Best and easiest way to creat ilda frames out of logo files (.step..etc) in Beyond

[masterpj]

Ok back from the show for general electric!
I'll see what I can do!

[norty303]

Sorry PJ, I meant if you're not using auto-trace, but hand drawing based on a background image - what are the optimization tools like in the frame editor and how do you use them?

[matratzki]

Hi,
I am sorry for my late replay, but at the moment I am really busy at work.
I just spend some time trying to draw some logos with beyond, realizing that it is not that easy.

First I used the picture tracer, but it only worked properly for a bunch of logos. It is quite point consuming and some blanking lines did not make any sense

Second I used the advanced frame editor and traced the picture by hand. It was also quite point consuming, because beyond always links to points with an vector.
Of course it is possible to change the vector in point afterwards, but it is lengthy and you have to put four points in each corner. You can not add cornerpoints afterwards.

So in summary I am not that happy creating logos with beyond.

[-bart-]

So in summary I am not that happy creating logos with beyond.

You are not alone, it is totally not intuitive. It's is nothing like any bitmap or vectorbased drawing program out there.
It is a complete foreign beast on its own, the learning-curve is more like a learning-wall, and it is unknown if the effort you put in it will eventually pay off.
Also, oddities you may encounter may be bugs or features, who knows?

[masterpj]

Hi,
Second I used the advanced frame editor and traced the picture by hand. It was also quite point consuming, because beyond always links to points with an vector.

Only with vector oriented drawing tools. It's ok but its hard for the program to determine if the angle you draw in defines a corner point or not.. you have to be specific in your drawing if it's a curve or a corner.

@Bart that's because vector and bitmap drawings don't have to take overlapping and corner points into account in the same ways as laser graphics do.. in fact check out some vectors online and notice how inefficient they are structured point wise because of the tools..nobody normally bothers if an image has several inefficiently placed vector points (which in laser we do off course!).

Draw point oriented.

[matratzki]

Yeah that is correct, but the point oriented poligon does not work as it should. I attached a screenshot of the pangolin manual for the advanced frame editor, all point oriented drawing methodes are highlighted in yellow. The first one uses vectors, all others points. I think that might be a bug, am I right?
Using the point oriented circle, it puts to many points and the right part of the circle becomes double lined. Everytime I have to erase some points after drawing it.
@ masterpj: What do you mean with "you have to be specific in your drawing if it's a curve or a corner."?

If you you just look at the graphics coming up with pangolin beyond, they are ALL point oriented with four or more corner points.

I attached a picture of one logo I am working on at the moment. I am still not really happy with it and spent a lot of time on it.
Using vectors it starts flickering, using point the edges look crapy, even with extra corner points.

[james]

I can't help but think it would take 3 times as long to explain how to do this in LaserBoy than it would take to just do it.

In short, I would make one rectangle and one line segment. Place them over the X axis just to the right of the origin and copy each, rotating the copies around the origin to the appropriate locations. Then I would select each lit segment and set its color to whatever color it needs to be.

The tricky part is in the optimization. You can set LB to add extra points along the length of lines and on the corners of the rectangles. These settings are in the [Tab] menu.

You could try different settings to get the best results. You can strip all the added points with a single key stroke and try again with different numbers.

Seriously, this logo is a piece of cake for someone who knows LaserBoy.

James.

[-bart-]

you should upload some tutorials to youtube...

[james]

Here is some help:

http://laserboy.org/forum/index.php?topic=551.0

If you are interested, you can ask questions; probably best in the LaserBoy thread on this forum.

James.

[White-Light]

You should be able to trace in Beyond.

You still haven't put the original up, so on the basis that it's a rising sun (from looking at your projected attempt), here's a trace that plays back at 49fps according to the FB3.

It wasn't perfect and I had to move a few points, you might even want to refine it further. However, it shows it can be done. Method used was line separation for reference, although as I said earlier, you need to tweek the method and settings to suit your needs. I also recommend expanding the tracing preview window as you can better see the fine adjustments then.

File attached.Rising Sun.zip