Noob Help - Software for Laser

**cheekyadam** · 06-15-2015, 09:19

Wish I'd seen this thread before purchasing the same laser from Chinavision. Looks like the files it uses are .CTN

Is it possible to convert ILD to CTN?

Has anyone here had any luck at all with programming this laser? : https://www.chinavasion.com/china/wh...m_Annimations/

**colouredmirrorball** · 06-15-2015, 09:56

Please post a ctn file here, maybe it's just an ilda file with a different extension?

**cheekyadam** · 06-15-2015, 11:16

Hi thanks for your response. I tried uploading one of the existing CTN files from the SD card but it says: "WR-3Palms.CTN: Invalid File"

Perhaps I could email it to you?

On the thread from the chinavasion page one guy says

"From what I get, you create a Jpeg file. Then convert it to a CST file. Then add that to an LST file??? I have tried this and get nothing."

he later says "OK, finally got the unit to program and accept my own bit maps and drawings!!!!"

https://www.chinavasion.com/china/wh...m_Annimations/

I've tried contacting him (email & Facebook) but no response.

There are no ild files on the SD card only about 200 CTN files. Plus the software which I can't get to open.

I've had a play with bmp2ild and created a ild but no luck when I dragged it in to the folder with all the CTN files on the SD Card.

There must be a way just not there yet.

Any help would be awesome.

p.s. I'm running windows software on my mac via WinOnX

**james** · 06-15-2015, 13:21

One idea you can certainly throw out the window is being able to use any kind of raster image as a file on the SD card.

Laser art is a vector format. It is not made of pixels. It is not raster scanned like an old TV tube.

(It can be, if you really know what you're doing)

More typically the scanners just move through a consecutive series of points in 2D space, exactly the same way a connect-the-dots drawing works.

So, the format of that file type must be a list of data elements that tell the position of each scanner and which lasers to turn on (and possibly how much).

That list of data is clocked out through a DAC at a fixed rate, resulting in the (analog) voltages that control your scanners and lasers.

That's (kinda') what ILDA files are about.

In general, vector art is in the domain of CAD files. DXF files are easily converted to ILDA frames.

James.

**colouredmirrorball** · 06-15-2015, 13:58

This forum only allows certain extensions for attachments. You could zip the ctn file up or just give it a different extension.

Maybe there is a way to convert bitmaps to ctn files? But it would mean some kind of tracing is going on which is not trivial (and doubtful that a company which is clueless about the industry standards of the product they're making would figure out how to trace images...)

**cheekyadam** · 06-15-2015, 14:55

Thank you so so much for your advice. I've attached a zip with the CTN. file in.

If you could take a look and let me know that'd be great.

Am I to assume that bmp2ild is too good to be true then?

**colouredmirrorball** · 06-15-2015, 15:36

No, bpm2ild is a freeware program made by a PL member. It's on the FTP server. It's probably ripped by some Chinese guys if they shipped it with their units.

**colouredmirrorball** · 06-16-2015, 02:56

I had a look at the crtn file and its just a slightly modified ilda format 0 file. Sadly you cant just change the extension to ilda and get it over with... The only real difference is that it says crtn instead of ilda in the header. I wonder what the purpose is of that, since those guys intentionally modified the industry standard... whats to gain from that?

**colouredmirrorball** · 06-16-2015, 03:26

I think you can literally open a CTN file in a text editor, search for "CRTN" and replace it with "ILDA" (ignore all other weird characters) and get a more or less valid Ilda format 0 file (with most of the header empty so some programs might crash on that). There should be at least two occurencies in each file, one for every frame and one more at the end. Doing the reverse in an ilda file should work as well.

**cheekyadam** · 06-16-2015, 06:26

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