manipulate the source images belonging to the project and select the option setting.


View Toolbar command

Toolbar command (View menu)

Use this command to display and hide the Toolbar, which includes buttons for some of the most common commands in PanaVue ImageAssembler, such as File Open. A check mark appears next to the menu item when the Toolbar is displayed.

See Toolbar for help on using the toolbar.


Toolbar

Toolbar Description

The toolbar is displayed across the top of the application window, below the menu bar. The toolbar provides quick mouse access to many tools used in PanaVue ImageAssembler,

To hide or display the Toolbar, choose Toolbar from the View menu.

Click	To

Open a new project.

Open an existing project. PanaVue ImageAssembler displays the Open dialog box, in which you can locate and open the desired file.

Save the active project with its current name. If you have not named the project, PanaVue ImageAssembler displays the Save As dialog box.

Open an image and add it to the project. PanaVue ImageAssembler displays the Open dialog box, in which you can locate and open the desired file.

Save the active image under a new name or new file format.

Close the active image window and remove the image from the project.

Acquire an image with a TWAIN compliant scanner or digital camera.

Navigate to the left (or to the top) through the images belonging to the project. Arrange the image windows in a non-overlapped way and hide the Project Manager (to restore the Project Manager click on [image]).

Go to the starting position among the images belonging to the project. Arrange the image windows in a non-overlapped way and hide the Project Manager (to restore the Project Manager click on [image]).

Navigate to the right (or to the bottom) through the images belonging to the project. Arrange the image windows in a non-overlapped way and hide the Project Manager (to restore the Project Manager click on [image]).

Arrange the image windows in a non-overlapped way and hide the Project Manager (to restore the Project Manager click on [image]).

Show or hide the Project Manager Window.

Zoom in every opened image.

Zoom out every opened image.

Resize every opened image to the size of its window.

Rotate every opened image 90 counterclockwise.

Rotate every opened image 90 clockwise.

Flag Assistant: automatically adjust flags on mouse drag or click.

Start the execution of the project in the low-resolution "preview" mode.

Start the execution of the project (at full resolution).

Stop the execution of the project.

Show the About PanaVue ImageAssembler dialog box.

Activate the contextual help.


View Status Bar Command

Status Bar command (View menu)

Use this command to display and hide the Status Bar, which describes the action to be executed by the selected menu item or depressed toolbar button, and keyboard latch state. A check mark appears next to the menu item when the Status Bar is displayed.

See Status Bar for help on using the status bar.


Status Bar

The status bar is displayed at the bottom of the PanaVue ImageAssembler window. To display or hide the status bar, use the Status Bar command in the View menu.

The left area of the status bar describes actions of menu items as you use the arrow keys to navigate through menus. This area similarly shows messages that describe the actions of toolbar buttons as you depress them, before releasing them. If after viewing the description of the toolbar button command you wish not to execute the command, then release the mouse button while the pointer is off the toolbar button.

The right areas of the status is used to indicate flags position when they are dragged or mouse clicked, it is also used to display various progression bars and to indicate which of the following keys are latched down:

Indicator	Description

CAP	The Caps Lock key is latched down.

NUM	The Num Lock key is latched down.

SCRL	The Scroll Lock key is latched down.


Cascade command (Window menu)

Use this command to arrange multiple opened windows in an overlapped fashion.


Tile Horizontal command (Window menu)

Use this command to vertically arrange multiple opened windows in a non-overlapped fashion. In the process, the Project Manager is hidden. Click on the Project Manager button [image] to restore it to its normal position.

Shortcuts

Keys:	ALT+H


Tile Vertical command (Window menu)

Use this command to arrange multiple opened windows side by side. In the process, the Project Manager is hidden. Click on the Project Manager button [image] to restore it to its normal position.

Shortcuts

Keys:	ALT+V


Image Browser - Left - toolbar button

Use this button [image] to browse the images belonging to the active project. Images are browsed to the left for a row of images or to the top for a column.

In the process, the Project Manager is hidden. Click on the Project Manager button [image] to restore it to its normal position.


Image Browser - Home - toolbar button

Use this button [image] to go to the first image of the active project.

In the process, the Project Manager is hidden. Click on the Project Manager button [image] to restore it to its normal position.


Image Browser - Right - toolbar button

Use this button [image] to browse the images belonging to the active project. Images are browsed to the right for a row of images or to the bottom for a column.

In the process, the Project Manager is hidden. Click on the Project Manager button [image] to restore it to its normal position.


Arrange Windows toolbar button

Use this button [image] to arrange multiple opened windows side by side. In the process, the Project Manager is hidden. Click on the Project Manager button [image] to restore it to its normal position.


Window Arrange Icons Command

Use this command to arrange the icons for minimized windows at the bottom of the main window. If there is an open document window at the bottom of the main window, then some or all of the icons may not be visible because they will be underneath this document window.


1, 2, ... command (Window menu)

PanaVue ImageAssembler displays a list of currently open document windows at the bottom of the Window menu. A check mark appears in front of the document name of the active window. Choose a document from this list to make its window active.


Help Topics (Help menu)

Use this command to display the index of Help. From the index, you can jump to step-by-step instructions for using PanaVue ImageAssembler and various types of reference information.

Once you open Help, you can click the Contents button whenever you want to return to the index.


Context Help command (Help menu)

Use this command to get contextual help on a graphic element of PanaVue ImageAssembler. The cursor will change for an arrow and question mark, you can then click on a toolbar button or menu item to get specific help.


PanaVue's address

About command (Help menu)

PanaVue ImageAssembler

by

PanaVue

Copyright ©1996-2002 PanaVue. All rights reserved.

PanaVue

616 boul. Rene-Levesque Ouest

Quebec (Qc)

Canada  G1S 1S8

Warning: this software program is protected by copyright law and international treaties. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this program, or any portion of it, may result in severe civil and criminal penalties, and will be prosecuted to the maximum extent possible under the law.


Kodak FlashPix and PhotoCD File Formats

PanaVue ImageAssembler supports the following Kodak formats:

 PhotoCD (.pcd). This is a common high-resolution format for images on CD-ROM. An image file can contain one or more physical resolutions, with fixed dimensions. You can choose which resolution to load, and thus control the size of the resulting bitmap.

You can read the following bits per pixel: 8, 24.

You cannot write PhotoCD files. They are read-only.

 FlashPix (.fpx). This Kodak format is newer than PhotoCD. This format can also contain more than one physical resolution, but without fixed dimensions. You can choose which resolution to load, and thus control the size of the resulting bitmap.

You can read and write the following bits per pixel: 8, 24.


QuickTime VR Saving Options

Use the slide bar or manually enter the desired level of image quality. Be aware that more image quality means less compression, this factor should be considered for web publishing where small files download faster.

QuickTime VR Panoramas can be created with the following levels of compression quality:

Level 1: minimum image quality, maximum compression

Level 2: low image quality, high compression

Level 3: normal image quality, normal compression

Level 4: high image quality, low compression

Level 5: maximum image quality, minimum compression

Level 6: top image quality, this level is different from level 5 only for Jpeg compression.

In general, Level 4 is a very good compromise between image quality and compression. In most cases, it is well suited for web publishing.

Compression type:

Sorenson: introduced with version 3.0 of QuickTime released in April 1998. It offers excellent quality although very compact files. Decompression is fast, compression is slow. Recommended for most uses.

Cinepak: introduced in 1992 it has been the de facto standard for QuickTime VR for years. Less image quality than Sorenson for comparative file size. Decompression is very fast, compression is slow.

Jpeg: Produces much larger files than the two preceding types with very good image quality. Compression is fast but decompression is not as fast as preceding types which may cause unwanted delays when navigating the movie.

Width of the panorama (in degrees):

Enter here the width of the entire panorama, in degrees. If the panorama spans all around, enter 360, this is the maximum value allowed. If you shot only a partial panorama this value is less than 360. Typical values are 90, 180, or 270 degrees, but it can really be anything, it depends on how you shot the photos.

Starting position for display (in degrees):

Enter here the distance from the left side of the image where you want the QuickTime movie to be displayed when it is opened for the first time in the QuickTime viewer. If you enter 0 degrees, then anytime someone will display that image it will start showing the left part of it, if you enter 180 degrees and you are doing a complete 360 panorama, then it will start showing the center part of the image.

View window initial width (in pixels)… and height:

Enter the width and height of the QuickTime viewer window as the image will initially appear in it. The unit is in pixels. Note that these values only affect the size of the stand alone QuickTime viewer, not the size that the image will be displayed on a webpage. The size a QuickTime image is displayed on a webpage is set in the html code of the page itself, here is an example of how to set it (modify and place this text in your html file): <embed SRC="Your_image.mov" width="415" height="365" controller="TRUE" scale="TOFIT">. You will find more information at the Apple website: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/.

For more information see Making QuickTime VR Panoramas.


New Stock Lens

New Stock Lens (Photo Stitching Project)

Use this window to create and save a new Stock Lens. A Stock Lens can be selected to stitch photos together in a Photo Stitching Project.

Enter the focal Length, type (ordinary or fisheye), tilt angle, distortion, and film format. To get more information on these parameters, see Lens Selection.

Misalignment between lens and image (%):	horizontal, vertical

We have included these two parameters because some camera lenses are misaligned (not centered) with respect to the light sensitive surface of the camera (the film or CCD matrix), or in other cases the scanning process of the negatives, slides, or photos cut the images more on one side than the other. As a result, the center of the lens does not correspond with the center of the image. In fact, the center of the lens is aligned with a certain point close to the center of the image. A Lens Wizard project will find that point.

The horizontal shift value is expressed as percentage of the total width. It represents the horizontal distance from the center of the image and the point where is located the center of the lens. A negative shift is toward the left, while a positive shift is toward the right. The range for this parameter is from -10% to +10%.

The vertical shift value is expressed as percentage of the total height. It represents the vertical distance from the center of the image and the point where is located the center of the lens. A negative shift is toward the bottom, while a positive shift is toward the top. The range for this parameter is from -10% to +10%.

Lens Name: Give to this Stock Lens the name of your choice

Description: You can enter here a description for this lens.


New Stock Lens (Wizard)

New Stock Lens (Lens Wizard Project)

Use this window to create and save a new Stock Lens. This Stock Lens represents the parameters found by the Lens Wizard Project. A Stock Lens can be selected to stitch photos together in a Photo Stitching Project.

You cannot change the parameters here.

Lens Name: Give to this Stock Lens the name of your choice

Description: You can enter here a description for this lens.

Important note: In a Lens Wizard Project, to find accurate parameter values, try to spread the flags as much as possible over the overlapping regions, do not cluster them all in the same region. You can help the software to find more accurate values by placing some flags closed to the corners if this is possible. In order to do this, you should include in a “lens Wizard” project, the of 2 or 3 images among your panorama that have the more detailed on which to position flags.

Related topic:

New Stock Lens (Photo Stitching Project)

Lens Selection.


Result (Lens Wizard Project)

Click on New Stock Lens to create and save a new lens that can be selected the next time you stitch photos with a Photo Stitching Project.

If not satisfied with the result or if you just want to zoom in the resulting image to be sure it is satisfactory, press Cancel. When ready, execute the project again to come back to this window. Note that if you execute in the low resolution preview mode [image] the software will find exactly the same parameters since the computations are based on the flag positions, not the image resolution.

Important note: In a Lens Wizard Project, to find accurate parameter values, try to spread the flags as much as possible over the overlapping regions, do not cluster them all in the same region. You can help the software to find more accurate values by placing some flags closed to the corners if this is possible. In order to do this, you should include in a “lens Wizard” project, the of 2 or 3 images among your panorama that have the more detailed on which to position flags.

Related topic:

Lens Wizard Project


Automatic Stitching Advanced Settings

You can adjust the sensibility and the limits of the search area for finding image position when automatic stitching option is set on. These are advanced settings, for most cases default values are appropriate. At any time you can press the Reset button to return to the default values set by PanaVue.

The narrower the search area is, the faster it takes to ImageAssembler to position the images, the shorter it takes to stitch the project. But if the actual overlapping of your images fall outside the scope of the search area, ImageAssembler will not find the position, you will have to either expand the search area or switch to manual mode and place the flags.

Pattern Recognition:

Resolution used for position finding (1 to 5): Enter a number between 1 and 5. 1 is the default value. Enter a higher number if you want the software to search deeper in the images when doing pattern recognition used in automatic image positioning. The deeper the search, the more time it will take to the software, so if you enter here a number larger than 1 you should consider limiting the search area to compensate.

Normally, a value larger than 1 is needed only if the component images are in high resolution and contain only thin lines or small details, like it is the usually case with some plans or blue prints.

Search Area:

Overlap from "X" % to "Y" %: Enter the percentage of overlap where the search will take place. For example, for a row of images, if you enter 15 for X and 40 for Y, this means that the horizontal search will go from an overlap of 15% to 40%. If the actual overlap is more than 40% or less than 15% the software will not find the appropriate position. For a column of images, these values are for vertical searching. All elements of a matrix of images, except for the first column, are considered as rows for this purpose. Allowed values are between 10 to 95% for X and between 15 to 100% for Y.

Perpendicular to overlap, Image Stitching project: Here the search takes place in the two directions perpendicular to the overlap (see the previous paragraph). For example, for a row of images, this is the search in the vertical direction, so if you enter 10 here, the software will search up and down on a length equal to 10% of the image height in each directions. For a column of images, this value represents the horizontal (left and right) search. The value entered here is used only in Image Stitching projects. Allowed values are between 0 to 50%

Perpendicular to overlap, Photo Stitching project: Same as above but for Photo Stitching projects.

Rotation angle: Enter a number between 0 and 15 degrees. For Image Stitching projects, PanaVue ImageAssembler will search along various rotations. For Photo Stitching projects this number is ignored and the search does not go through various rotations. Due to the way photos are warped rotations are not allowed in Photo Stitching projects although tilt is allowed

When you save a project, the parameters in this window are saved as all other project settings. When you open an old project, it opens with the settings it had at the time you saved it, no matter what the default settings might be. Default settings are for new projects only.

Save as default settings: Press on this button if you want the values entered in this dialog box to become default values for all future "new" projects.

Reset: Press on this button if you want to reset this dialog box to default values set by PanaVue.


No Help Available

No help is available for this area of the window.


No Help Available

No help is available for this message box.


Images Tab (Project Manager)

In the window, you can see source images belonging to the project. When closed, image thumbnails are grayed, to open a closed image, double-click on its thumbnail or click on the Open button. Multiple selection is allowed. To change an image relative position, click on its thumbnail with your mouse and move the image to its new position.

Open

Click on this button to open one or many source images. Source images must already belong to the project. Use the Add button to add source images to the project.

Close

Click on this button to close one or many source images. Closing source images does not remove them from the project. Use the Remove button to remove source images from the project

Add

Click on this button to add one or many source images to this project. Clicking on the Add toolbar button [image] has the same effect.

Remove

Click on this button to remove one or many source images from the project. Clicking on the Remove toolbar button [image] has the same effect.


Options (Image Stitching Project)

Options Tab (Image Stitching Project)

Stitching options

Automatic stitch (no flags)

When you select this stitching option, PanaVue ImageAssembler will automatically find the position of the images without using the flags. This is why the flags are disabled (grayed) when this option is set. In the stitching process, the software will place the flags to the best positions it has found.

The button at the far right of this option lets you set the automatic stitching advanced settings.

Manual Stitch with flags

When you select this stitching option the flags become enabled (colored). You can now move them with your mouse. PanaVue ImageAssembler then relies on the flag positions to place the images.

Image options

Image blending (%)

Enter here the level of blending you want between each image. Blending is done by using the overlapping part of two images to progressively pass from one image to the other. A value of 100% means the whole width of the overlapping area is used, while a value of 0% means no blending at all.

Too much blending can create a "shadow image" and blurring, too little blending may show some color discrepancy between the images. We recommend a value between 20% and 60%.

Adjust colors

Check this box if you want colors to be adjusted. Adjusting colors among source images will produce a more uniform resulting image.

Anti-aliasing

Check this box if you want the resulting image to be anti-aliased. Anti-aliasing prevents straight lines from looking jagged but reduces the sharpness of the resulting image. PanaVue ImageAssembler applies a bicubic algorithm.

Source images are stitched images from a previous ImageAssembler Project

Check this box only if the source images in this project are resulting images from another project. PanaVue ImageAssembler then removes the pure white from the source images.

Set this option if you are stitching many rows (or many columns) that were themselves stitched previously by PanaVue ImageAssembler.

Force first row and first column to follow a straight line

With this box checked, images are stitched using only one flag (instead of two) per pair of images (only the lowest numbered flag is used). As a result, no angles between images occurs.

Concave or convex lens distortion (-25 to 25)

PanaVue ImageAssembler can correct the lens distortion of your camera. If you work with a non-distorted lens, you should set this entry to 0. For a concave-distorted ("pin cushion") lens, set this entry to a negative value, and for a convex-distorted ("barrel") lens, set it to a positive value. If you do not know, you can set this entry to its default value of 0, in most cases the difference is so slight that it will not be visible in the result.

You can work by trials and errors to find the value which best represents your lens. Note that you just have to do this once for every lens you own, since a lens will always distort in the same way (for a zoom lens, this is true only if the lens is used always at the same focal length). An easy way to do this is to shoot a test photo with horizontal and vertical straight lines and use this photo in an Image Stitching Project with only one image. You try different distortion values until the lines are really straight in the resulting image.

You may also use a Lens Wizard Project. In this case, disregard the focal length result. The focal length computed by the Lens Wizard is typically a very large number not representing the real focal length of the lens when using non-panoramic photos. Just note the distortion value.


Options (Photo Stitching Project)

Options Tab (Photo Stitching Project)

Stitching options

Automatic stitch (no flags)

When you select this stitching option, PanaVue ImageAssembler will automatically find the position of the images without using the flags. This is why the flags are disabled (grayed) when this option is set. In the stitching process, the software will place the flags to the best positions it has found.

The button at the far right of this option lets you set the automatic stitching advanced settings.

Manual Stitch with 1 flag

When you select this stitching option, one flag becomes enabled (colored) between each pair of photos. You can now move them with your mouse. PanaVue ImageAssembler then relies on this flag position to place the images. Using only one flag instead of two has many advantages. It is faster, it forces the images to follow a straight line (no rotation allowed), and it keeps all images at their original size (no scaling).

Manual Stitch with 2 flags

When you select this stitching option, two flags become enabled (colored) between each pair of photos. You can now move them with your mouse. PanaVue ImageAssembler then relies on the flag positions to place the images. With two flags, images can be rotated and scaled in the stitching process, so you should use the two flag option only for particular situations.

Image options

Image blending (%)

Enter here the level of blending you want between each image. Blending is done by using the overlapping part of two images to progressively pass from one image to the other. A value of 100% means the whole width of the overlapping area is used, while a value of 0% means no blending at all.

Too much blending can create a "shadow image" and blurring, too little blending may show some color discrepancy between the images. We recommend a value between 20% and 60%.

Adjust colors

Check this box if you want colors to be adjusted. Adjusting colors among source images will produce a more uniform resulting image.

Anti-aliasing

Check this box if you want the resulting image to be anti-aliased. Anti-aliasing prevents straight lines from looking jagged but reduces the sharpness of the resulting image. PanaVue ImageAssembler applies a bicubic algorithm.

Type of Projection

No Projection (no warping)

The photos are stitched exactly as they are, without any warping. This means that the parameters (focal length, tilt angle, distortion,…) entered in the Lens Selection tab are not used.

Spherical

Photos are projected inside a sphere, this is the default setting. This kind of projection is necessary to produce a seamless panorama.

Cylinder

Photos are projected inside a cylinder. If the camera has been tilted the resulting image can be very large. This kind of projection is necessary to produce a seamless panorama.


360° Wrapping (Photo Stitching Project)

360° Wrapping

Bring resulting image into a 360° Wrapping project

When you press on this button the resulting image you have just created in this Photo Stitching project is brought into a 360° Wrapping project, saving you the manual steps of having to close this project, create a new 360° Wrapping project, and open the resulting image in this project.

In the process, ImageAssembler will ask you to save the resulting image and the project if it has not already been done.

Recall that a 360° Wrapping project is used to crop the resulting (stitched) image from a Photo Stitching project and blend the two (left and right) extremities so that no seam shows up when viewed circularly in a VR Viewer.


Lens Selection (Photo Stitching Project)

Lens Selection Tab (Photo Stitching Project)

Select one

Use a Custom Lens

If you set this option, PanaVue Image Assembler will use the lens parameters that you manually enter just below. These parameters are the focal length, the film format, the tilt angle, the type (fisheye or ordinary), and the distortion.

Use one of the Stock Lens

With this option set, PanaVue ImageAssembler will use the lens parameters associated with the stock lens you select. Stock lenses are a set of lenses already defined. You can manually create stock lenses using the "Add" button on this window. You can also create a stock lens with a Lens Wizard Project.

Custom Lens

Enter the focal length, the film type, the tilt angle, fisheye or ordinary, and the distortion that best represent the camera lens used to shoot the photos you want to stitch together.

Focal Length

Enter the focal length in millimeters. If you do not know what is the exact focal length of your lens, you can enter an approximate value and click on the Lens fine tuning button. If you do not have an approximate value, you can have PanaVue ImageAssembler find the focal length with a Lens Wizard Project.

Film Format

Enter the film format. By far the most popular format is 35mm, so if you do not know which format of film is used in your camera, 35mm is probably the right choice. Digital cameras do not have film in them but they do follow the 35mm standard.

Camera tilt angle

If photos where shot with a leveled tripod the tilt is easily found. It is zero. Otherwise, you may have read the tilt angle in degrees on the tripod itself or you can try to guess it. If you press the "Lens fine tuning" button, it will search for the best tilt angle and focal length, but the search range is limited. A very powerful way of finding the tilt angle for a group of photos is to let the ImageAssembler compute it with a Lens Wizard Project.

Fisheye lens

Fisheye lenses are a special type of lens that distorts the image in a very pronounced way. If you do not know if your lens is fisheye or not, very probably it is not, so you should not check this box.

Concave or convex Distortion

If you work with a non-distorted lens, you should set this entry to 0. For a concave-distorted ("pin cushion") lens, set this entry to a negative value, and for a convex-distorted ("barrel") lens, set it to a positive value. If you do not know, you can set this entry to its default value of 0, in most cases the difference is so slight that it will not be visible in the result.

The "Lens fine tuning" button will not find distortion values. You should use a Lens Wizard Project for this purpose.

Lens fine tuning

When you click on this button the ImageAssembler tries to find the best values for the focal length and tilt angle. The search begins with the value entered manually and searches around. The search range is however limited. For a much more powerful search which includes focal length, tilt angle, and distortion, create a new stock lens with a Lens Wizard Project.

Stock Lenses

Stock lenses are a set of lenses already defined. You can manually create stock lenses using the "Add" button on this window. You can also create a stock lens with a Lens Wizard Project.


Options (360° Wrapping Project)

Options Tab (360° Wrapping Project)

Image options

Image blending (%)

Enter here the level of blending you want between the left extremity and the right one. Blending is done by using the overlapping part of two extremities of the image to progressively blend them. A value of 100% means the whole width of the overlapping area is used, while a value of 0% means no blending at all.

Too much blending can create a "shadow image" and blurring, too little blending may show some color discrepancy. We recommend a value between 20% and 60% if you want that when the image is displayed in a VR viewer, the two extremities are joined together without any visible seam.

Important: Set this option to 0% if you use this project to crop an image that is not a 360 degree panorama.

Adjust colors

Check this box if you want colors to be adjusted. Adjusting colors between the two extremities of a 360 degree panorama will produce a more uniform image when viewed with a VR Viewer.

Important: Make sure this box is not checked if you use this project to crop an image that is not a 360 degree panorama.

Anti-aliasing

Check this box if you want the resulting image to be anti-aliased. Anti-aliasing prevents straight lines from looking jagged but reduces the sharpness of the resulting image. PanaVue ImageAssembler applies a bicubic algorithm.


Options (Lens Wizard Project)

Options Tab (Lens Wizard Project)

Image warping

Do lens fine tuning

By checking this option, PanaVue ImageAssembler will use the lens found with the flags as a starting point to attempt to automatically find the optimal lens. Otherwise, the lens is computed solely based on the flag positions.


Options (Cropping Project)

Options Tab (Cropping Project)

Resulting Image Filename and Location

Suffix to append to source files

Type the suffix to be appended to the source image filenames to form the cropped image filenames. By default, the "cropped" suffix is appended.

Folder for resulting images (enter only if different from source images):

Type in or browse for a folder (directory) to receive the cropped images. By default, if this space is left blank, cropped images and source images are stored in the same folder. Note that the cropped images are not displayed in PanaVue ImageAssembler after execution. To see them you have to add them to a particular project.

Anti-aliasing

Check this box if you want the resulting image to be anti-aliased. Anti-aliasing prevents straight lines from looking jagged but reduces the sharpness of the resulting image. PanaVue ImageAssembler applies a bicubic algorithm.

Flag Lock

Lock Flags across all images

When this box is checked, the flags are locked across all the images in this cropping project. This means that you can go to any image and move a flag and that the corresponding flags (e.g. the flags with same number) on all other images will be automatically moved to the same location. The location is given in pixels relative to a (0, 0) origin at the top left.

Note that the flags are automatically positioned only when you drag them. Unlike the next command described, this check box has no effect until you actually click on a flag with your mouse.

Apply Flag Lock Now

When you press on this button, the flags on all images are positioned to the same location as the flags on image number 1. This button as an immediate effect.


File Print command

Print command (File menu)

Use this command to print the active image. This command presents a Print dialog box, where you may specify the number of copies, the destination printer, and other printer setup options.

PanaVue Image Assembler will print the exact portion of the image as it appears in the image window. To print a different part of an image, use the Zoom In, the Zoom Out, the Fit buttons, and the slide bars. You can easily select which part of the image you want to print. To print the whole image, zoom out until the entire image is displayed.

The output can be split over many pages. See Print Size dialog box.

Shortcuts

Toolbar:

Keys:	CTRL+P


File Print Size dialog box

Print Size dialog box

Sets the size of the printing area. Printing can be split over many pages if the "print size" is set to be larger than the "paper page size".

However, the image can only be printed over a single row or a single column of pages. One of the intended uses of this dialog box is to allow printing of a panorama as a “banner”, e.g. spread the panorama over a single row of many pages.

By setting the right printing area ("print size") in this dialog box, and by selecting the right choice of paper for your printer with the Print Setup command of the File menu, you can:

Print an image as a “banner”, e.g. on a continuous piece of paper consisting of many pages (this option might not be supported by your printer).

Print an image on special oversized paper or paper roll. In this case you print on a single page, but this page can be very long (this option might not be supported by your printer).

Print the image on many separate pages. After you have printed your image, you can manually place all the pages side by side to rebuilt the complete image. This is supported by all printers.

Printer Resolution

Horizontal: The horizontal resolution of your printer in dots per inch (dpi)

Vertical: The vertical resolution of your printer in dots per inch (dpi)

Some printers support different resolutions, in this case you can change this value with the Print Setup command of the File menu

Part of Image to Print

The part of the image (in pixels) to be printed. PanaVue ImageAssembler prints the exact portion of the image as it appears in the image window on your screen, this way you can easily select which part of the image you want to print. For example, to print the whole image, zoom out until the entire image is displayed.

Printer Page Size

The size of the paper in cm, inches, or dots, as it is actually set for your printer. You can change this value with the Print Setup command of the File menu.

Print Size

This is where you set the size of the printing area. Enter this size either by width, height, resolution, or the number of pages over which to spread the printing.

Resolution: The resolution here is not the same thing as the printer resolution. Printer resolution is expressed in dpi (dots per inch) and is the physical capability of your printer. The resolution here is the “image resolution”, it is simply found by dividing the width of the part of the image you want to print (expressed in pixels) by the width of the printing area (expressed in inches).

If image resolution is less than printer resolution, this means that you under use your printer capabilities; some degree of pixelation artifact can even appear if image resolution is very low. By printing image containing enough pixels so that the image resolution is greater than or equal to your printer resolution, you ensure that all of your printer resolution capability is used.

Extent: Depending on the aspect ratio of your image, there is a maximum number of pages over which you can print an image. Take the example where the image is much wider than high (a panorama), if you split the printing over too many pages, then the height of a single paper page will not be enough to hold the entire height of your image. In this case, the maximum number of pages in the row is reached when the height of the printed image equals the height of a page.


Print dialog box

The following options allow you to specify how the image should be printed:

Printer

This is the active printer and printer connection. Choose the Setup option to change the printer and printer connection.

Setup

Displays a Print Setup dialog box, so  you can select a printer and printer connection.

Print Range

Specify the pages you want to print:

All	Prints the entire document.
Selection	Prints the currently selected text.
Pages	Prints the range of pages you specify in the From and To boxes.
Copies

Specify the number of copies you want to print for the above page range.

Collate Copies

Prints copies in page number order, instead of separated multiple copies of each page.

Print Quality

Select the quality of the printing.  Generally, lower quality printing takes less time to produce.


Print Progress Dialog

The Printing dialog box is shown during the time that PanaVue ImageAssembler is sending output to the printer.  The page number indicates the progress of the printing.

To abort printing, choose Cancel.


File Print Preview command

Print Preview command (File menu)

Use this command to display the active image as it would appear when printed.  When you choose this command, the main window will be replaced with a print preview window in which one or two pages will be displayed in their printed format.  The print preview toolbar offers you options to view either one or two pages at a time; move back and forth through the document; zoom in and out of pages; and initiate a print job.


Print Preview toolbar

The print preview toolbar offers you the following options:

Print

Bring up the print dialog box, to start a print job.

Next Page

Preview the next printed page.

Prev Page

Preview the previous printed page.

One Page / Two Page

Preview one or two printed pages at a time.

Zoom In

Take a closer look at the printed page.

Zoom Out

Take a larger look at the printed page.

Close

Return from print preview to the editing window.


File Print Setup command

Print Setup command (File menu)

Use this command to select a printer and a printer connection.  This command presents a Print Setup dialog box, where you specify the printer and its connection.


Print Setup dialog box

The following options allow you to select the destination printer and its connection.

Printer

Select the printer you want to use.  Choose the Default Printer; or choose the Specific Printer option and select one of the current installed printers shown in the box.  You install printers and configure ports using the Windows Control Panel.

Orientation

Choose Portrait or Landscape.

Paper Size

Select the size of paper that the document is to be printed on.

Paper Source

Some printers offer multiple trays for different paper sources.  Specify the tray here.

Options

Displays a dialog box where you can make additional choices about printing, specific to the type of printer you have selected.

Network...

Choose this button to connect to a network location, assigning it a new drive letter.


Stitching Photos Tutorial

Tutorial for stitching a panorama

Follow these two short tutorials step by step, they will guide you through stitching panoramic photographs. To do these tutorials you must have installed the software along with the tutorial image files. If you installed this software from a CD, these files have also been installed, if you downloaded this software from the web, it depends whether you chose to download it with or without the tutorial files.

City panorama tutorial:

In this tutorial you will stitch a standard 360° outdoor panorama.

1-	To make yourself comfortable for working, maximize PanaVue ImageAssembler window and resize this help window. When ready to begin, click on the New Project button

2-	The New Project window let you select which type of project you want to create. Select the Photo Stitching type and click OK. In the little information gathering window select "in a row" and click OK.

3-	What you now see is the Project Manager of this Photo Stitching project. Click on the Images tab of the project manager. Since it is a new project it does not contain any image in it. To add some images, click on the Add button [image]. In the Open window, go to the ...\Samples\City subfolder of the folder where PanaVue ImageAssembler is installed. Use the "shift" or the control "ctrl" key together with your mouse to select all the 12 following images: City 01.jpg, City 02.jpg, City 03.jpg, …, City 12.jpg, and open them. Each time a new image is opening, a window ask you to assign a number to this image. Since the images are named in ascending order from left to right, the software suggests the good number, so you do not have to modify it, just click "OK" for every image until all 12 images are added to the project.

4-	To see the Project Manager back, press on this button [image] two times if needed. Go in the Options tab and click on the Reset button to reset the options to their default values.

5-	Now is the time to specify the lens we used to take these photos. Go in the Lens Selection tab and select Use a Custom Lens button. In the "Custom Lens" section of this window enter the following values which correspond to the lens we used: focal length 35, film format 35mm, tilt angle 0, distortion 0. You can optionally press on the Lens fine tuning button, if you do it, you have to wait while the software tries to find the best focal length and tilt angle for these images.

6	Execute this Photo Stitching Project by clicking on the Execute button [image].

7-	At the end of the execution, the stitched image is displayed. To see it well, resize the window, and zoom in and out with these buttons [image], [image], and [image]. Now, let’s get more familiar with the image browser. To see just image #3 and #4, press one time on the Browse Home [image], then press two times on the Browse Right button [image]. As you can see, the flags are grayed (disabled) because we are in the automatic stitching mode and they are not used here.

1-	To see the Project Manager back, press on this button [image].

9-	Now let’s get more familiar with the manual mode. In the Project Manager, go to the Options tab. Select "Manual Stitch with 1 flag". Use the browser buttons [image], [image], and [image] to navigate the images.

You can see that one flag is enabled (colored) between each pair of images. If you would execute the project now, the photos would be stitched using these flags as stitching points. The result would be exactly the same as what was obtained with the automatic mode since these flags were precisely placed to these positions the last time you executed in automatic mode.

But for the purpose of this tutorial, suppose you are not happy with the relative position of image #3 with respect to #2. We will correct this situation manually in the next few steps.

10-	Use the browser buttons to see image #2 and #3 at the same time. Activate the Flag Assistant by pressing down this button [image]. With your mouse, drag the blue round flag on image #2 and place it on some precise detail common to the two images. Drag the blue round flag on image #3 to the same detail. Note that when you released your mouse the software did some fine tuning on the flag position. This is because the Flag Assistant is activated.

To see more clearly what you have done, press a couple of times on the Zoom button [image], note that the zoom is centered around flag number 1 because this is the last flag you have moved. If you are not satisfied by the position, you can deactivate the Flag Assistant and move the flags. To resize the images to their windows, click on [image].

If you execute the project now, it will be stitched according to the position of the active (i.e. not gray) flags including the ones you have moved.

11-	Save the resulting image with the Save Image button [image]. The resulting image must be the "active" image when you click on this button. Save it in the same folder where are located the source images under this name: "Stitched image.bmp". We will need it in the next few steps.

The next steps are optional, follow them only if interested in making a Virtual Reality Panorama suitable for a VR Viewer. If you do not want to follow the next steps, you can just crop the resulting image with a Cropping Project to remove the white margins.

12-	Click on the New Project button [image]. You will be asked to save the active project, do it if you think you will need it in the future. In the New Project window, select 360° Wrapping project type.

13-	Click on the Images tab and add the image we just stitched, namely "Stitched image.bmp".

14-	There is no automatic mode in this project type. Resize the window and zoom in the image to feel comfortable. Activate the Flag Assistant [image] and with your mouse, place the first flag on the left side on some detail somewhere on the left end of the image. Now, place the other flag on the right side to the same detail but lying on the right end. You can zoom in to check the accuracy of your position.

15-	With your mouse drag the upper and lower lines to remove the white margins. The rectangular line represent the area of the image which will be left after execution.

16-	Execute this project by clicking on the Execute button [image].

17-	At the end of the execution, the wrapped image is displayed. It needs some sharpening. In the Images menu, click on the Sharpen item, after the image has been sharpened, click another time on the same item if you want to sharpen it even more. To make a QuickTime Virtual Reality Panorama, simply save [image] the image and select the QuickTime *.mov format in the "save as" dialog box.

Note that you must have QuickTime 3.0 (or higher) installed in your computer in order to save and visualize QuickTime panoramas. You can download QuickTime from Apple web site at www.apple.com. Anyway, if you try saving a panorama in this format and you do not have QuickTime installed, PanaVue ImageAssembler will show you a link to Apple's site.

Room tutorial:

In this tutorial you will stitch a mosaic of pictures and we will learn how to use the Lens Wizard. Since you got familiar with PanaVue ImageAssembler in the first tutorial, we will not enter into such a high level of details here, this will allow the style of the text to be lighter.

1-	Click on the New Project button [image], select Lens Wizard project type.

1-	In the Information Gathering window select 3 photos and "in a row".

3-	Add the following three images to the project, they are located in the ...\Samples\Room subfolder of the folder where PanaVue ImageAssembler is installed: Room First Row 04.jpg, Room First Row 05.jpg, and Room First Row 06.jpg. For each image a "Photo Numbering" windows ask for a number, just click "OK". This number tells to the software the relative position of an image among the others.

Note: we chose images : Room First Row 04.jpg, …05.jpg, …06.jpg at the place of what would be a more natural choice: Room First Row 01.jpg, …02.jpg, …03.jpg to illustrate the fact that any three consecutive images can do. Here the flag positioning is easier with this set of images.

4-	There is no automatic mode in this type of project. Use the Image Browser [image] [image] [image] to navigate through the images and place all the flags. Remember, the Flag Assistant [image] and the zoom buttons [image] [image] [image] will help you. To find the Project Manger back, click on [image]. Try as much as possible to spread the flags over the overlapping surface, do not cluster them. Placing some flags relatively closed to the corners will help the software find accurate values.

5-	Execute this Lens Wizard Project by clicking on the Execute button [image].

6-	At the end of the execution, the stitched image is displayed. If you are satisfied with the result click on the New Stock Lens button of the Result window. If not satisfied or if you want to zoom in the resulting image to be sure it is satisfactory, press Cancel. When ready, execute the project again. Note that if you execute in the low resolution preview mode [image] the software will find exactly the same parameters since the computations are based on the flag positions, not the image resolution.

7-	After you press the New Stock Lens button, you should give a name to this newly created stock lens. Name it "Room 1st row", in the description area type "for tutorial", and click OK. The new stock lens is saved. Now it can be used in any Photo Stitching Project, which is what we will do later on.

8-	Now let’s do the same for the second row. So create a new Lens Wizard Project and add the following three images in it: Room Second Row 01.jpg, Room Second Row 02.jpg, and Room Second Row 03.jpg. Place the flags and execute the project. Name the new stock lens "Room 2nd row", in the description area type "for tutorial".

9-	Now that our lenses are created, let’s stitch the rows. Create a new Photo Stitching Project and add to it all the 17 images that constitute the first row.

10-	In the Lens Selection Tab of the Project Manager, select Use one of the Stock Lenses, and in the Stock Lenses area, select the lens named "Room 1st row".

In the Options tab, click on the Reset button (the automatic mode is set by default).

1-	Execute this project. If the result is not satisfactory, you can select the Manual Stitch with 1 flag box of the Options tab and do the correction by hand or use more or less blending.

1-	Save the resulting image under this name "Result 1st row.bmp".

13-	Now is time to stitch the second row. Do the same thing as you did for the first row, but this time for the second row. Save the resulting image under the name "Result 2nd row.bmp".

14-	Finally we can stitch the two rows together. This is a little bit particular. Since the photos have already been warped when we stitched each rows in its Photo Stitching Project, we do not need to warp them again. This is why we will create a new Image Stitching Project (not Photo Stitching).

15-	Create a new Image Stitching Project and add two images in it: Result 1st row.bmp  and Result 2nd row.bmp. When asked to assign a number, assign number 1 to Result 1st row.bmp and number 101 to Result 2nd row.bmp. This tells the software that it must place Result 2nd row.bmp under Result 1st row.bmp  and not to the right of it.

16-	In the Options tab, click on Reset and select this option: "Source images are stitched images from a previous ImageAssembler Project.

17-	Execute this project.

18-	As you see the result is not satisfactory. This is because image #101 is not as wide as image #1 and a scaling is thus necessary. In automatic mode, there is no scaling, so we will do it in manual mode. Press on the Project Manger button [image] to bring it up front. In the Options tab select "Manual stitch with flags" and set "Image blending" to 60%. Use the Image Browser [image] [image] [image], the Flag Assistant [image], and the zoom buttons [image] [image] [image] to place the flags.

19-	At the end of execution, save the resulting image with the Save Image button [image].

To create a VR Panorama, follow the last 6 steps of the previous tutorial.


Stitching a Large Image Scanned in Parts Tutorial

Tutorial for stitching other types of images

(flat subject tutorial)

Follow these two short tutorials step by step, they will guide you through stitching a large image scanned in multiple parts. The same technique is also used for stitching aerial or satellite photos, photos of a painting or a tapestry, microscope slides, medical imagery, any case where the relatively flat subject is shot by moving the camera over it to cover the entire surface.

To do these tutorials you must have installed the software along with the tutorial image files. If you installed this software from a CD, these files have also been installed, if you downloaded this software from the web, it depends whether you chose to download it with or without the tutorial files.

Newspaper tutorial:

In this tutorial you will stitch a tabloid-format newspaper scanned in four parts on a standard desktop scanner.

1-	To make yourself comfortable for working, maximize PanaVue ImageAssembler window and resize this help window. When ready to begin, click on the New Project button

2-	The New Project window let you select which type of project you want to create. Select the Image Stitching type and click OK.

3-	What you now see is the Project Manager of this Image Stitching project. Click on the Images tab of the project manager. Since it is a new project it does not contain any image. To add some images, click on the Add button [image]. In the Open window, go to the ...\Samples\Newspaper subfolder of the folder where PanaVue ImageAssembler is installed. Use the "shift" or the control "ctrl" key together with your mouse to select all the 4 following images: Newspaper 01.jpg, Newspaper 02.jpg, Newspaper 101.jpg, and Newspaper 102.jpg, and open them. Each time a new image is opening, a window ask you to assign a number to this image. Since the images are named in ascending number order, the software suggests the good number for the two first images, so just click "OK" for the two first images, but for the third image, namely Newspaper 101.jpg, enter number 101 (instead of 3) to tell the software its place is below the first image (instead of to the right). For the last image (Newspaper 102.jpg) click OK to accept the suggested number 102.

4-	If the Project Manager is hidden by some images, bring it up front by pressing on this button [image] two times if needed. Go in the Options tab and click on the Reset button to reset the options to their default values.

5	Execute this Photo Stitching Project by clicking on the Execute button [image].

6-	At the end of the execution (it may take some time), the stitched image is displayed. To see it well, maximize the window and zoom in and out with these buttons [image], [image], and [image]. To see the Project Manager back, press on this button [image].

7-	Now let’s get more familiar with the manual mode, up to now we were in automatic mode. In the Project Manager, go to the Options tab. Select "Manual Stitch with flags". Use the browser buttons [image], [image], and [image] to navigate the images. In this case, the limited number of images makes the left and right browser buttons look useless, but they are used to navigate through the images when they are more than 4 of them.

You can see that the flags are enabled (colored), in automatic mode they were disabled (gray). If you would execute the project now, the photos would be stitched using these flags as stitching points. The result would be exactly the same as what was obtained with the automatic mode since these flags were precisely placed to these positions the last time you executed in automatic mode.

But for the purpose of this tutorial, suppose you are not happy with the position of image #101 as it has been computed by the automatic stitching. We will correct this situation manually in the next few steps.

8-	Use the browser button [image] to see the images, and activate the Flag Assistant by pressing down this button [image]. With your mouse, drag the yellow cross-shaped flag on image #1 and place it on some precise detail common to the two images. Drag the yellow cross-shaped flag on image #101 to the same detail. Note that when you released your mouse the software did some fine tuning on the flag position. This is because the Flag Assistant is activated.

To see more clearly what you have done, press a couple of times on the Zoom button [image], note that the zoom is centered around flag number 3 because this is the last flag you have clicked. If you are not satisfied by the position, you can deactivate the Flag Assistant and move the flags. Or activate the Flag assistant and just play with the flags to see how it works. To resize the images to their windows, click on [image].

You can do the same with the green triangular flag. But if you move this flag, you have to move it in all four images since this is a common stitching point shared by all four images.

If you execute the project now, it will be stitched according to the position of all the flags, including the ones you have moved. You will notice that the execution is much faster in manual mode. To see the Project Manager back, press on this button [image].

9-	Save the resulting image with the Save Image button [image]. The resulting image must be the "active" image when you click on this button.

Monet Poster tutorial:

In this tutorial, you will stitch a 60 X 90cm (2 X 3 feet) poster. Since this image is much larger than the image stitched in the Newspaper tutorial, a different strategy is used here, possibly more appropriate for large images. In fact, it depends on the accuracy of the capturing method. For a precise automated capturing method with regular overlapping between each image, the strategy used in the first tutorial can be easily generalized to large project with many images.

In this tutorial, the Monet Poster is scanned in two rows, each consisting of seven scans. We first stitch the two rows separately, then the two rows together. We will suppose you went through the first tutorial and therefore will skip some elementary steps.

1-	Click on the New Project button [image] and create a new Image Stitching Project.

2-	Add some images to this project using the Add button [image] of the Images tab. In the Open window, go to the ...\Samples\Monet Poster subfolder of the folder where PanaVue ImageAssembler is installed and select these seven image files:. Monet First Row 1.jpg, Monet First Row 2.jpg, …, Monet First Row 7.jpg. Just click "OK" in the Image Numbering window each time a new image is opening. Since the images were named in ascending number order, the software suggests just the good numbers to stitch them into a row.

3-	Reset the options to their default values and execute this project by clicking on the Execute button [image].

4-	At the end of the execution, the stitched image is displayed, click on the Save Image button [image], and type the filename Resulting image First Row.bmp. Save the image under this name.

5-	Now is time to stitch the second row. Create a new Image Stitching project, add these seven images: Monet Second Row 1.jpg, Monet Second Row 2.jpg, …, Monet Second Row 7.jpg and stitch them as we did for the first row. Save the resulting image under this name: Resulting image Second Row.bmp.

6-	We will now stitch the two rows together. Create a new Image Stitching project. Add to it the two images we just created, namely Resulting image First Row.bmp and Resulting image Second Row.bmp. Assign number 1 to the first image and number 101 to the second one. This number indicates to the software that the second image goes under the first one.

7-	In the Options tab, select option "Source images are stitched images from a previous ImageAssembler Project". This is the big difference between this project and the other two we created.

8-	Execute this project to stitch the two images.


Tips
If you are a first time user of PanaVue ImageAssembler, we recommend that you read these five short tips before proceeding. You may come back to this help window anytime by clicking the "Tips" item of the "Help" menu or you may find useful to print these tips right now for future reference.

When you start PanaVue ImageAssembler, you will first see an empty main window, indicating that no stitching project is currently open. You may create a new project or open an existing project (a project that you already have created and saved).

To create a new project, simply click on the "New Project" button [image]. You then add some images into your project, select the lens and option settings, and execute the project by clicking on the "Run" button [image].

We have distributed with this software a tutorial that includes a number of images (see panorama tutorial and flat subject tutorial).

Use the "Image Browser" buttons [image] [image] [image] and the "Project Manager" button [image] to quickly organize windows in the working area.

To speed up the handling of many files, make use of multiple selections when you open, close, add, or remove files from a project. For multiple selections, hold down the "Shift" or "Ctrl" (Control) key while you click on files with your mouse.

When the "automatic stitch" option is set (and it is by default), you cannot move the flags, this is done automatically for you by the software at execution time.

But after running the project, If you are not satisfied by the result, you can bring a manual correction of high precision.

Select the "manual stitch with flags" option (this will enable the flags) and simply position the flags by hand only between the images that were not correctly placed the first time by the automatic procedure. You can then rerun the project. This time the images are stitched according to the exact position where you placed the flags.

Note that flags are positioned by the software only when you do a full stitch [image], just doing a "preview" stitch will not position the flags.

When moving flags, let the "Flag Assistant" help you by clicking on this button [image]. You still have to manually bring the flags to an approximate position to indicate the stitching points, but the software will do the fine-tuning for you. This button can be toggled on and off.

To stitch a panorama and obtain the best results, you will need to know the focal length and the distortion level of your lens, along with the tilt angle of the camera. If you do not know them, or do not know what the focal length is at all, we provide a very powerful tool to find all these values in one step.

Here is how it goes. Create a new "Lens Wizard" project with two or three consecutive photos that are part of the set of photos you want to stitch. With your mouse, place the flags on some common stitching points of the image junctions. Execute the project.

After the execution, you should save the newly found parameters (focal length, distortion, tilt angle) in what we call a “lens”. You can use this “lens” in an ordinary photo stitching project to stitch the entire panorama. You do not necessarily have to create a “lens” each time you stitch a panorama as you can reuse a lens if the camera and lens setting is the same.

Hint: when placing the flags in the “Lens Wizard” project, try to spread them about the overlapping area as much as possible (do not cluster them). Placing some flags close to corners helps ImageAssembler find the most accurate values, since it is in corners that more perspective correction is needed.


How to call from the Command Line

Calling PanaVue ImageAssembler from the Command Line

You can automate the stitching process by calling PanaVue ImageAssembler from almost any other application. An application can call the ImageAssembler repeatedly to assemble a large number of groups of images in batch, or can use the ImageAssembler to do the stitching job while showing its own interface to the user.

This kind of automation is realized by calling PanaVue ImageAssembler from the "command line", it is quite powerful because you can call the ImageAssembler and use it with any existing project, substituting the original project images with new ones. Prior to calling it from the command line, you must create projects as usual, by using ImageAssembler with its normal windows interface.

You can order PanaVue ImageAssembler to execute by typing the command in a Dos window (command prompt) but more interestingly, the ImageAssembler can be launched from any other application written in a language that supports shell execution commands (Visual Basic, C++, Delphi…).

The Command Line feature is not included as a standard function in the release version of PanaVue ImageAssembler, it is an add-on feature sold separately, it is activated in the trial version for demonstration and testing purposes. If you are interested in this feature, see our website for information on the price and how to add it to your PanaVue ImageAssembler software.

To call PanaVue ImageAssembler from the command line, use the following syntax:

<path>\Panima.exe <project filename> <resulting image filename> <optional switches>

where:

<path> is the complete path where is installed PanaVue ImageAssembler software

<project filename> is the complete path and filename of the project (*.vst) file you intend to use

<resulting image filename> is the complete path and filename of the resulting image you intend to create

<optional switches> is a series of switches. See below for a description of all possible switches.

General switches:

/f:<image format> where <image format> can be any of bmp, os2, jpg, tif, tga, pcx, psd, ras, pct, png and mov, and represents the file format of the resulting image. Default value is bmp.

/v is for verbose, when this switch is on, PanaVue ImageAssembler will display error message in a pop up window. This is mainly useful for debugging.

Switches related to non-QuickTime (mov) resulting image files:

/b:<bits per image> where <bits per image> can be 0, 1, 4, 8, or 24, not every bit depth is supported by any file format. 0 here stands for 256 grayscale, while 8 stands for 256 colors.

/c:<compression> where <compression> is a JPEG compression value between 2 to 256, 2 being the least compressed.

Swiches related to QuickTime (mov) resulting image files (see QuickTime VR Saving Options for more information)

/qtc:<compression type> where <compression type> is the compression. It can any of sor, cin, or jpg. sor is for Sorenson compression, cin for Cinepak, and jpg for jpeg.

/qtq:<compression quality> where <compression quality> can take any values between 1 and 6. 6 being the best quality.

/qtp:<pan angle> where <pan angle`> is the total circular angle of the QuickTime. Typical value is 360.

/qts:<start angle> where <start angle> is the starting view of the QuickTime window in degrees.

/qtw:<width> where <width> is the initial width of the QuickTime viewer in pixels.

/qth:<height> where <height> is the initial height of the QuickTime viewer in pixels.

The following table summarizes which bit dept and compression is supported by a file format.

/f:	/b:	/c:	File Format
bmp	0, 1, 4, 8, 24	N/A	Windows BMP
os2	0, 1, 4, 8, 24	N/A	OS/2 BMP version 1.x
jpg	0, 24	2 to 256	JPEG
tif	0, 1, 4, 8, 24	N/A	TIFF
tif	0, 24	2 to 256	TIFF with JPEG compression
tga	0, 24	N/A	TARGA
pcx	0, 1, 4, 8, 24	N/A	Zsoft PCX
psd	0, 1, 8, 24	N/A	Adobe PhotoShop 3.0
ras	0, 1, 4, 8, 24	N/A	Sun Raster
pct	0, 1, 4, 8, 24	N/A	MacPict
png	0, 1, 4, 8, 24	N/A	Portable Network Graphic
mov	N/A	N/A	QuickTimeVR panorama
Example1:

C:\Program Files\PanaVue\PanaVue ImageAssembler\Panima.exe C:\MyProjectFolder\Project01.vst C:\MyResultFolder\ResultImage0001.png /f:png /b:24

This example will launch PanaVue ImageAssembler without its user interface, the ImageAssembler will use the project Project01.vst (with its option settings and with the images it refers to) to produce the stitched image ResultImage0001.png. This resulting image will be in 24-bit color, in png format.

Example2:

C:\Program Files\PanaVue\PanaVue ImageAssembler\Panima.exe C:\MyProjects\ProjectWrap.vst C:\MyResultingImages\Result0002.mov /f:mov /qtc:sor /qtq:4 /qtp:360 /qts:180

This example will run project ProjectWrap.vst and will save the resulting image as a QuickTime movie named Result002.mov. Result002.mov will be saved with Sorenson compression level 4, it is a 360-degree panorama, and the starting view is at 180 degrees.

Notes:

If no switches are given, ImageAssembler assumes they are /f:bmp /b:24.

The parameters must be separated by a single space, while no spaces are allowed within the path and filename of the two first parameters (project and resulting image filenames and paths).

You can replace the individual image files that a project refers to by other images. To do this, you do not have to modify the project itself, just substitute the image files with new ones with same names. With this technique, it is possible to use the same project to stitch many different sets of images.

Here is a simple example on how to call PanaVue ImageAssembler in Visual C++. A more complete code would involve calling the ImageAssembler in a separate thread while showing some kind of animated waiting image in the user interface of the main thread to show it is doing a stitch.

void CCommandLineCall::Run()

{

SHELLEXECUTEINFO strucExecInfo;

DWORD dwExitCode;

INT iExitCode;

// fill structure strucExecInfo

strucExecInfo.cbSize = sizeof(SHELLEXECUTEINFO);

strucExecInfo.fMask = SEE_MASK_NOCLOSEPROCESS;

strucExecInfo.hwnd = NULL;

strucExecInfo.lpVerb = "open";

strucExecInfo.lpFile = "C:\\Program Files\\PanaVue\\

PanaVue ImageAssembler\\Panima.exe";

strucExecInfo.lpParameters = "C:\\MyProjectFolder\\Project01.vst

C:\\MyResultFolder\\ResultImage0001.png /f:png /b:24";

strucExecInfo.lpDirectory = NULL;

strucExecInfo.nShow = SW_SHOW;

if (!ShellExecuteEx(&strucExecInfo))

{

AfxMessageBox("Cannot execute");

return;

}

dwExitCode = STILL_ACTIVE;

while (dwExitCode == STILL_ACTIVE)

{

GetExitCodeProcess(strucExecInfo.hProcess, &dwExitCode);

Sleep(1000); // to reduce processor time load for this thread

}

if (dwExitCode != 0)

{

iExitCode = (INT)dwExitCode;

// Write error recovering code here

}

else

AfxMessageBox("Ended with success", MB_ICONINFORMATION);

}

To get a description of possible values of iExitCode in the previous example, see the complete return value table with explanations.


Error code table

Returned Value Table

Here is the list of all possible values returned by PanaVue ImageAssembler when called from the command line along with some explanations.

0  : Success

Error values:

Negative:

-1  : Not enough memory

-2  : Invalid bitmap handle

-3  : Not enough memory

-4  : Error seeking to position

-5  : Error writing file

-6  : File not present - abort

-7  : Error reading file

-8  : Invalid filename specified

-9  : Invalid file format

-10  : File not found

-11  : Invalid width/height

-12  : Image format recognized, but sub-type not supported

-13  : Invalid parameter passed

-14  : Not able to open file

-15  : Unknown compression format

-16  : Requested file format not available

-17  : VGA card only supports 256 colors (8 bit)

-18  : Printer error

-19  : Data CRC check error

-21  : Invalid QFactor specified

-22  : TARGA not installed

-23  : Invalid compression format

-24  : X origin specified invalid

-25  : Y origin specified invalid

-27  : Invalid bits/pixel

Positive:

2  : Cannot process the parameters listed on the command line

3  : The execution will not start due to an invalid source image numbering, please check this item with the Project Manager Window.

4  : To execute, you must supply a suffix in order to form the resulting image filenames. See the option tab of the Project Manager Window

5  : Unable to open file, it may be the result of insufficient memory space on hard disk or an unrecognized image format.

6  : Unable to open one of the images, this may be the result of insufficient available memory.

7  : Cannot find Ph_math.dll Reinstall ImageAssembler or contact PanaVue to get this file.

8  : The actual version of ImageAssembler does not support this project file format anymore

9  : Cannot copy the image on the clipboard, it is probably due to insufficient memory space, or an image format not supported by ImageAssembler.

10  :Cannot copy the image on the clipboard, maybe the clipboard is locked by another application, try again later.

11  : The execution will not start due to an invalid number of source images.

12  : The execution will not start. A project cannot contain a mix of color and grayscale source images (except for Cropping Project).

13  : ImageAssembler is unable to adjust colors.

20  : Memory allocation failure!  Resources are low, please close some applications and try again.

21  : Not enough disk space available. Please free some space and try again.

22  : Not enough memory space available to perform the operation. Please close some applications and/or free some space on your hard disk and try again.

26  : PanaVue ImageAssembler has encountered a problem while opening the project file: the specified file format is not supported

27  : PanaVue ImageAssembler cannot automatically place the image(s). You can however do a manual stitch with flags and rerun the project.

29  : Windows system error;

30  : Unable to find the lens setting for these photos. Verify that you have not placed flags on points situated above 90 degree or below -90 degrees from horizon line. Also note that fisheye lenses with more than 180 degrees field of view are not supported.

31  : Unable to do lens fine tuning for this project. The project must contain a number 1 and number 2 image in order to realize a lens fine tuning. Also note that too small images cannot be automatically stitched.

33  : Undetermined error

100  : Failure from unknown causes


Command Line Sample Code in C++

Command Line Sample Source Code

To see a short example on how to call PanaVue ImageAssembler from another application using the command line, see Calling PanaVue ImageAssembler from the Command Line.

We have also included a complete C++ sample source code showing how to call PanaVue ImageAssembler from the "command line". This sample code is only included in the trial version of the software or with the command line add-on. You will find this code in folder: "…\Command Line Sample Source Code" under the folder where you have installed PanaVue ImageAssembler (by default it should be "C:\Program Files\PanaVue\PanaVue ImageAssembler\Command Line Sample Source Code").

You can build the application yourself if you have Visual C++ 6. Otherwise you can look at the very simple code found in the CCommandLineCallDlg::OnButtonRun() function of CommandLineCallDlg.cpp file. You can also try the compiled application CommandLineCall.exe.