The LSX tutorials thread!

[Clearlight]

Does LSX have an ILDA browser with animation preview to drag and drop on the timeline? I have an old demo version and I know this function works by drag and drop from a folder outside the program.

[dkumpula]

LSX has an ILDA importer where you choose a file and it inserts the associated ILDA frames into a CAT (catalogue) file for use in shows. Upon import, you just see all the frames. I've not seen a dedicated browser with drag and drop functions. How did you access it in the demo you mentioned?

When I want to spend a lot of time looking through content of ILDA files, I use the free program ILDA Viewer that PL member CMB created. You can do a search for it on this forum. It doesn't have a visual browser function, but its a quick way to load one or many ILDA files for review.

-David

[Clearlight]

Hi David - my last post implied there was a hidden ILDA import function with preview. This is not the case with LSX, sorry for the confusion! You can drag a an ilda file onto the timeline from outside of LSX and the ilda file will pasted onto the timeline.

- Greg

[dkumpula]

Hey Greg! I didn't know you could drag ILDA flies directly onto the timeline. There are lots of little tricks in that program, so thanks for sharing!

-David

[colouredmirrorball]

Hey Greg! I didn't know you could drag ILDA flies directly onto the timeline. There are lots of little tricks in that program, so thanks for sharing!

-David

Haha, and for a long time I thought that was the only way you could import ILDA files

[daderaide]

Does anyone know if ILDSOS or PicEdit can handle 3D file imports? I've been trying to find a way to import a 3D drawing form another program into LSX since PicEdit is basically useless for drawing in 3D. I have a DXF file that looks great in Sketchup, Blender and ViaCAD but both Laserboy and ILDSOS flatten them to 2D and mush all the shaped around in weird ways. I noticed that PicEdit has a .xyz file import. So I tried using a DXF to XYZ file converter but trying to import the resulting file just crashes the whole program :-(

Speaking of PicEdit. Does anyone with experience with it have any interest in doing a tutorial on it? The user manual has almost no information and I haven't found any tutorials that go into much detail on what the different buttons/options/functions do or how they work.

[Guido]

Hi,
i wrote the Import.dll many Years ago before i bought the LDS Sourcecode. It was written to Import PLT and XYZ Files from a Tracingtool.
PicEdit is able to draw in 3D incl. HiddenLine Calculation ! See the Demoshow. You Need to know the NormalVector Functions...OK..i only know
2-4 People who can draw really 3D in PicEdit...it is hard but it works. I also prefer my Blender - Solution.

[dkumpula]

Speaking of PicEdit. Does anyone with experience with it have any interest in doing a tutorial on it? The user manual has almost no information and I haven't found any tutorials that go into much detail on what the different buttons/options/functions do or how they work.

I've spent some time drawing in 3D with PicEdit and although it isn't the easiest tool in the world, you can certainly draw reasonably detailed 3d objects. I think the manual is fairly detailed. I am talking about the manual located in the program files (x86) / Lasershow Xpress / Documentation folder, not the living manual.

One problem with importing models is that they are likely to have many more points than you could project, making them a bit of a 'preview window tease'. I drew this guitar spaceship as a 3d object in pic-edit and although it isn't that detailed, at 326 points, its about the best I could do before it started to flicker do to high point counts.


Objects that are transformed from 2d objects using RotaryBody or Extrude are a lot easier to do. This is a quick pic of a 3d bullet:


As always, I'm happy to chat in the PL chatroom if you have other Picedit questions.

-David

[colouredmirrorball]

Ild Sôs can export 3D Ilda but you have to turn off optimisation.

However the best way is to render a Blender animation using the Freestyle renderer modified by TL on this forum. This produces a list of 2D DXF files you can convert in Ild Sôs or Laserboy. Downside is of course you can't 3D manipulate the frames in real time.

[daderaide]

I am talking about the manual located in the program files (x86) / Lasershow Xpress / Documentation folder, not the living manual.

Ahhhhhh. I didn't even know that existed! I've been going off the living manual. Why isn't this MUCH better manual included in the living manual? Thanks! I feel a little silly now. It's unfortunate to go back and re-draw everything, but if that's my only option, I guess that's what I'll have to do. I much faster in my usual 3D cad program and was really hoping to get ILDSOS to convert a 3D DXF to a 3D ILDA since it is an advertised feature.