Big Ben's Panorama Tutorials

FM2PTV

Intro

Generating a tour from scratch is easy enough but once your project starts getting bigger it can be very awkward making changes to it and keeping track of all of the panoramas. To help with this process I have developed a FilemakerPro database to author PTViewer applet code and manage large projects.

The design process is being carried out in conjunction with the development of a large virtual tour (http://www.path.unimelb.edu.au/~bernardk/mu_tour/)  It's designed to suit the way I work but as it's a Filemaker Pro file it's fully customisable if you want to add or change anything.

Features

• Single database generates the entire HTML code for the web page
• Pixel coordinates converted to relative coordinates
• Select common items by description rather than number (e.g. NewPanofromList)
• Popup menus for common options
• Panorama/extension thumbnails
• Popup menu of panorama descriptions for selecting NewPanoFromList
• Helper databases for PTViewer actions and Helper Applet options. Allows for addition of new features as they are added and provides documentation as needed.
• Automatically enter frequently used settings
• Automatically renumber shotspots in panoramas if global shotspots change
• Some idiot proofing to prevent global options being set in individual panoramas
• Additional layouts to display information to assist with managing large projects
• Fully customisable

What FM2PTV doesn't do

FM2PTV is not a complete GUI for generating PTViewer tours. There is no mechanism for retrieving coordinates from pano images which must be done manually via whatever means you have at your disposal.

Documentation

Documentation is currently under construction and will be completed when the database is out of beta testing.

• Introduction
• Global Options
• Panoramas
• Hotspots/Shotspots
• Extensions
• Actions
• Thumbnails
• Scripts

Screenshots

	Global options Set all global options including page title and author information
	Global SHotspots
	Panorama List Options for individual panoramas including Text description to aid debugging and for use in NewPanoFromList popup menu Image dimensions for calculating relative hotspots Automatic or custom file names Reference  thumbnail
	Hotspot List Currently up to 255 hotspots (modifiable) Pixel coordinates converted to relative coordinates Popup menu for linking to other panoramas with text descriptions Customisable hotspot types Popup PTViewer actions
	Helper Applets Applet parameters loaded according to applet type Documentation loaded for each applet type
	Thumbnail lists Lists of panoramas and helper applets for reference.

Download

There is still plenty of work to do in terms of the interface and extra programming and I don't consider it to be complete yet. For a sneak preview you can download version 0.95beta here. Some things to note/do:

• Check fields that are set to Auto Enter data and change them to suit your own preferences
• Edit the definition of CodeGlobalParameters to put your own custom HTML header in. This will be a separate field in the next version.
• Edit the Code script to specify an output file
• The PT Action Generator is not fully functional yet
• SHotspot definitions are not fully functional yet
• Pano inits needs a lot of work

Changes

0.95Beta - released 30/3/03

• Added navigation buttons for layouts, scripted to show relevant records
• Added Init handling.  Init segments and descriptions are specified as global options.  Init segments selected by description in Panorama options
• Fixed HTML header to use Project Title, Author etc... from global options.
• Scripted export of HTML code.