Planalyzer - Program to analyze ACP plan timing

I just finished a little program that analyzes an ACP observing plan and displays information about the plan timing. After manually editing several plans, I grew frustrated not knowing how long the edited plan would run, and if it would finish before the dawn flat starting time.

Planalyzer reads ACP Planner properties and an ACP plan, then calculates the duration of each step and shows that step's ending time on a little clock. The total plan duration and ending time also are shown.

The plan may be edited (a'la Notepad) and the timing recalculated instantly. If satisfactory, the modified plan may be saved to disk.

I've attached a screen shot showing Planalyzer in operation.

Anyone wanting to play with Planalyzer may download it here:
http://astronomy.mdodd.com/files/Planalyzer.zip
There is no installation program -- just unzip all the files into a directory on your hard drive.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Mike

Hi Mike,

This is really nifty!! I have to look at it more, but I like it.

I did notice two things that you may need some changes to correct:

1. I loaded a plan that started at 7:45 pm and ended at 2:30 am, and the total time presented at the bottom of your screen said "Total time: -17:14:32"

2. I have names for targets like "EQ Tau" (followed by RA and Decs as usual). The names shown in your form have only the first characters, such as, "EQ". This is probably not a big problem, but did you mean to parse the name field just up to the first space, or was it supposed to parse up to the tab?

Good work. I'll put in my Reference Guide, when you tell me it's ready.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dick Berg

Hi Mike,

This is really nifty!! I have to look at it more, but I like it.

I did notice two things that you may need some changes to correct:

1. I loaded a plan that started at 7:45 pm and ended at 2:30 am, and the total time presented at the bottom of your screen said "Total time: -17:14:32"

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That's very strange. Would you care to e-mail me the plan (mike@mdodd.com) so I can take a look at it? I can't duplicate the problem by jiggering a sample plan (see attached screen shot). Is it possible your plan includes a #WAITUNTIL with a date? Is so, as the help file explains, Planalyzer handles only "reusable" plans without dates. Hopefully that's a future enhancement.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dick Berg

2. I have names for targets like "EQ Tau" (followed by RA and Decs as usual). The names shown in your form have only the first characters, such as, "EQ". This is probably not a big problem, but did you mean to parse the name field just up to the first space, or was it supposed to parse up to the tab?

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I'll have to refine the target name parsing routine. The simplistic code breaks the target line into tokens interpreted as text separated by whitespace. Thanks for the heads-up.

Mike

Hi, Mike,

What? Read the instructions???!!! ;)

Yes, my plan contains dated #waituntils - it's the way it comes out of the Planner for me. I know I can toggle a switch in Planner to change that, but I just leave it the way it is. Most of my plans for eclipsers are one-off anyway. I've attached it.

My plan takes 6hours 45minutes to run, and 6:45 - 24:00 is -17:15, so I thought maybe you had a MOD (modulus) issue.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mike Dodd

I just finished a little program that analyzes an ACP observing plan and displays information about the plan timing.

Anyone wanting to play with Planalyzer may download it here:
http://astronomy.mdodd.com/files/Planalyzer.zip
There is no installation program -- just unzip all the files into a directory on your hard drive.

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I added a few enhancements to Planalyzer. It now recognizes full dates as well as times following a #WAITUNTIL directive. It also incorporates meridian flip time in the time span calculations (including user-entered values for the ACP safety margins).

Even more cool is a "log analysis" window that will load an ACP log and calculate the time span between two log entries. I found this very helpful in revealing the fact that I had specified my image download times in Planner much shorter than they actually are. The log analysis window makes it easy to check Planner properties against actual performance.

Again, comments and suggestions are welcome.

Mike

This is entirely too awesome, Mike!!! Dick Berg was here this evening for dinner and we were talking about you and Planalyzer.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bob Denny

This is entirely too awesome, Mike!!! Dick Berg was here this evening for dinner and we were talking about you and Planalyzer.

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Thanks, Bob. Be sure to grab the latest version from the link on this page http://astronomy.mdodd.com/planalyzer.html . I tweaked the Log Analyzer to automatically calculate the time span between two log entries without the user having to click a button.

I'm finding Planalyzer to be very useful even with only a couple of days' use.

Mike

Mike,

This is a great utility - thank you for sharing it!

-Chris.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Christopher Cappelli

Mike,

This is a great utility - thank you for sharing it!

-Chris.

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You're welcome.

I've added a time-fitting routine to Planalyzer that will adjust the count of multiple exposures so they complete by a specified time. Like Jim MacMillan, I often find myself wishing for an #IMAGEUNTIL directive. In lieu of this, now I can easily adjust the plan in Planalyzer to achieve the same result. See the attached screen shots.

Again, the link to the Planalyzer page on my Web site is http://astronomy.mdodd.com/planalyzer.html

Hi Mike,

This keeps getting better and better! I have a question...

Where is focusing time accommodated? It is part of the Planner setup.

I have already made a pointer to this tool in the Reference Guide gold copy, but I'm out on travel and I forgot the server password (duh) so I can't upload the change until I get home on Sunday. Although I could put a copy of your Planalyzer on the ACP server, my pointer points to your web page instead. I think this is better so long as you're still incrementally improving the tool.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dick Berg

Hi Mike,

This keeps getting better and better! I have a question...

Where is focusing time accommodated? It is part of the Planner setup.

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It doesn't at this time. I plan to take a look at how to add time for the #AUTOFOCUS and #AFINTERVAL directives. There are a bunch of directives Planalyzer ignores, but I would like to include focusing in the calculations. Shouldn't bo too hard (as he pulls out the program listing... http://forums.dc3.com/images/icons/icon12.gif)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dick Berg

I have already made a pointer to this tool in the Reference Guide gold copy, but I'm out on travel and I forgot the server password (duh) so I can't upload the change until I get home on Sunday. Although I could put a copy of your Planalyzer on the ACP server, my pointer points to your web page instead. I think this is better so long as you're still incrementally improving the tool.

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Sounds good to me. I expect the software to continue to evolve (at least as long as we continue to have cloudy skies).

Mike

Mike, indeed this is getting better and better! I want to give you enough info so you can use the plan compiler, which should allow you great freedom and eliminate tedious and error prone parsing of plans. It's actually very easy to use. I'll call you now, but if I miss you I'll try again. I'm on reduced hours so it'll be hit or miss...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dick Berg

Hi Mike,

Where is focusing time accommodated? It is part of the Planner setup.

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I added focusing times today. I think I got it right. Planalyzer ignores the "focus at plan start" property because there's usually a #WAITUNTIL directive that wouldn't change with a prior focus. Oops! I didn't include the #AUTOFOCUS directive itself. I'll add that soon.

Let me know how it works.

Mike

Quote:

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I want to give you enough info so you can use the plan compiler

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I did call and we had a great talk!!! Unfortunately I made a rash promise. The Plan compiler is not usable directly from C#. While Microsoft says they're going to make late-bound objects usable from C# (as they always have been in VB.NET) in the upcoming C# 4.0, for now it's not a simple task. I have a sticky to look at making up an interop assembly using VB.NET.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bob Denny

I did call and we had a great talk!!! Unfortunately I made a rash promise. The Plan compiler is not usable directly from C#. While Microsoft says they're going to make late-bound objects usable from C# (as they always have been in VB.NET) in the upcoming C# 4.0, for now it's not a simple task. I have a sticky to look at making up an interop assembly using VB.NET.

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No problem, Bob.; I appreciate the offer. So far, plan parsing is working pretty well, and Planalyzer is in pretty good shape as long as I don't get any bright ideas about adding additional directives that currently are ignored.

BTW,I added search capability to the plan window and the log analysis window. I also began work on recognizing the #AUTOFOCUS directive.

Mike

Mike,

I'm probably the only person having any problem with your app, so it's almost certainly my fault. When I run Planalyzer I get an unhandled exception error, with the comment "Index was out of range. Must be non-negative and less than the size of the collection. Parameter name: index." Here are the details:

See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.
************** Exception Text **************
System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: Index was out of range. Must be non-negative and less than the size of the collection.
Parameter name: index
at System.Collections.ArrayList.get_Item(Int32 index)
at Planalyzer.MainForm.buttonCalculateClick(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnClick(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnMouseUp(MouseEventAr gs mevent)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.O nMessage(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.W ndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)

************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
CodeBase: file:///c:/WINNT/Microsoft.NET/Frame...7/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
Planalyzer
Assembly Version: 1.0.3268.38838
Win32 Version: 1.0.3268.38838
CodeBase: file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Setting...Planalyzer.exe
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINNT/assembly/GAC_MSIL/S...dows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINNT/assembly/GAC_MSIL/S...089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINNT/assembly/GAC_MSIL/S...em.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Xml
Assembly Version: 2.0.0.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.50727.1433 (REDBITS.050727-1400)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINNT/assembly/GAC_MSIL/S...System.Xml.dll
----------------------------------------
************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this
application or computer (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.
For example:
<configuration>
<system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>
When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer
rather than be handled by this dialog box.

I should mention that I use a one-shot camera and so have no filters in my list. My suspicion is that this is the issue but obviously don't know for sure.

Thanks for sharing your work!

Terry

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Terence Lenhardt

Mike,

I'm probably the only person having any problem with your app, so it's almost certainly my fault. When I run Planalyzer I get an unhandled exception error

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Hang in there. http://forums.dc3.com/images/icons/icon12.gif I'm adding a dynamically-allocated collection of events, so Planalyzer will no longer be limited to 12 exposures, darks, waituntil, and focus items in the plan. this addition requires a major reworking of the program code, but it's going well. Another few days and I should have it beaten into submission.

Mike

Ah, the joys of supporting enthusiastic users. No, really Mike you're doing a great job and a great service for ACP users. Keep up the good work and thanks!

Mike,

The program appears to require that the plan have a #filter directive. No further problems...I just insert a "dummy" line and all seems to be fine. Thanks for the great app.

Terry

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Terence Lenhardt

Mike,

The program appears to require that the plan have a #filter directive. No further problems...I just insert a "dummy" line and all seems to be fine. Thanks for the great app.

Terry

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Not any more. I found and eliminated that design flaw. Thanks for the heads-up.

Mike

OK, I've done it! Attached is a VS2005 solution which consists of a wrapper .NET class library for the Plan Compiler, as well as a little C# test program that shows how to use it. You'll see how simple it isi to compile a plan and get back everything as objects, collections, etc. I was just amazed how easy it was to use the compiler WSC from VB.NET (that's what the wrapper class library DLL was written in).

For starters, load up the AcpPlan solution and look around. Check out the tester application (command line). It's already set to just run in the VS IDE when you click the run button (I included a test plan and set the debugging options to have it on the command line and set the current directory). Note the sleazy trick I discovered for making the fake Util.Console! I am totally amazed it worked.

To use this from any app in any .NET language:

1. You must have the ACP Plan Compiler WSC installed. I hereby give you permission to distribute it with Planalyzer, no strings attached. Put it in ProgFiles\ACP ObsControl and right-click/register it. You can register it via an installer (Inno or MSI).
2. Put the AcpPlan.dll file anywhere on your development system.
3. Add a reference to AcpPlan.dll (references/browse) to your app
4. Add using DC3.ACP; to the source file where you want to use the compiler
5. Implement the fake Util.Console in your app. Look at how it's done in the Tester app.

By looking at how the Tester app uses the Plan Compiler, you should be able to figure out most of the rest. NOTE: There are probably some bugs in the wrapper properties/methods; that's one of the reasons I sent you the whole solution/sources.

Feel free to ask me questions by email. If you find bug(s) and correct them, I'd like to get the corrected sources bgack for future use.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bob Denny

OK, I've done it! Attached is a VS2005 solution which consists of a wrapper .NET class library for the Plan Compiler, as well as a little C# test program that shows how to use it

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I appreciate your effort Bob, but I use SharpDevelop instead of VS, and even though it says it compiles the VB code, when I run the app I get an error message that says something about the My Documents\Robert B. Denny\etc\etc\etc folder not existing. I can't find anything in the .prj or .sln file that specifies this directory.

Please don't worry about it. Planalyzer seems to be working well by parsing the plan directly. True, Planalyzer ignores quite a few directives, but most of them don't significantly affect the run-time. I'm not sure Planalyzer needs everything in a plan to be packaged as objects.

Again, thank you for trying to help. But given my non-VS development platform, I probably should stick with what I have.

Mike

Oh... I didn't know about your using SharpDevelop. If you change your mind about using the compiler, I can send you the AcpPlan.dll assembly - that's all you would need. I can maintain the VB code.

I really don't like using VB.NET!! I used it for its COM late binding capabilities, which are supposed to be added to C# in the next version. ACP Scheduler is all C#.