Is there a way to display the history stack of the previous editing to an image when it is opened in RT again? I just discovered that it could have been copied to the clipboard so that I could have saved it in a document. I’d like to go back and get the history from the first, or prior, editing session.
I don’t think you can view the edit history after you leave the editing session. Only the current settings are saved.
Just tried opening it with Editor2, the text app that comes with xplorer2. It opened as a text file. So I have the history, only there is a lot more information there than what shows in the history stack. Have to wade through it.
The history is not saved, only the current state of all tools is saved.
http://rawpedia.rawtherapee.com/Sidecar_Files_-_Processing_Profiles
All right. Next time I will save the history to the clipboard. Thanks for the answers.
I wonder why it doesn’t save that information. Seems like it shouldn’t be that costly. Maybe they should develop the software further.
Oh really? 
I also don’t really know why we don’t store the information, but it has been like this for a long time and despite numerous requests, nobody has done something significant about it.
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So, the program is free. OpenSource.
They are considering it 
however, there are a number of issues:
. implementing this feature means to mess with the way data is saved in the pp3 files (the sidecar files that keep the things that were done to the file in the past) and that may compromise backward compatibility
. the notion of creating a new standard pp4 has been brought forward but exactly how to go about it is still being debated (from my understanding), but there is intention to implement it in the future
. RT has many features that need improving/finalizing/fixing and time for considering things like pp4 is scarce
Does ART not let you keep multiple snapshots between editing sessions. Thinking on that you would think it could be coded to RT… I’m going from memory…maybe I am wrong
I get around this issue by frequently saving settings into new profiles, but when there are a lot of its, I start to get confused, even if I specify the file name with the prefix of the “save version” number.
I am confused by the expressed need for the “history stack” to be saved with the output; and, if the output is opened and edited again, is it necessary that the previous edits are kept and added to by the new ones, etc.?
In other words, would the aforesaid “stack” keep growing each time for succeeding versions of the same image?
Don’t forget that the raw file never gets altered, so the history stack in the pp3 provides the instructions to get you from the raw file to the image you created previously. If you didn’t have the history stack, you would need to do all your previous work again.
I don’t think the editing history per se is all that important with RT because the pipeline is fixed. The final result does not depend upon the order in which you adjust the various modules. It strikes me that what would be more useful is a side panel that indicates the various parameters that have been adjusted from their “default” values. That information is currently available from the pp3 file and default preferences and in principle could be made available via coding effort. I would like to see such a feature but since I am unable / unwilling to code it myself, I am hesitant to request it.
I was looking at the arp sidecars in ART and they would have that information via snapshots. They are stored between sessions. Currently selecting the snapshot sets the image to the edit at the time that is was created but it just adds a line in the current history saying something like snapshot activated. I suppose you could have it setup in preferences that activating the snapshot populated the history panel but that wouldn’t be a history it would be more like active modules… I think what might benefit RT would be the implementation of snapshots as it is in ART… and if it does work that way in RT now then I apologize but I didn’t think they were saved between sessions…nevertheless if you could activate a snapshot using them like versions and it would update an active modules tab you could easily see what modules were active and applied for a particular version of an edit…Right now you need to go through all the tabs in both ART and RT to find what modules are active. Again I don’t use either as much as I use DT so I might be missing something but I think RT would really benefit from an active modules tab to help assess and review edits more efficiently rather than going tab to tab to see what is active …
As far as I know, the .pp3 does not contain “the history stack”.
In other words, if the history stack shows a sharpness changed to say 3 then later changed to 5 and later yet changed to 4, the .pp3 will not show the values of 3 and 5, only the last value of sharpness (4).
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Its just a list of all the modules and they get flagged as enabled or not… those enabled might have modified values or may be at the defaults… those showing as false for enabled show the default values I would guess but then again maybe they could be altered and then the module was subsequently disabled and so maybe the modified values are retained Given all the settings I think it might often be hard to tell there … In any case, I am not sure why you need to list all the modules and settings for non-active modules when it is not associated with a history at all, It seems like extra information in the sidecar that doesn’t help much… but I could be missing a nuance for sure.
Just now playing in RT 5.8 and had ‘Edge Sharpening’ “Enabled” at the top of the History list. Then made some more edits and then disabled 'Edge Sharpening in it’s Tab.
‘Edge Sharpening’ promptly moved to the bottom of the History list and it’s attribute changed to “Disabled”.
FWIW.
A bit off-topic but I suppose we all know that a .pp3 can be opened and edited in any normal text editor then saved or “saved as” …
Thinking on it people might apply a profile with modules set to their desired settings but disabled at least initially and for some images they would be activated at some point and maybe not on some others. So you would need to keep that information and of course activating and deactivating a module to gauge the impact would need to be stored…so lots of reasons I guess for that info to be in the sidecar… I still think an active module tab would be nice to have when coming back to edits