Bugslabber installation

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HansS
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Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2012 8:20 am
Location: The Netherlands

Bugslabber installation

Post by HansS »

I would like to start using Bugslabber, but for some unknown reason I cannot get the program started.

I downloaded version 1.1 for Windows and extracted the exe file. Opening (double-clicking) the file shows the busy sign for a second and that's it.

I use Win10 64bit, latest update mid October.

Any suggestions?

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Adalbert
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Post by Adalbert »

Hello Hans,
Welcome to the forum!
I have the Win 10 64 bit too but don’t have any problem with the Bugslabber 1.1.
BR, ADi

Chris S.
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Post by Chris S. »

Hans,

I've sent an email to Bill Eldridge, who wrote Bugslabber, to make sure he sees your query. In the meantime, I downloaded and ran Bugslabber on my own Windows 10 64-bit machine, with no trouble. A couple of thoughts:

1) Do you have any protective software on your computer that could be mistakenly blocking Bugslabber from running? An antivirus or antispyware program, for example? If so, I'd suggest disabling this program briefly and trying again. If that works, there may be a way to white-list Bugslabber in the protective software.

2) I notice the following warning on the Bugslabber Website: "Caution: until version 1.2 arrives, do not minimize Bugslabber's window and then shut down your computer, at least on Windows -- the Bugslabber window will disappear upon restart requiring the prefs file to be deleted." Is there any chance that this issue is getting in your way?

3) If you can't make Bugslabber work on your system, try SlabberJockey. If you go this route, you may first want to read "How to use SlabberJockey." Bugslabber and SlabberJockey do the same thing. Bugslabber has an extra feature or two, takes fewer clicks to install, and runs on Mac as well as Windows machines. On the other hand, since I wrote SlabberJockey, I can probably troubleshoot it for you if you have problems. (I wouldn't have written SlabberJockey if Bugslabber had existed at the time, and Bill wouldn't have written Bugslabber if SlabberJockey worked on his Mac. In both cases, we wrote these utilities primarily for ourselves, but are happy to share.)

Cheers,

--Chris S.

HansS
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2012 8:20 am
Location: The Netherlands

Post by HansS »

Adalbert and Chris, thankyou both for confirming that Bugslabber is compatible with Win10.

As to Cris' points:

1) Bitdefender and Malwarebytes have no problem with Bugslabber.

2) There never was a Bugslabber window in view or minimized. Even so I searched in vain for a prefs file.

3) I looked into your SlabberJockey, even downloaded the MS Access 2010 runtime-executable, but then read your comment (6 April 2009):
...recommend Bugslabber to new users as it is more recent and has additional features.
I also looked into ZereneVS, but nowadays prefer a GUI.

Thanks again,
Hans S.

lonepal
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Location: Turkey

Post by lonepal »

Hi;

Did you try running it with compatibility mode?

Edit : Please also try running as administrator for both normal run and compatiblity mode run.
Regards.
Omer

HansS
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Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2012 8:20 am
Location: The Netherlands

Post by HansS »

Thank you Omer,

Yes one of the first things I tried was running Bugslabber as Admin. Seeing version 1.1 was from 2015 I tried compatibility mode, Windows troubleshooter suggested Win7. But no success.

I would like to know what dependencies Bugslabber has, but the documentation is rather limited.

Best regards,

Hans S.

lonepal
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Location: Turkey

Post by lonepal »

Oh sorry HansS;

I hope you solve it.

It is so weird that it works for another person using same operating system but not for you.

Good luck.
Regards.
Omer

Chris S.
Site Admin
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Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2009 9:55 pm
Location: Ohio, USA

Post by Chris S. »

Hans,
HansS wrote:3) I looked into your SlabberJockey, even downloaded the MS Access 2010 runtime-executable, but then read your comment (6 April 2009):
...recommend Bugslabber to new users as it is more recent and has additional features.
Bugslabber's additional features are "nice to have", but not "must have". So if your choice is between SlabberJockey that (hopefully) will work on your machine, or Bugslabber that has resisted working on your machine--my recommendation for you is to try SlabberJockey. :D (At least until you hear from Bill.)

The major feature that Bugslabber has and SlabberJockey lacks is the ability to make slabs in DMap mode. I left this out of SlabberJockey because I usually make slabs using PMax, then stack these slabs in either DMap, PMax, or both. When I occasionally want DMap slabs, there is a quick workaround that I can tell you about if you like. I had plans of adding this choice to SlabberJockey--it would take only a few lines of code, and a minor adjustment to the user interface, plus time for testing, updating the documentation, and packaging for release. Though none of this was a big deal, when Bill added this feature to Bugslabber, I didn't see the sense in my bothering.

There are some other differences, but they are mainly judgement calls between one way of working and another, each valid. For example, SlabberJockey uses the Zerene Stacker preferences as set in Zerene Stacker itself; BugSlabber has you set these preferences within Bugslabber. Once you get used to either approach, it works fine. As another example, SlabberJockey generates the slabbing instruction list in a text box, from which the user copies the contents and pastes them into an xml or txt file, which Zerene Stacker will reference as a batch file. I chose this to make the process transparent to the user (these utilities simply create a set of human-readable instructions for Zerene Stacker; these instructions can then be human-edited easily, should one desire). Bugslabber creates an xml file behind the scenes, which saves a few keystrokes. To my mind, each approach has advantages, but both work.

To use SlabberJockey, since you have already downloaded the MS Access 2010 runtime-executable, you don't need the full SlabberJockey installation package. You can install the MS Access 2010 executable, then download the SlabberJockey executable, and get them working based on the how-to document linked in my first post.

Cheers,

--Chris S.

HansS
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Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2012 8:20 am
Location: The Netherlands

Post by HansS »

Thank you Chris,

just made my first slabbed stack. SlabberJockey worked fine.
PMax on 30 shots in 5 slabs with overlap 2, DMax on the result was certainly easier to edit than the original Dmax on 30 photo's.

I have been using Zerene for years, but most of the time on a small number of shots. Using a D850 led to an increasing number of shots per stack.

On average I had best results using DMax, so I am still interested in Bugslabber (or workaround for SlabberJockey)

Great software, Thanks

Hans

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Adalbert
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Post by Adalbert »

Hello Hans,
What does DMax mean (first slabbing with PMax and then the results with DMap)?
I often stack in this way.
BR, ADi

HansS
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Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2012 8:20 am
Location: The Netherlands

Post by HansS »

Hello ADi,

At the moment I am not into extreme macro. A stack of just a few photo's has the desired effect for most of my stacked work. For this Myosotis ramosissima only three shots were used. In my experience DMap gives better color and contrast than PMax. Noise seldom is a problem with a low number of good source files.

Best regards,
Hans

Image

HansS
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Location: The Netherlands

Post by HansS »

Another example:

The myosotis was shot with D800, in situ, no sun, light wind.
This part of a Pteridium aquilinum: 8 shots with D850 in studio, DMax 30% no edits in Zerene, postprocessing in AffinityPhoto.
I will start reading on this forum for better lighting.

Hans

Image

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Adalbert
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Post by Adalbert »

Hello Hans,
At the moment I am not into extreme macro
OK, I thought you need the Bugslabber for your stacks based on 1000 shots :-)

BTW, very nice pictures!

BR, ADi

Chris S.
Site Admin
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Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2009 9:55 pm
Location: Ohio, USA

Post by Chris S. »

Hans,
HansS wrote:Just made my first slabbed stack. SlabberJockey worked fine.
PMax on 30 shots in 5 slabs with overlap 2, DMax on the result was certainly easier to edit than the original Dmax on 30 photo's.

. . .

On average I had best results using DMax, so I am still interested in Bugslabber (or workaround for SlabberJockey)

Great software, Thanks.
I'm glad SlabberJockey worked well for you, as it does for me. Thank you for the kind words. (And for the very nice images you posted.)

Since you asked for the workaround to produce DMap slabs from SlabberJockey, here is the recipe in pdf form: SlabberJockey--How to change a batch file to create DMap slabs instead of PMax slabs. Please let me know if I've missed anything.

Cheers,

--Chris S.
Last edited by Chris S. on Fri Oct 26, 2018 9:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

HansS
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2012 8:20 am
Location: The Netherlands

Post by HansS »

Thank you Chris,

I am sorry this has taken up so much of your time.
Your instructions are very clear. I am sure they are better than a lot of documentation I wrote in my time as systems developer.

I intended to do no more coding after retirement. But your SlabberJockey might inspire me to get a recent version of MS Access, to straighten out some shortcomings in the Lightroom database.

Thanks again,

Hans

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