Simple naming request

[WayneN]

As a switcher from PC to Mac, I already have a naming format in place that I use with BreezeBrowser Pro from BreezeSys.  My naming scheme uses a 6 digit date, i.e. 061217, in the line.  The only date format I find in PM that is similar is 8 digits with the full year.  Is there any way to alter the date variables to get this result or can this be added to the next release?  I simply don't feel like having to change my naming system in the middle of several thousand images to satisfy the limitations of an otherwise very robust software.  Any consideration would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Wayne Nicholas
NANPA Member

[Kirk Baker]

Wayne,

As a switcher from PC to Mac, I already have a naming format in place that I use with BreezeBrowser Pro from BreezeSys.  My naming scheme uses a 6 digit date, i.e. 061217, in the line.  The only date format I find in PM that is similar is 8 digits with the full year.  Is there any way to alter the date variables to get this result or can this be added to the next release?  I simply don't feel like having to change my naming system in the middle of several thousand images to satisfy the limitations of an otherwise very robust software.  Any consideration would be appreciated.

Easy enough, here is what you should use as the date portion of your renaming string:

{year2}{month0}{day0}

That will give you the date format you want.

-Kirk

[vAfotoriporter]

Hi, I'm also a PC Breeze switcher. is it possible to have PM ideintify and designate the camera body in the file name? I usually use two (sometimes more) bodies and have a, b, c letters after the date+image number signaling which body I used for the certain mage.

In Breeze Downloader there is a handy tool to set the bodies you use. Assign the desired letters to the bodies using an image (I think Downloader uses the Camera production number in the EXIF), and after you made the assignment, variables %T8 and %T9 will give you exactly the same designation as you set for them, and it will change in filename depending which camera body recorded the image.

This feature can be necessary when you end up using the same card in more bodies or importing from a hard drive instead of memory cards.

[Kirk Baker]

Hi, I'm also a PC Breeze switcher. is it possible to have PM ideintify and designate the camera body in the file name? I usually use two (sometimes more) bodies and have a, b, c letters after the date+image number signaling which body I used for the certain mage.

In Breeze Downloader there is a handy tool to set the bodies you use. Assign the desired letters to the bodies using an image (I think Downloader uses the Camera production number in the EXIF), and after you made the assignment, variables %T8 and %T9 will give you exactly the same designation as you set for them, and it will change in filename depending which camera body recorded the image.

This feature can be necessary when you end up using the same card in more bodies or importing from a hard drive instead of memory cards.

So you want some interface where you can list the serial numbers of your bodies and equivalent text strings so you can use them in renaming...

Something like:

When body (123456) is found then {bodyvalue} is abcdefg
When body (345678) is found then {bodyvalue} is ijklmnop

That would be easy enough to do.  We'll consider adding it in a future release.

-Kirk

[vAfotoriporter]

So you want some interface where you can list the serial numbers of your bodies and equivalent text strings so you can use them in renaming...

Something like:

When body (123456) is found then {bodyvalue} is abcdefg
When body (345678) is found then {bodyvalue} is ijklmnop

That would be easy enough to do.  We'll consider adding it in a future release.

Breeze Browser is user friendly letting you drag an image into the box and it puts it to the list and solves the rest, but what you mentioned would be a solution as well.

Is there some way to achieve something similar with the currently a valiable variables? Until I discovered this lovely Breeze function I simply set the file and directory names manually with the desired body signatures. But it doesn't help when accindentally you mix cards out in the field and your cards contain A and B body images mixed.

[Kirk Baker]

So you want some interface where you can list the serial numbers of your bodies and equivalent text strings so you can use them in renaming...

Something like:

When body (123456) is found then {bodyvalue} is abcdefg
When body (345678) is found then {bodyvalue} is ijklmnop

That would be easy enough to do.  We'll consider adding it in a future release.

Breeze Browser is user friendly letting you drag an image into the box and it puts it to the list and solves the rest, but what you mentioned would be a solution as well.

Is there some way to achieve something similar with the currently a valiable variables? Until I discovered this lovely Breeze function I simply set the file and directory names manually with the desired body signatures. But it doesn't help when accindentally you mix cards out in the field and your cards contain A and B body images mixed.

There is a {serial} variable that will expand to the serial number of the body that took the photo.  Some cameras do not have serial numbers in them so what you're requesting would really only work with pro-level bodies.

-Kirk

[vAfotoriporter]

There is a {serial} variable that will expand to the serial number of the body that took the photo.  Some cameras do not have serial numbers in them so what you're requesting would really only work with pro-level bodies.

No problem for me. I rarely use non-pro level bodies, and if Breeze can solve this issue (supposing the same way) PM may also. PM is for pros in the first palce isn't it?

It's strange that I'm the first one with this idea. As I saw there are here quite a few who use Breeze and even more who use more than one body.

[vAfotoriporter]

New question but maybe fits this topic and maybe it gets answered:

Is there a possibility in PM to substract characters from the filename during a batch rename and the same question when using filename as a variable.

For example I have a filename like generally 1234567890_thm.jpg, and would like to use only the numbers but {filenamebase} gives me the unwanted _thm as well. Is there any boolean, text or operation or anything else to do this in PM? Maybe some sort of delete variable erasing unwanted strings and leaving no other unwanted characters there after replacement?

This might get a dumb question. Is there a documentation including all variables and variable operators that can be used?

[Kirk Baker]

New question but maybe fits this topic and maybe it gets answered:

Is there a possibility in PM to substract characters from the filename during a batch rename and the same question when using filename as a variable.

For example I have a filename like generally 1234567890_thm.jpg, and would like to use only the numbers but {filenamebase} gives me the unwanted _thm as well. Is there any boolean, text or operation or anything else to do this in PM? Maybe some sort of delete variable erasing unwanted strings and leaving no other unwanted characters there after replacement?

In 4.5 there is a new substring extraction capability.  You could do the following:

{filenamebase:0,10}

with your example name above and get:

1234567890

HTH,

-Kirk

[vAfotoriporter]

Thanks Kirk, this substring thing is great, but needs some getting used.

However I hope the body recognition (mentioned above) is going to make it into a new release. Any idea how to do it until then?

[Kirk Baker]

Thanks Kirk, this substring thing is great, but needs some getting used.

However I hope the body recognition (mentioned above) is going to make it into a new release. Any idea how to do it until then?

I can't think of a way to do what you want without adding a new feature.

-Kirk

[vAfotoriporter]

I can't think of a way to do what you want without adding a new feature.

Well it sounds to be good news if this means tehere will be such a feature...
;-)))

I have two alternate ideas.
One being to use the camera model variable then simply replace it with the desired signature.
The other (never tested one) would be to use the above combined with code replacement (if it would work this way). If I use /{cameramodel}/ in the filename, and add the possibile camera model identifiers to the code replacement list it maybe could work....or couldn't it?

Of course both above work only if all the cameras used are different models, and it has no use if someone uses two or more bodies of the same type (which often happens with professionals I think). So I still think this would be a super feature anyway, and hope to see it in PM soon.

[Kirk Baker]

I can't think of a way to do what you want without adding a new feature.

Well it sounds to be good news if this means tehere will be such a feature...
;-)))

I have two alternate ideas.
One being to use the camera model variable then simply replace it with the desired signature.
The other (never tested one) would be to use the above combined with code replacement (if it would work this way). If I use /{cameramodel}/ in the filename, and add the possibile camera model identifiers to the code replacement list it maybe could work....or couldn't it?

Of course both above work only if all the cameras used are different models, and it has no use if someone uses two or more bodies of the same type (which often happens with professionals I think). So I still think this would be a super feature anyway, and hope to see it in PM soon.

Your Code Replacement idea would work quite well, yes.

-Kirk

[vAfotoriporter]

Your Code Replacement idea would work quite well, yes.

-Kirk

Thanks for your confirmation. In this case it helps me for now. But I hope you can make a specific body recognition option or variable set until I switch to doubble cameras of the same type because code replacing the camera model will not work if I didn't use two different cameras but two or more of the same kind.