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Conwy Valley Systems Limited,

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PETROG 4


Release date : 2017-07-08


PETROG - What’s new



What is new in this version?


Not everything will be ready at once, some are in final testing, but the major technology changes are:


“ScreenCaster” Targeted at educational users, this allows a whole class to see the image from the microscope on their own tablet device via wireless simultaneous broadcast.


“Virtual Keyboard”: Programmable keys, able to log an entire PETROG point description in a single tap of the keyboard, without losing the additional data essential for full petrographic analysis. Available also for PetrogLite, the communication between Android or Apple tablet and Windows computer is wireless.


Improved stitching: Since introducing stitching for viewing large features and objects, we have incrementally expanded its capabilities and added specific features to make it easier to create and manage entire slide images, either as backups or archives for the glass slide or polished block or for sharing the slide with a remote location.


HDR and easier control over camera settings: We introduced ‘pre-sets’ in v3, to store specific camera settings as an entire set of light and image parameters, for each objective and each light conditions (e.g. XPL, PPL), so that the camera settings can be changed simply by noting that the objective or filter has changed. The peculiar demands of imaging rocks and other petrographic materials, particularly under crossed polars, mean that it is difficult to create settings that allow detail to be seen in both nearly transparent and nearly opaque materials, both under the same settings. HDR (for High Dynamic Range) is shorthand for a technique in which more than one image is captured over the field of view and combined to use each where it is giving the best image. PETROG’s pre-sets allow it perform these tasks with imperceptible delay.


Software improvements include:


Greatly expanded data import capabilities for transferring data from other systems and spreadsheets.

Better locale-dependence and checks for mismatches from PostgreSQL to Microsoft and inconsistences in Microsoft’s.


Windows remembering the last position in which they were displayed, to make it easier to create custom layouts, was causing a problem when hardware changed (especially if downsizing from two monitors to one). New checks for hardware make it easier to recover. More windows and dialogs have been added to the list of those saved (if we have missed some that you particularly want to be remembered, please let us know) and layouts, which are already user-dependent rather than database-dependent, will soon allow a new user to adopt saved settings from an existing user as part of an overall updating of the hierarchy of default settings.


More options on grain size histograms, including better control of which grain types to include (available only when  concurrent textural and compositional logging has been performed, of course).


New petrographic data “styles”. Originally only targeted at sedimentary petrography, there are now application-specific versions of PETROG for coal petrography, ceramic archaeology, concrete petrography, cement clinker and metamorphic / igneous petrography. All installations have the capability to perform any of these analyses, with appropriate dictionaries, and more customisation being added.