When we have multiple mounts (eg. one permanent, one mobile) and multiple telescopes then the necessary number of equipment profiles grows exponentially.
At that point if we make a small adjustment eg. in the autofocus parameter of one scope, we have to do the same change in all profiles that use this scope.
It would save a lot of time if we could save partial profiles, with some options set and some options not set, for example one for plate solving, one for each mount (driver, time to slew,…) , one for each telescope (focal length, aperture, …) and then inherit them in the final equipment profile and directly set in the profile only the missing parameters which would depend on combinations.
This way, if we need to change something (eg. focusing parameters) in one scope, we change its parameter set and the change would be done automatically to all equipment profiles which inherit this scope’s profile.
I agree with the need to have a more flexible way of building equipment profiles. I ran into this same exact problem (and a similar idea for a solution) last week when I decided to “clean up” my growing collection of profiles for multiple sets of equipment.
A class system, based on the tabs of the Equipment Profile form, which would be templates for each equipment grouping would be nice, especially if the classes (and attributes for each were) more accurately defined (is telescope an attribute of a mount or a separate class of equipment?).
I realize this is probably the lowest of low priorities for the SGP developers, they have much bigger fish to fry, but it would be nice to tuck away in the Ver 5.0 folder.
Regards,
BobT
I would love to see this as well.