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Thread: noob DJ with a tiny budget

  1. #1
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    Default noob DJ with a tiny budget

    Hey all, just starting to get into the world of lasers and shows, and honestly a little overwhelmed at the cost of some of the equipment. I did manage to pick up a chinese generic thats pretty bright and actually reads its SD card if I load an ILD file. Now comes the crazy part.. Im a DJ/streamer and I just wanted to make a quick static trace of my logo to throw up on the wall behind me with said laser. I've been at this for days now and while the pangolin quickshow software quicktrace gives me literally exactly what I was hoping for, i cant export it / save it to ild because of course I dont have that kind of cash.. so I tried to learn to do it in showexpress and that.... has not done me any favors. Would any of you be willing to take a look at my logo and see if you could bang something out for me, or at least point me in the right direction...?

    Many, many, many exhausted thanks from tired eyes.

    -Tiki

  2. #2
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    for ref this is the logo
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Tiki_Outline (1).png  


  3. #3
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    Default

    Well, the good thing is it is symmetrical, so you really only need to draw half of it and join that together with a mirror image of it. If you like to do the pointy clicky thing you can use DeltaCAD (free demo). With that you can open the raster image an trace vectors over it with the polyline tool. Save that as dxf. Open that in [redacted] optimize it and save it as ilda. You can also save that image as a bitmap file, open that as a background image in [redacted] and use that app to trace the vectors. But you have to do that with nothing but keyboard taps and raw nerve.
    Creator of LaserBoy!
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  4. #4
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    Does [redacted] rhyme with TazerSoy? Sorry.. eager to figure this out

  5. #5
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    Ronald Dump says yes.
    Creator of LaserBoy!
    LaserBoy is free and runs in Windows, MacOS and Linux (including Raspberry Pi!).
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    All software has a learning curve usually proportional to its capabilities and unique features. Pointing with a mouse is in no way easier than tapping a key.

  6. #6
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    Your art is somewhat detailed but I think it will work. The best approach would be to use single lines to draw it, rather than tracing the inside and outside edges of the thick black lines. The mirror image trick takes a bit of know-how to do it my app. You can leave a bit of a ragged edge across the center as long as you overshoot it. Then you can clip the whole seam vertically so it's a clean edge. Then you can copy that half and rotate the copy 180 degrees around the Y axis. Once that is done you can fracture all the segments into individual vectors and re-conglomerate them so the lines are all seamless across the center. I realize that's a lot to take in all at once. So your best bet if time is a constraint is to just draw the whole thing in DeltaCAD with a mouse and the polyline tool and save it as dxf. Then put that into the dxf folder of my app directory and open it in my app for optimization and save as ilda. If you go the dxf rout, you'll need to do a best match (from the dxf palette) to the default palette of 63 colors to save it as a typical ilda frame. I'm pretty sure your SD card reader only knows how to read ilda format 0, so you will have to turn on the switch to save 2D as 3D before you save it (ilda format 1 saves as format 0).


    .
    Last edited by james; 08-27-2022 at 10:00.
    Creator of LaserBoy!
    LaserBoy is free and runs in Windows, MacOS and Linux (including Raspberry Pi!).
    Download LaserBoy!
    YouTube Tutorials
    Ask me about my LaserBoy Correction Amp Kit for sale!
    All software has a learning curve usually proportional to its capabilities and unique features. Pointing with a mouse is in no way easier than tapping a key.

  7. #7
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    ... did some fast vectorizing with your logo - top left is "original", below "centerline" and right some "reducing

    Viktor
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails TikiGoneWild-Outline.png  

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  8. #8
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    Thanks Viktor, and James, I used the dxf method in [redacted] and output the ild file, then checked it by importing it into the quickshow just to see if it would show up (it did) but then when i put it on the sd card and into the laser, nothing projects. would anyone be able to take a look? I had the .prg file set to 15,1.0.
    Attached Files Attached Files

  9. #9
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    ... the .ILD-file seems to be pretty small with 5kB size ... or ist it "totally" reduced?

    Viktor
    Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - https://reprap.org/forum/list.php?426
    Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - https://reprap.org/forum/list.php?425

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by VDX View Post
    ... the .ILD-file seems to be pretty small with 5kB size ... or ist it "totally" reduced?

    Viktor
    actually, you are right, the file is super small.. it opens fine in quickshow, but when i try to import it into showeditor, it gave me this error:

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	error.jpg 
Views:	5 
Size:	331.7 KB 
ID:	59193

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