Saw this on Reddit this morning... Open source image tracer!

[buffo]

Check it out: http://potrace.sourceforge.net/

Looks like a cool BMP to Vector converter. Saves as EPS, SVG, Xfig, PGM, and a few other formats. Still would require another tool to get the results to ILDA, but this one seems to handle anti-aliasing rather well. Best of all, it's open source!

Adam

[Things]

Now if only someone could make a .ild output plugin for it ....

Anyone?

[Zoof]

Now if only someone could make a .ild output plugin for it ....

Anyone?

Adam, have you ever taken a look at inkscape? If not, I can highly recommend it. www.inkscape.org
It is a Free vector drawing program with a number of bitmap trace algorithms, each works better for a different type of image. It is what I've been using mostly.

As for an ilda conversions, I'm working on it.... Hope to release something to the community soon.

[buffo]

Hi Zoof;

No - I had never heard of it before reading your post. Sounds like I need to check it out though!

Glad to hear you're working on a vector to ILDA converter... Can't wait to see what you've come up with!

Adam

[Zoof]

Hi Zoof;

No - I had never heard of it before reading your post. Sounds like I need to check it out though!

Glad to hear you're working on a vector to ILDA converter... Can't wait to see what you've come up with!

Adam

Actually you've already seen what it can do. All Laseroids, lasertennis, and demo3D art are created with Inkscape and converted with my algorithm. Just need to wrap it into a nice gui for distribution

I've been trying to point several people in the direction of Inkscape just because I believe it is a great free prog that does all that I need to do for scientific figures at work and laser art at home

So give it a try, soon you will be able to convert the art into ilda.

[keeperx]

Hrm.. EPS converts to DXF very easily.. and then from DXF to ild is a breeze

[Zoof]

Hrm.. EPS converts to DXF very easily.. and then from DXF to ild is a breeze

So I shouldn't release a tool because there is already a tool chain that does something similar? Or are you saying something completely different?

[keeperx]

no a tool would be nice....

i was just saying that there is currently a path for conversion if anyone was interested..

I am ALL ABOUT new tools that do kewl thangs

save me the time of opening the EPS in Corel draw...

[drlava]

Buffo, good thread, thanks for bringing this up!

Hey Zoof looks like you're getting on a similar path to mine. I've been using illustrator and exporting to DXF for use in the ILD SOS optimizer to create ild files. I looked at inkscape DXF output and it appears that it produces spline output instead of polyline output, even after converting 'object to path'. If you know of a way to make it produce paths in its saved files, let us know there are several users, myself included that would be interested!

[Zoof]

Buffo, good thread, thanks for bringing this up!

Hey Zoof looks like you're getting on a similar path to mine. I've been using illustrator and exporting to DXF for use in the ILD SOS optimizer to create ild files. I looked at inkscape DXF output and it appears that it produces spline output instead of polyline output, even after converting 'object to path'. If you know of a way to make it produce paths in its saved files, let us know there are several users, myself included that would be interested!

I save the files as inkscape SVG and it produces paths. Paths are constructed from straight line segments and piecewise bezier quadratic curves. (M, L, and C)

Inkscape will also store the line color (stroke) and linear and radial gradients which can be used for nice effects such as the color gradient used in 'Laseroids' and 'Game Over' in laseroids.

Sorry lava I still need to test your ILD SOS app. In the past month my lasers have been on for maybe 1 hour, it just isn;t enough.