LaserBoy Multiplatform (for Windows) is finally here! FREE
James Lehman
Please let me know if you find any bugs.
http://akrobiz.com/laserboy/code/LaserBoy_04_27_2008.zip
It will never really be done, but it has never been any doner!
I still have a lot of work to do to integrate the wave player and screen
preview parts into this application. But this should give you a very good
idea of what LaserBoy is all about.
I have tried it in Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows XP Pro, Vista, Linux
with X and the Linux console with frame buffer.
Note the file LaserBoy.bat. This is how you set the screen resolution, so
you can make a window of any size you want.
Enjoy!
James. :o)
James Lehman
Cleaned it up a bit.
How about some feedback?
######################
I guess some instructions for a start would be good. I kinda' wanted it to
work like a Fischer-Price-Toy; you know... lots of pretty colors and things
to play around with. Anyway...
First of all, note the LaserBoy.bat file. Take a look at it in a text
editor. This is how you make the display window any size you want. It's OK
to make it wider than a 4 by 3 aspect ratio, so you can use your monitor's
current resolution for X and make Y a bit less, so that you have room to
grab the window from the title bar and move it around. So, if you run your
monitor at 1280 by 1024, you can put the numbers 1280 and 1000 in this file
and it will make the window as wide as your screen but a little shorter.
There MUST be at least one space between these two numbers and nothing else,
or it wont work. Don't double click on LaserBoy.exe! Double click on this
bat file. You can also go to a system prompt and initiate the program by
name in its own directory with these numbers as command line arguments. The
default for the compiled executable is 640 by 480.
The [Enter] key will toggle the help screen overlay on and off. This is true
even when you are in the two modes for drawing and moving stuff, only those
help screens are different.
The / and the ? will toggle frame set stats and frame stats overlays.
The view keys are press-and-hold. That is to say, the view changes as you
hold the keys down. You can impose the current view into the data by
choosing the 'v' key and hitting 1, 2 or 3. You can not impose a view that
would place vertices outside of the bounds of space. It won't ruin your
data. It just does nothing.
The screen motion keys, ` ~ - _ = + , start the motion in one click. Any key
after that will stop the motion and have no other effect.
Some keys are just to get you to a menu where you can pick a single key for
a choice.
In many cases, a key will change the contents of the current frame that is
in view. Holding the [Shift] key while hitting that same key will apply the
change to all of the frames in the set.
Once a transform or settings menu is entered and a choice is made, you are
no longer in that menu. You have to hit the single key that takes you back
to that menu to make another selection.
example: to turn on points and blanking in the display hit
u
1
u
2
The [Tab] key takes you to system settings, where you chose a single item
and then you are prompted to enter a new value. You will see the prompt and
be able to edit the line you are typing. It will only accept keys that make
sense; that is, numbers for numbers and numbers, letters and the _ for file
/ directory names. You must hit [Enter] to make it accept your completed
entry.
The keys 'k' and 'l' put you into a mode that you must [Esc] to get out of.
There are also press-and-hold keys in these modes that size, spin and move
stuff as you hold and see it happen.
Choosing 'i' or 'o' for file IO presents some different options depending on
what you want to do. Names of files are listed over the palettes. So are
names of frame and frame set effects. These appear as needed. All file IO is
done in the same directory as the executable file LaserBoy.exe. You will see
folders like 'frames', 'dxf', 'bmp', 'waves', etc. This is where you can put
files you get from other places so that they are available to open in
LaserBoy and it is where you will find the results of your creative efforts
within LaserBoy to share with other laser enthusiasts. When you apply a
frame or frame set effect it is in the file output menu because it produces
a file of the name of the applied effect. You must be aware that those names
will always be over-written by any future use of those named effects AND
that in order to see the effect you must open the ILDA data file (of the
name of the effect) that was created by applying the effect. In other words,
if you pick a frame and apply the 'spin' effect, you must open spin.ild to
see it and save it to another name to prevent it from being over-written the
next time you use the 'spin' effect.
There are two palettes showing. One is the palette of the current frame and
the other is a possible target palette. You can perform "palette transforms"
that can convert the frame palette to the target palette in a variety of
ways. The frame might not have a palette in the case that it is true color
(24-bit). This will be indicated. When drawing or rendering, the color comes
from either the frame's palette or in the case of a true color frame, the
target palette.
It is a bit brittle right now, in that you can get lost in a couple of
missed key strokes, but you can't really mess anything up; at least not what
is saved to the hard drive. Usually an [Esc] gets you out of whatever you
are in, including the whole program.
It takes a minute to get used to it, but once you memorize some of the keys,
you can fly through it and not even look at the keyboard.
It's kind-of-like a multiplatform video game, except you never lose!
I hope you all realize, this is quite a big deal for me. I've been working
on this project for a long time and now, finally, everyone in the world can
see it. I hope it makes a big difference in the way laser vector art works
on planet Earth.
Hey, It's FREE !!! Take a minute to check it out. I'm not asking for
anything, but I sure like to get feedback.
DougD
>I hope you all realize, this is quite a big deal for me. I've been working
>on this project for a long time and now, finally, everyone in the world can
>see it. I hope it makes a big difference in the way laser vector art works
>on planet Earth.
>
>Hey, It's FREE !!! Take a minute to check it out. I'm not asking for
>anything, but I sure like to get feedback.
>
>
Well, the chances of me ever using it are fairly remote, but I would at
least like to give a big THANKS for your effort in all the time you've
put in on this! People that do these kinda projects do me the great
favor of reminding me that not everyone has lost their mind and
gone over to the dark side! And it's a VGT (Very Good Thang)
for providing the folks just starting out with an alternative to
having to mortgage their homes to get into laser animation,
etc.
Now, have you ever though about converting this into
laser marking software?!....
thanks again!
D.
And an eternal thanks out to Sam as well for his continuing
work!!
James Sweet
"James Lehman" <ja...@akrobiz.com> wrote in message
news:4816a2b8$0$7033$4c36...@roadrunner.com...
> http://akrobiz.com/laserboy/code/LaserBoy_04_28_2008.zip
>
> Cleaned it up a bit.
>
> How about some feedback?
>
> ######################
>
The instructions will be helpful, I fiddled around with it a little but
didn't really have any clue what I was doing, saved your post so I can refer
to it later.
At any rate it looks very impressive, now maybe some day I'll have some
hardware to drive with it.
James Lehman
> least like to give a big THANKS for your effort in all the time you've
> put in on this! People that do these kinda projects do me the great
> favor of reminding me that not everyone has lost their mind and
> gone over to the dark side! And it's a VGT (Very Good Thang)
> for providing the folks just starting out with an alternative to
> having to mortgage their homes to get into laser animation,
> etc.
> Now, have you ever though about converting this into
> laser marking software?!....
>
> thanks again!
>
> D.
> And an eternal thanks out to Sam as well for his continuing
> work!!
>
>
Hi Doug.
"Laser marking software" ?
Do you mean using it to drive a hot laser that cuts?
Why not?
Is this typically done with galvos and mirrors?
LaserBoy reads and writes DXF so getting your CAD drawings into it is
already done. It also gives you very good control over energy per time per
area. One of the next big things I want to add to LaserBoy is the ability to
read and write DXF shape files. These are like font sets for CAD. There are
millions of them out there for free. This is also about the only place you
will find true single stroke fonts; presicely what we all need in the world
of laser vector art.
James. :o)
James Sweet
>
> "Laser marking software" ?
> Do you mean using it to drive a hot laser that cuts?
> Why not?
>
> Is this typically done with galvos and mirrors?
>
>
I think he was referring to etching serial numbers and such on things, that
is typically done with galvos, though I have few details.
DougD
>Hi Doug.
>
>"Laser marking software" ?
>Do you mean using it to drive a hot laser that cuts?
>Why not?
>Is this typically done with galvos and mirrors?
YUP! There are typically two types, the flatbeds that are just big heavy duty
plotters of sorts, and then the galvo type which uses software similar to your
vector display. You can get a sample from folks like American Laserware
who make ProLase, one of the better or best galvo marking packages.
In fact, Prolase has a "lasershow" mode where it can run your galvos
as fast as they can go, instead of the typical inches per second. The big
differences that I can see is that marking software is setup for high
positional accuracy over the scan field, and also very accurate control
over laser power, with setup's for both q-switch yag power and pulse
control, and the PWM type power modulation used in Synrad and other
Co2's.
>
>LaserBoy reads and writes DXF so getting your CAD drawings into it is
>already done. It also gives you very good control over energy per time per
>area. One of the next big things I want to add to LaserBoy is the ability to
>read and write DXF shape files. These are like font sets for CAD. There are
>millions of them out there for free. This is also about the only place you
>will find true single stroke fonts; presicely what we all need in the world
>of laser vector art.
Well, being able to read DXF's goes a long way for marking, about half
of what I used to do originated as dxf or Acad formats, the other half
being graphic's format such as jpg and tiff. Raster marking gets a bit
tricky as you have to convert grey scale into the modulation schemes
used by YAG's and Co2's. And then some basic image manipulation
such as resizing, rotation. As for fonts, most markers use either
Truetype or some variation of shape file fonts typical of what's used in
Acad.
I would check out Prolase if this is something you might want to
take a crack at, it has all the features that I could dream of for marker
software (no, don't work for them or get any $$ for endorsing). In fact,
you could probably make yourself some $$ if you come up with something
that works well that you could sell for under $500, Prolase starts around
$1500 and goes up from there, and is dongle protected.
Again, thanks for all the great work!!
D.
James Lehman
with LaserBoy will most likely cure you of that!
No, seriously. It is quite meticulous and difficult to learn, but if you do,
you will know more about the artform that you ever imagined. You can
literally stick your fingers into the computer through the keys and touch
your vector art.
I think the code is kind-of fun to look at too. Once I get it fairly
debugged over the next couple of weeks, I want to print out the whole thing
and paste it together like a poster. I want to see all of it in one view and
see just how big it is!
James. :o)