Multiple Feature Requests 🙏🏻

[noun]

Firstly, thank you for this software. It’s one that I rely on regularly to tackle odd jobs that no other software comes close to. But, there are a few places where additions would be truly helpful.

1. Concurrent/Parallel Rule Execution
   My projects are often big spaghetti monsters with multiple rule chains. The problem is that these rules aren’t processed in parallel.

   
   
   So, instead of firing down all four chains simultaneously, the process runs down one, then starts back at the top and works down another, and another, and so on. I’m on a Mac Studio M4 Max 64G, and it’s barely being utilized to process what are currently hours long tasks.
   
   
   Would it be possible to maximize system resources, even amongst a job like this involving up/downscaling?

2. Static Image Metadata View
   In long jobs, I’m constantly evaluating image scaling. This step-by-step monitoring means I’m constantly clicking to view the basic image metadata. But, this is an ephemeral pop-up.

   
   
   Having these pertinent data points at hand would be more helpful than more columns of images.

3. What is Image A/B?
   I find myself regularly wondering which is the input image to a node and the output. I assume they’re “Image A” = Input and “Image B” = Output, but this isn’t apparent with scaling tasks.

   
   
   This image is being downscaled from 3800→3600 pixels on the longest edge (prior step is a 3x upscale so not truly 3800). The crop is equal across both, so it seems less like scaling and more like something problematic is happening.

4. Workspace Pinch-to-Zoom
   With large chain projects, the workspace is hard to navigate with all of the components being statically scaled. Is it possible to adopt a zoom feature?

5. Manual Connection Pen Tool
   Nodes can be finicky, even with manual connection being turned on. Having a pen sitting in the workspace so that I can draw a line between what I want to connect would many times be easier than getting bubbles to snap together.

6. Launch Retrobatch Template Node
   I really want to connect Retrobatch processes together so that I can rescale multiple images, write them all to a folder, and when that’s finished, kick off my “convert-to-pdf.retrobatch” template.

   Okay, that’s all of my notes. Apologies for the long message, and thank you again for this fantastic tool.

[ccgus]

Hello, and welcome!

These are all really great suggestions. I’ll try and respond to them one at a time.

Concurrent/Parallel Rule Execution

This is something I’ve looked at doing, and it would be great to have in the future. One problem I run into is that some workflows need execution to happen in an ordered manner. And of course, some nodes just can’t be done in parallel.

I should note though, that even though the nodes execute in a serial mode, the image processing inside the nodes can be multithreaded.

Static Image Metadata View

That’s a good idea! Feature noted.

What is Image A/B?

A is the processed, B is the original. I’ll get some tooltips in there!

Workspace Pinch-to-Zoom

This is on the todo list, along with patches (which is basically a node that is a collection of nodes).

Manual Connection Pen Tool

Oh, I like this idea and I don’t think it’s ever been suggested before.

Launch Retrobatch Template Node

Something similar to this is on the todo list. Just to clarify, when the workflow is finished, then it would run the next workflow?

Thanks for all the great ideas!

[noun]

@ccgus

Something similar to this is on the todo list. Just to clarify, when the workflow is finished, then it would run the next workflow?

Yes, that’s exactly it.

It would be a node that kicks off an existing.retrobatch template or activates another tab.

Something like this:

[noun]

What is Image A/B?

A is the processed, B is the original. I’ll get some tooltips in there!

I’m not sure if this is just my thinking, and it could help to have feedback from other users, but I find this confusing. “A” and “B” are ordinal, and given that this application works off node logic, I would expect this to align with:

• First / Source / Input = A

• Second / Modified / Output = B

[noun]

Manual Connection Pen Tool

Oh, I like this idea and I don’t think it’s ever been suggested before.

For an example of this, in Google Slides, I can use the line connector tool to draw the connections between objects. The line snaps to the edges of each object making the connection effortless.