HankP

Thx. I've resized Layers often, as I described above. Never even used History, though I should probably study it.

Thanks. For some reason, the context clues when hovering over the icons was not showing (f8, etc), but now it is again. That was the first place I checked. Weird. I cannot seem to resize the AuxWindows. I take my cursor to the corners of the AuxWin, but the pointer does not change and I cannot drag to a different size. Is there another method, that I am missing? Thanks again.

I run a multi-monitor setup, and tonight I got what I THOUGHT was a brilliant idea. Since I work with PDN in my largest and best monitor to get the largest pixel-count on my canvas, why not give myself more "art" room by moving the various auxiliary "windows" (Tools, Layers, Colors) to other monitors The entire MONITOR would be devoted to PDN!!!! This seemed especially clever because the monitor just to the right of the prime monitor is mounted in portrait orientation, which would allow me to see more Layers and make it far easier to re-order Layers (no need to move a layer 16 times, if you can see 4x as many Layers and only have to move it four times, right? Anyway, the Layers window and the Tools window do a very nice job of staying where I put them, and it really does improve workflow, but ...... The Color window/tool randomly decides to move upward, such that only about half of it remains on the screen. Everything above the Palette is off-screen. Since the top "row" is not visible, it is not even possible for me to drag it back where I want it. I only way that I have found to get it back somewhere that I can use it ... is to shut-down PDN. Is this a known issue? Is there a workaround? For instance, is there a way to move these "windows" with keystrokes, rather than the mouse, since I cannot get my cursor to that top row of the partially-offscreen "window?" ETA: Since those auxiliary windows are no longer blocking my canvas, is there a way to make them bigger and/or to make their CONTENT larger and thus easier to read?

Weird. I have Win11 configured the same way, with the full Taskbar visible on all 4 screens. No matter which of the 4 Taskbars I use, PDN always opens on the PrimaryMonitor. ETA: I did more research and troubleshooting, and I have found some strange results for PDN with multiple monitors. I always run PDN in Fullscreen. As such, it is always in Fullscreen when I close it. It always opens in the PrimaryMonitor, the next time I run the program. BUT my research led me to play with the Windows RestoreDown icon (top right of the window, second from the rightmost). If I hit the RestoreDown icon (I had no idea that was the name of that Icon. I have always internally just called it the FullscreenToggle) and thus run PDN in something LESS than Fullscreen, the result is different. If I close PDN while it is running in a smaller (less than Fullscreen) Window, it remembers the last Monitor used and opens on that (and in the same size/location Window) the next time I open the program. So, the rule seems to be "if you close PDN while running in Fullscreen, the next usage will open on the Primary Monitor, but if you close PDN while in something-less-than-Fullscreen, the location is remembered and used the next time you open PDN." SO, if I want PDN to re-open in the correct Window (and not chase all over the screen with the cursor), the sequence at closing is: WinKey-DownArrow (to reduce PDN to less-than-Fullscreen) Alt-F4 (to close the program) Then, when I open the program the next time, it is on the correct Monitor, but small, so: WinKey-UpArrow (to return to Fullscreen) You may not have solved my problem for me, but you got me thinking in the right direction. Thanks.

I run a four-monitor setup with Win11, and I cannot seem to get PDN to remember which monitor to use when I open it from the icon pinned on my Taskbar. I have tried putting the icon on the Desktop instead, and that does not work either. In either case, PDN always opens on my PrimaryMonitor ("main display" in Win11-speak). All my other apps/programs remember location just fine. Yes, I have "Remember Window Locations" toggled in Settings-System-Display-MultipleDisplays. Any ideas?

Nope. I mostly find myself wanting to do this toggle on Fill (Paintbucket). I am (was) familiar with using Ctrl on ColorPicker. I use that quite a lot, actually. Bummer that there is no shortcut for that, but muchas gracias for the info!

Is there a keystroke command (individual key or something in conjunction with control or alt or win or something) to toggle on-the-fly between the two Sampling modes (Layer and Image), as opposed to having to move your Pointer to the Toolbar every time you want to toggle back and forth? By analogy, something like hitting "S" repeatedly to toggle amongst the 4 Selection modes or hitting "O" on-the-fly to toggle between Lines and Shapes? If not, the "A" key seems to be available.😁 Yes, I have checked the documentation, and (no) I did not find the answer there. Of course, I may be blind. Thx

Update. two words. Greased Lightning. PDN with 64gb of RAM runs like Usain Bolt. I had not realized how laggy the app had gotten as I allowed my canvas sizes and number of layers to increase incrementally. Right now, I have two files open with a canvas of about 30,000 x 24,000 pixels and two dozen Layers. PDN is not batting an eye. Task Manager says I am barely using 2/3 of the RAM, even with those two outrageous files. (They are very temporary)

Could you post a picture taken WITHOUT the patterned paper under the receipt? Preferably, the receipt sitting on top of several sheets of bright white paper.

Great info! Many thanks

I meant to ask this question earlier, but forgot. Does this apply to ALL Layers, or only to visible Layers. In other words, is PDN still actively processing Layers that are not even in use at the time? (Unimportant Corollary Question: If so, why?) I ask this because I have a tendency to us real-world maps as a lower-level Layer for tracing my (simplified) maps on higher Layers. After I think I am finished with a real-world map Layer, I have a tendency to toggle it "off" and to then drop it down below an all-White background Layer and leave it there ... in case I want to come back an use it later to add something to my active map Layers. Since I have rotated, resized and otherwise manipulated the real-world map Layer, I don't want to lose all that work, which (sometimes) can amount to hours of work. If these (probably now extraneous) invisible and inactive Layers are eating materially into processing time (and RAM?), I may want to start moving them into a parallel file and deleting them from the main map file ... to better utilize resources. It is a small hassle to bring that Layer BACK into the main map, if I want to use something else from that map in the new file, but if it frees material amounts of hardware resources it may be worth that effort. (BTW, Intel i7 processor) Thanks.

I did. I may not understand exactly how PDN utilizes memory or CPU time, but I have been building my own computers for more than 30 years. I can handle the simple hardware issues. (chuckle) Thank you for the follow-up and the advice upthread.

Update: I just decided to order two 32gb sticks. RAM is cheap, and having "too much" won't hurt anything. With 64gb, I should be able to Paint.net the heck out of my maps.

So, a Layer uses CPU time, even if it isn't doing anything? It seems counter-intuitive until you think of it like a programmer, at which point I suppose it makes sense. Thus, use as many Layers as necessary to get to the point of having the job done on one task, then when that task is complete merge them to speed CPU processing time and move to the next task? That is hard for me, because I am constantly tweaking, but I suppose I can train myself. (self-deprecating chuckle) Can you provide any more info on whether there is a point of diminishing returns, where adding more RAM does not really improve performance much? From what you said, I suppose that each Layer is eating processing time, regardless of whether you have 4gb of RAM or 32gb. The effect of Layers on processing time is essentially constant, as to the amount of RAM? But set that aside for a moment. If I DO have (for example) 100 Layers, do I get any real, incremental benefit in performance between 32gb of RAM and 64gb of RAM? Just an "old guy ponders life" point, but I remember when we discussed RAM in terms of KILObytes rather than GIGAbytes and storage in MEGAbytes rather than TERRAbytes. I remember how excited I was for my first 10mb hard drive on an IBM PC-XT.

Thanks much. I suspected that it was more a RAM issue than a storage issue, but I wanted to be thorough. You are right. RAM is cheap. I used to build all my own desktop computers, and it was easy to add RAM as I needed it. I've not built a desktop in a while and use an HP Pavilion laptop as my primary. The thing is so thin that it never occurred to me that I COULD add RAM. I will look into that possibility immediately. I have literally hundreds of layers, and it IS getting cumbersome. DAMN but I wish someone would complete the task of that upgrade to group/folder Layers (hint, hint). Is there a point of diminishing returns on adding RAM for PDN? I have only 12gb currently, and it is more than adequate for absolutely everything that I do ... except for PDN. I can essentially triple the RAM to 32gb for about $70. I can go to 64gb for $120 (which is fine), but will going that high provide me with any real incremental benefit in using PDN, vis-a-vis 32gb? ( I can even get up to 128gb, but would have trouble justifying $600 for RAM alone, just to speed-up one software app, LoL). As an aside, Task Manager says that PDN is using about 3gb of memory right now, which is a TINY fraction of what should be use per THIS FORMULA that I found on the forum: (Width x Height x 4) x (Layers +2) Thanks again for the advice.