Basic installation of Art Department Professional

[Matt_H]

The video seems like a pretty comprehensive overview to me. Are you getting stuck with something in particular? As I recall, the ADPro 2.5 installer will walk you through everything for the installation. The default options should provide everything you need. If disk space is limited for some reason, you can skip the splitz/joinz and fractal components.

[Matt_H]

AdPro changed it's name to MorphPlus when it got a Morphing function. The later the release, the more build in functions, loaders and savers it has. You can generally use later loader and saver plug ins with earlier versions.

Not exactly. MorphPlus is a separate product with a high degree of interoperability (and shared modules) with ADPro. The ADPro 2.5 readme describes the order in which each program/upgrade should be installed in order for all the loaders/savers/operators to work correctly.

[Matt_H]

I don't want to get too far off topic here, but, Pat, I assure you that ADPro was not renamed MorphPlus. I have the disks for both, and the MorphPlus disks are older. MorphPlus uses almost the same interface as ADPro and includes some - but not all - of ADPro's modules. MorphPlus is not an evolution of ADPro - it is a sister product.

[Matt_H]

Oh, they are definitely very closely related, absolutely. They share a lot of components, but not all. The "heart" of MorphPlus is the same as the "heart" of ADPro. All I am saying is that MorphPlus is not the "new name" for ADPro. They were sold as separate products.

Functionally, think of it this way:
ADPro = full image processing
MorphPlus = some image processing + morphing
or
MorphPlus = ADPro - some_modules + morphing

[Matt_H]

I use ADPro because that is what I used back in the day, so it brings back lots of great memories and I know how to use it.  But I know that ImageFX continued to be developed after ASDG no longer supported ADPro so it has more modern features.  Believe it or not my friend just brought his original ImageFX manual to our last user group meeting so I will be learning it as well.  I like learning from an actual manual - old school!

I actually have a project I want to do that requires batch processing so I have to see if ImageFX does it better.  With ADPro you need to make an AREXX script.  I forgot how to do that, but it will be fun to learn again!

There was an ADPro batch processing add-on. I think it was called ProControl. I've been looking for a copy for ages and haven't been able to find it!

[Matt_H]

I got these four ADF files from you, but is there a way to mount these ADF files as a virtual disk so I would have to use real 3.5" disks?

This will do it.

[Matt_H]

Thanks! No sure how this tool works, but it seems a command based tool.

DiskImageCtrl can be run as a command-line tool or as a Workbench/GUI program. The readme generally assumes command-line usage and suggests copying it to C:. I put it in SYS:Utilities instead and run it from Workbench. GUI operation needs MUI installed if you don't have it already.

(Incidentally, SYS:Utilities is still in the default command-line path, so it can still easily be run via shell or scripts if necessary.)