running multiple copies of SF Launcher for Mac OS X users

[Gregory C]

if you're using OS X Jaguar/Panther, you will notice that you cannot personalise the name of the SF Launcher application without getting launch errors.

if you're like me and have more than one copy of SF, you would probably like to have them running at the same time, allowing one copy of SF Ai to scan a roll of film while another copy of SF HDR is processing HDR files. here's how to do it.


1. you will need multiple copies of the SilverFast folder.

after each installation of SilverFast using the SilverFast Installer, move and/or rename the installed SilverFast folder (installed by default in the /Applications folder). SF will work no matter where you place the folder, even if it is on an external HD.

personally, my copies of SilverFast are placed at:

root/? my apps ?/SilverFast ?/

I have three copies of the installed SilverFast folder inside the SilverFast ? folder, each named as:

SilverFast HDR ?
SilverFast Nikon ?
SilverFast Microtek ?

(several months ago, I tried running the duplicate copies of SF Launcher from within the same folder. from memory, it didn't work because they were trying to access the same preference resources. keeping each copy of SF Launcher in its own folder solved that problem. now that the latest version of SF Launcher saves its preference file in the user's Preferences folder, I feared that the same problem would pop up again. fortunately though, everything seems to be working fine. at this very moment, I have both SilverFast HDR and SilverFast Nikon running.)


2. rename each of the SF Launcher apps.

1. rename the SF Launcher app to anything you wish. for this example, "SilverFast HDR".
2. control-click the SF Launcher app and choose Show Package Contents from the contextual menu.
3. within the new Finder window, rename the Alias file to the new name: ie, "SilverFast HDR".
4. open the Contents folder.
5. open the "Info.plist" file with the Property List Editor application (located in /Applications/Utilities/).
6. click on the Root property's toggle to expand it.
7. in the CFBundleName line, double-click on the "SF Launcher" value and change it to the new name; ie, "SilverFast HDR".
8. close the file and save changes when asked.
9. back in the Finder, open the MacOS folder.
10. rename the "SF Launcher" file to the new name; ie, "SilverFast HDR".
11. close all the Package windows.

launch your new launcher app. everything should be fine. as an added bonus, you will notice that the new name is also used in the Application menu and in the Dock (and in LiteSwitch too).


3. updating SilverFast.

with all the changes you made to SF Launcher, you wouldn't want to do it every time you updated SilverFast. the way around it is to:

1. keep a copy of your new SF Launcher app in a safe place; eg, the Desktop.
2. install the updated version of SilverFast.
3. rename and/or move the newly installed SilverFast folder and replace your working copy with it.
4. open the newly installed SilverFast folder.
5. trash the SF Launcher app file.
6. copy your new SF Launcher app into the SilverFast folder.

you're done.

if Lasersoft updates the SF Launcher app, you should use the updated version of course, and you'll need to redo all the changes above.

there is a big advantage to Lasersoft putting the preferences into the Preferences folder other than allowing user-specific preferences. your SilverFast preferences are not overwritten or lost every time the SilverFast folder is updated or re-installed.

versions used during this writing:
Mac OS X 10.3.2
SF Launcher 2.0.5
SF HDR 6.2.0r3
SF Ai NikonM 6.2.0r3

[tvld]

test

[Erik N]

Would this somehow also solve the problems I ran into today, when trying to run 5 different copies of SF on the same G5 with 10.3?
For demo purposes I will have to run no less than 5 different scanners on this poor G5. One of them with SF LE the others with SF Ai, plus one copy of HDR. At the moment I'm slightly confused, since I have to enter new S/N, more or less every time I launch SF (any copy).
Any tips on how to solve this?

Best regards

Erik N

[Gregory C]

I'm not sure about the s/n problem.

running multiple scanners on the G5 at the same time may not be possible because the FireWire interface doesn't allow it. I've tried running both my Nikon film scanner and Microtek flatbed scanner at the same time and SF simply cannot see both of them even with separate Launcher apps.

I can however run the scanner and use HDR at the same time.

regards
Gregory

[Gregory C]

An easier way to create independent SF Launcher apps

I've just discovered an easier way to create independent SF Launcher apps if you're using OS X. Here is the revised version of step 2 in the first message above:

2. Create and rename the SF Launcher apps.

1. control-click the SF Launcher app and choose Show Package Contents from the contextual menu. This will open a new Finder window with two items in it.
2. within the new Finder window, open the Contents folder and then the MacOS folder.
3. Within the MacOS folder, you'll see the OS X version of the SF Launcher app. Move it to where the original SF Launcher app was and close the window that Finder in response to Show Package Contents.
4. Trash the original SF Launcher app.
5. Rename the new SF Launcher app to anything you wish.

The only disadvantage of this method that I can see is that the SF Launcher icon will not be as pretty as it would have been if the whole Package was used because it's not a full 128 x 128 icon.