Most of RoboGEO's functionality can be automated through the use of command line parameters. These command line parameters can consist of file or folder paths (like project files) and switches (like /a) that tell RoboGEO what to do when started. For example, the command line below tells the program to load the project file named 'MyProject.rgw' and to stamp all of the images:

C:\Program Files\RoboGEO\robogeo.exe /p:C:\MyFolder\MyProject.rgw /s

In addition to command line parameters, you can also specify various program options that enhance and extend the program's ability to be automated. These options fall under two broad categories. One controls the program's behavior when automated (those settings have names that begin with "CmdLine"). The other allows you to interface with third party applications (those settings have names that begin with "Auto").

There are two ways to specify the robogeo.exe command line. One is the normal way of appending it to the end of the robogeo.exe path (like above). The other is to specify the command line in a file named CmdLine.txt, located in the same folder as robogeo.exe. CmdLine.txt should contain one line of ASCII text. Upon starting, robogeo.exe will look for CmdLine.txt and if it exists, it will read it and treat it as if it were the actual command line. This overrides anything that may actually exist on the normal command line. For example, if CmdLine.txt contains only (without quotes) "/a" and if it exists in the same folder as robogeo.exe, RoboGEO will be started as "robogeo.exe /a". CmdLine.txt allows you to control RoboGEO's behavior from a third party application and/or to override what may already exist on the normal command line.

RoboGEO always saves your settings so that you don't have to enter the same information over and over again. For example, if you specify a new pattern when renaming files, that pattern will become the default one the next time you use that feature. The automation features take advantage of this and that's why you don't have to specify additional parameters when you include a specific output operation on the command line - the program will simply use what was used previously. It's just as if you manually loaded the form and clicked the button yourself. For that reason, you should manually perform any operation before you attempt to do it from the command line.

If a command line contains an apostrophe as the first character, the entire command line will be ignored.

In order to perform more than one operation on a group of images (like renaming them before exporting to Google Earth) you must be editing your original images. If EditOriginalImages is False, you can only perform one export operation per session.

The 'AUTO', 'WARN', and 'END' command line parameters in v5.1 and earlier are no longer supported, but you can specify equivalent ones using the new syntax (/a, /z, /i:, and /t:GPS) and by specifying the appropriate preference setting.

Listed below are all of the available command line parameters along with some examples.

Command Line Parameters (Input)

ProjectFilePath - Load a project file. Enclose the path in quotes if it contains spaces. Note that there are no command line switches - just the file path. RoboGEO Project files have a .RGW file extension and the installation program automatically associates them with the RoboGEO program. If running in automode (/a) and if the project file was created with an older version of the program, it will be automatically converted.

C:\Program Files\RoboGEO\robogeo.exe C:\MyProjects\hike.rgw

ImageFilePath - Load an image file. Enclose the path in quotes if it contains spaces. Note that there are no command line switches - just the file path. If you specify the CmdLineImgLoadGeocoder preference setting, RoboGEO will automatically launch the Google Earth geocoder so that you can quickly geocode the image.

C:\Program Files\RoboGEO\robogeo.exe C:\MyImages\Picture.jpg

TracklogFilePath - Load a tracklog file. Enclose the path in quotes if it contains spaces. Note that there are no command line switches - just the file path. If you specify the CmdLineTracklogExportGoogleEarth preference setting, RoboGEO will automatically load the tracklog in Google Earth for viewing. You can specify any tracklog format that the program supports (GPX, SHP, NMEA, DNR Garmin, OziExplorer PLT, etc.).

C:\Program Files\RoboGEO\robogeo.exe C:\MyTracklogs\tracklog.gpx

/p:ProjectFilePath - Load the specified project file. Enclose the path in quotes if it contains spaces. Including the command line switch (/p) along with the file path allows you to specify additional command line parameters.

C:\Program Files\RoboGEO\robogeo.exe /p:"C:\Project Files\flight.rgw"

/i:ImageFilePath - Load the specified image file. Enclose the path in quotes if it contains spaces. Including the command line switch (/i) along with the file path allows you to specify additional command line parameters.

C:\Program Files\RoboGEO\robogeo.exe /i:C:\folder\image.jpg

/i:ImageFolderPath - Load all images in the specified folder. Enclose the path in quotes if it contains spaces. Including the command line switch (/i) along with the file path allows you to specify additional command line parameters.

C:\Program Files\RoboGEO\robogeo.exe /i:"C:\My Images\"

/t:TracklogFilePath - Load the specified tracklog file. Enclose the path in quotes if it contains spaces. Including the command line switch (/t) along with the file path allows you to specify additional command line parameters.

C:\Program Files\RoboGEO\robogeo.exe /t:"C:\My Tracklogs\trip.nmea"

/t:TracklogFolderPath - Load all supported tracklog files in the specified folder. Enclose the path in quotes if it contains spaces. Including the command line switch (/t) along with the file path allows you to specify additional command line parameters.

C:\Program Files\RoboGEO\robogeo.exe /t:C:\MyTracklogs\

/t:GPS - Download the tracklog from the connected Garmin GPS. Note that "GPS" (without quotes) is literal and that you don't have to specify a COM port or whether it's a USB device - the program determines all of that automatically.

C:\Program Files\RoboGEO\robogeo.exe /t:GPS

/t:IPTC - Get location information from the IPTC headers. Note that "IPTC" (without quotes) is literal and that you don't have to specify any of the parameters that you normall specify on the user input form - the program remembers and uses what you used last. For that reason, you should do this operation manually before trying to automate it.

C:\Program Files\RoboGEO\robogeo.exe /t:IPTC

/d:DictationFile - Load the specified dictation file. Enclose the path in quotes if it contains spaces.

C:\Program Files\RoboGEO\robogeo.exe /d:C:\Dictation\sound.mp3

/d:DictationFolder - Load all dictation files in the current folder. Enclose the path in quotes if it contains spaces.

C:\Program Files\RoboGEO\robogeo.exe /d:"C:\Dictation Files\"

Command Line Parameters (Output)

/a - Start the program in automode. In automode no user input is required - everything happens automatically.

In automode all activity is logged to a disk file. Unless you specify the actual path using CmdLineAutoModeLogFilePath, the log file will be saved as C:\Documents and Settings\user\My Documents\RoboGEO\AutoMode.log. Note that there are preference settings that allow you to archive log file when they become too big.

In automode there are times when the program must make decisions for you. For example, when exporting Google Maps, it needs to know the output folder name. When confronted with such a decision, the program always saves files in the default folder for a given process (the folder that you last used) with a file or folder name of AutoModeOutput plus the proper extension. If a previous AutoModeOutput file exists, it'll be overwritten.

If the program encounters an unexpected error or any other condition that prevents further execution, the processing will stop and the condition will be recorded to the log file.

When the program is started in automode, you can cancel it by clicking on the status bar at the bottom of the main screen. This is a 2 second opportunity, so be quick.

/z - Automatically end the program when it completes the processing of the other command line parameters. If a project file is currently opened, it'll be saved.

/n - Rename the image files per the EXIF and per your current settings.

/r - Redate the image files per your current settings.

/s - Stamp the images per the options specified in the preferences.

/e - Write the location data to the EXIF per the options specified in the preferences.

/v - Reverse geocode the images and write the location data back to the image's IPTC headers.

/m - Export to Google Maps. If you're running in automode (/a) the files will be saved in a folder named 'AutoModeOutput' under 'My Documents'. The complete path is typically 'C:\Documents and Settings\user\My Documents\RoboGEO\GoogleMaps\AutoModeOutput\'. Set CmdLineAutoModeLaunchGoogleMaps to True if you want to automatically launch the output in Windows Explorer upon completion.

/g - Export to Google Earth. Set CmdLineAutoModeLaunchGoogleEarth to True if you want to automatically launch the output in Google Earth upon completion.

/f - Export to Flickr. To use this option in automode, you must first add a Flickr account and then set FlickrDefaultUserSelectUponLoad to True. Also, note that Flickr requires you to manually confirm newly uploaded photos from their website. RoboGEO automatically loads this page after it uploads the photos. Because of that, RoboGEO always performs Flickr uploads after it has done everything else.

/h - Export a shapefile. Set CmdLineAutoModeLaunchShapeFile to True if you want to automatically launch the output in Windows Explorer upon completion.

/c - Export a DXF file. Set CmdLineAutoModeLaunchDxfFile to True if you want to automatically launch the output in the Windows program associated with the DXF file extension upon completion.

/b - Export a MapPoint CSV file. Set CmdLineAutoModeLaunchMapPointFile to True if you want to automatically launch the output in the Windows program associated with the CSV file extension upon completion.

/x - Export a GPX file. Set CmdLineAutoModeLaunchGpxFile to True if you want to automatically launch the output in the Windows program associated with the GPX file extension upon completion.

/w - Export HTML. Set CmdLineAutoModeLaunchHtmlFolder to True if you want to automatically launch the export folder in the associated Windows program upon completion.

Command Line Parameters (Configuration)

/defaults - Resets all configuration options to their default values.

/j:ConfigFile - Load the specified Config File. Enclose the path in quotes if it contains spaces. The path can be either a local path or a URL.

C:\Program Files\RoboGEO\robogeo.exe /j:C:\Folder\CustomConfigFile.rcf
C:\Program Files\RoboGEO\robogeo.exe /defaults /j:C:\Folder\CustomConfigFile.rcf
C:\Program Files\RoboGEO\robogeo.exe /j:http://www.yourdomain.com/config.rcf

Examples

For clarity purposes, as needed, the examples below are shown on multiple lines. Your command lines should be on a single line with space-delimited parameters.

Start RoboGEO normally without any command line parameters.

C:\Program Files\RoboGEO\robogeo.exe

Start RoboGEO and set all of the preference settings to their default values.

C:\Program Files\RoboGEO\robogeo.exe /defaults

Start RoboGEO and load all of the images in a folder.

C:\Program Files\RoboGEO\robogeo.exe "C:\Your Camera\Output\Folder\"

Start RoboGEO as if there were no command line parameters (note the leading apostrophe which cancels the entire command line).

C:\Program Files\RoboGEO\robogeo.exe '"C:\Your Camera\Output\Folder\"

Start RoboGEO, load all of the images in a folder, download the tracklog from a Garmin GPS, and then geocode all of the images.

C:\Program Files\RoboGEO\robogeo.exe /i:C:\Images\ /t:GPS

Start RoboGEO, load all of the images from a folder, load a GPX tracklog file, and then geocode all of the images.

C:\Program Files\RoboGEO\robogeo.exe
/i:"C:\My Images\"
/t:C:\Tracklogs\trip.gpx

Start RoboGEO, load all of the images from a folder, load all of the supported tracklogs from a folder, and then geocode all of the images.

C:\Program Files\RoboGEO\robogeo.exe
/i:C:\Images\
/t:"K:\GPS\Removable\Compact Flash Card\"

Start RoboGEO, load all of the images from a folder, download the tracklog from a Garmin GPS, load all of the dictation files from a folder, geocode all of the images, and associate an audio file with each.

C:\Program Files\RoboGEO\robogeo.exe
/i:"C:\Your Camera\Normal\Output\Folder\"
/t:GPS
/d:"C:\Your USB Compatible\Dictation\Recorder\Folder\"

Start RoboGEO, load a project file, export a shapefile, and then end. Do everything automatically without user input and record all activity to a log file.

C:\Program Files\RoboGEO\robogeo.exe
/p:C:\Project\File\Created\With\Third\Party\Custom\App\ProjectFile.rgw
/h /z /a

Start RoboGEO, load all of the images from a folder, download the tracklog from a Garmin GPS, load all of the dictation files from a folder, geocode all of the images, associate an audio file with each image, rename the images, redate the images, stamp the images, write the location data to each image's EXIF, export a shapefile, and then end. Do everything automatically without user input and record all activity to a log file.

C:\Program Files\RoboGEO\robogeo.exe
/i:C:\ImageFolder
/t:GPS
/d:C:\DictationFileFolder\
/n /d /s /e /h /z /a