# Projects

The concept of projects was introduced to retain the products of the CCD frame calibration and reduction even when another data sets were processed; it allows one to revert back to the data that have been already processed without necessity of processing them again.

The project consists of:

- Project settings - a set of configuration parameters

- Image files - one image file per frame. These are created as copies of the source frames, they are modified during the reduction process by applying various transformations and calibration steps.

- Photometry files - one photometry file per frame. The photometry files contain the list of detected objects and their properites - coordinates, brightness, etc.

## Project settings

All configuration parameters that affect the data processing are retained in the project, allowing one to work with multiple configurations efficiently. When the projects settings are changed, the program updates the project. There is one exception to this rule - if the project is opened in the ‘read-only’ mode, the new settings are kept in the memory, but the project file is not changed.

When a new project is created, the initial project settings is loaded from a template, called the profile. The installation package comes with a set of predefined profiles, but the user can save his own ones. See the Profiles section for more information.

The description of the individual parameters can be found in this chaper.

## Project types

The project type was introduced to optimize the user interface when a specific task is performed - for example, when one is making a master flat frame, some of the tools, like the light curve dialog or the find variables dialog, can be kept from the menus and the toolbar, because they are not used in this context. The Project settings dialog is affected by the choice of the project type, too. The dialog presents only the parameters that are used in the selected task.

## Managing projects

The Muniwin program allows one:

- To create a new project - New project (dialog)

- To open an existing project - Open project (dialog)

- To rename the opened project using the Project settings dialog

- To make a copy of a project - Export project (dialog)

- To import data from old C-Munipack into a new project - Import project (dialog)

## Files and directories

Regarding the data storage, the program is not limited to any specific folder. The user’s folder for application data is supplied just as a default location (actual folder depends on the operating system). A user can choose any folder that suits him. There is no special configuration option that needs to be adjusted, the New project (dialog) allows one to choose any location for the new project and the Open project (dialog) also allows one to choose a project in any folder. The data can be stored on an external drive or shared using a network storage. In case of a network storage, the program takes uses a locking mechanism (see below) to ensure that two users does not make changes to a project at the same time.

Example of the default location on Windows:

`C:\Users\your name\Application data\C-Munipack-2.0\Projects`

A project consists of two components: a project file - it can be recognized by the extension ‘cmpack’, e.g. ‘GSC 2750 854.cmpack’ and a related folder that consists of the calibrated images, photometry files, etc. This folder has the same name as the project file plus the extension ‘-files’, e.g. ‘GSC 2750 854.cmpack-files’. These two (file + folder) must always go together. All references inside a project are relative, therefore you can move or copy a project or a bunch of projects just by moving or copying it’s folder to any location.

## Project sharing

When a project is opened more than once, the program detects this situation and notifies a user. It allows one to open the project in the ‘read-only’ mode; in this mode, it is allowed to make outputs, e.g. light curve, but operations that would change the data files are disallowed. The file-based locking mechanism used should work over the network in most situation, although this is not guaranteed in all configurations.

See also

Profiles, Project settings (dialog), New project (dialog), Load profile (dialog)