# Lightroom and PtGui Panorama Software



## kencameron (Apr 29, 2009)

Greetings all - my first post on this forum. 

I have set up an export user preset in Lightroom to open panorama files in 
PtGui but I can't get it to work smoothly on my Mac, although it works 
fine in Windows (Vista). I export a set of panorama files to a 
subfolder, use the "post processing" tab in Lightroom export and 
specify PtGui as the application to use. PtGui opens, but won't open 
the exported files because it is looking for a PtGui project file and 
so tells me that each of the exported panorama files is not a PtGui 
project file. I have to OK these multiple warnings then manually open 
the exported files in PtGui. This is a mild nuisance, which does not 
happen on my windows laptop, where PtGui does open the exported 
panorama files. 

I have posted this on a PtGui forum as well. Any ideas?


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## Kiwigeoff (Apr 29, 2009)

Welcome Ken, I have no idea about this but I'm sure someone will help you out!!
To help us help you could you please take a moment to fill in your signature in the "userCP' that is found in the nav-bar at the top left of the page - thanks.


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## kencameron (Apr 30, 2009)

CP completed, Geoff. It is most likely a PtGui problem, but I am hoping another Lightroom user might have encountered and solved it.


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## Victoria Bampton (May 1, 2009)

I haven't used PtGui either, but if you do find out the answer, please do let us know!


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## dhaig (May 1, 2009)

I use both Lightroom and PTGui.  I routinely edit RAW panorama segments and create TIFFs for assembly of panoramas in PTGui.

In Lightroom, select Preferences from the Edit menu.  In the Preferences dialogue box select the tab External Editing.  Setup the Additional Exteranal Editor.  Select the Choose button which will open another dialogue box which will permit navigating to the location of the PTGui.exe executable file.  Select the executable and close the dialogue box by pressing the Choose button.

Complete the setup of PTGUI as the external editor by specifying the following:

File Format: TIFF
Color Space: ProPhoto RDG
Bit Depth: 16 bits/component
Resolution: 3''
Compression: None
These are the settings I use.  You may choose others.  You may also specify a Preset for the export of files for editing in PTGui.

Once PTGui is setup as an external editor, go to the Library module of LR and select the pano elements to be assembled in PTGui.  From the Photo menu select Edit In/PTGui.exe.  PTGui should then open and open the selected files from LR.  In PTGui you can specify where the output file to be saved.  I keep the assembled panoramas in the same folder as the pano segment TIFFs.  

After the panorama is created, go to LR and right click on the folder in the Library which contains the assemble panorama.  Select Synchronize Folder.  This will cause the newly created panorama to be imported into LR.

I also find it useful to assign keywords "Pano Element" and "Panorama" to the component photos and assembled panoramas, respectively.  Then you can create a Smart Folder for Panoramas, using the Panorama keyword as the mechanism for collecting your assembled panoramas.

Regards, Don


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## kencameron (May 2, 2009)

*Thanks, but...*

Thanks for the suggestion, Don. It is a variation of what I currently do, and like my approach it works perfectly in Windows, but not in Mac OS X. 

Using Mac OS X your approach has the same glitch as mine - namely that PtGui doesn't open the image files because it is looking for a  PtGui Project File, so it pops up a window saying "This is not a PtGui Project File", which I have to OK before manually opening the image files in PtGui. 

It seems clear that there is a difference between the way PtGui operates under  Windows and OS X. I have raised this with the PtGui developers, but without result so far. Hence my hope that someone might have found a workaround.

And no (to windows aficionados) this isn't quite enough reason to switch :cheesy:


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## dhaig (May 2, 2009)

Ken, sorry I had not noticed your issue appears to be Mac specific.  My wife has a Mac and also use LR and PTGui.  I will test on her laptop to see if hers shows the same issue.


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