ThumbView FAQ Owing to the current Lack of documentation with TView here are a few answers to a few likely questions. Hopefully to be updated reasonably often. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- How do I quickly view images full size? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Right-Click on the Thumbnail or press the Magnifying Glass ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Why do I get the wrong Thumbnail Image for a file or several files with the same Image even though I know the originals are different ----------------------------------------------------------------------- If cacheing is switched on TView will cache thumbnail versions as "filename._tm" . If you have several files with the same name but different extensions (test.jpg test.tif test.bmp) then they will all use the same cached image. (test._tm). If there is a thumbnail in the cache of the same name (even from browsing a different folder) then it will be used in the interest of speed. To get the right thumbnail for an Image - select it then click the "Refresh Thumbnail" button. Or switch off the Cache temporarily. Long Term - If your machine is fast enough you can run with cacheing switched off. If not then you need to get into the habit of ignoring filetypes when naming files and make all names different (good policy anyway) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Why do strange things happen when browsing Aircraft Textures? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- A particular problem is with Aircraft textures for add-on Planes created in AF99. These textures all have the same name but different Extensions (.0af, .1af, .2af.......) so will all appear with the same thumbnail image. To see them properly just switch off the Cache when in the Aircraft`s Texture Folder. (Extra note here - mwgfx.dll doesn`t yet support compressed R8 so these will appear black. Also the CFS trick of converting Plane textures to BMP for better colours then renaming them back to .0af etc will confuse the file parsing routines and they will come up black) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have changed the thumbnail size but they still seem to be coming up the same size - just nearer together/further apart. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cacheing again. Press the "Clear" button to empty the cache then press the "Refresh Display" Button, ------------------------------------------------------------------------- How do the Cache settings work? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Location of Thumbnail Cache Directory This gadget sets where the thumbnail images are cached on disk. On installation this is set to the system TEMP directory but it is a good idea to create a folder just for the cache (I use c:\Thumbs\) and edit this gadget to point to it (remember the trailing \ ). If this gadget is empty then all thumbnails will be cached in the same folder as the actual images (and cache flushing/clearing will not work). This is NOT Recommemnded. Maximum Permanent Cache Size Number Gadget Set this to limit the number of cached thumbnails to keep on disk between TView Sessions. Depending on the Thumbnail size you have set the disk space per file will be 10k-30k (thumbnail size of 85 = 22k/file) If this gadget is set to zero then ALL thumbnails are kept on disk between sessions (not recommended). To mostly empty the cache between sessions use a value of 1 Drives to Cache Locally Type in the drive letter(s), seperated by spaces, of the drives you want to keep their own caches (which will be placed in the same folder as the Images) I have used it for my Zip Drive (where I archive Images) but a possible use for it is to put the drive letter of your CD. This will prevent the rapid growth of the main cache when browsing lots of Image CDs but the CD thumbnails will effectively be uncached (because you can`t write to a CD) Currently I don`t cache any drives locally. "Cache" If this button is down then cacheing will be used. "Flush" If this button is down then each time you change to a different folder the cache will be emptied down to the number of thumbnails you have set for the Maximum Permanent Cache (roughly - a random deletion routine is used and the current folder will be added back) If you are low on disk space then select this. The Cache is always Flushed when exiting the Program so if you have loads of disk space leave it off. "Clear" This button completely empties the cache. Use when running short of disk space during a long TView session or when Changing the Thumbnail size "Thumbs :" Status Display This status line displays how many thumbnails are currently cached and the amount of disk space they are taking up. It can get alarming - I recently saw 18000k when browsing my CFS Texture Folder. This is flushed down to the selected maximum on exiting the program (or when changing folders if "Flush" selected). ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Can I save any Image out in any of the formats displayed in "Save as" ? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Within sensible limits. mwgfx.dll won`t let you save out 2-colour images in jpeg for instance. Most conversions are allowed. Source images will be upped to 24bit or downed to 256 colours or converted to greyscale as necessary depending on source and destination formats. Images saved as R8 will also be resized to 256x256.