Some TraceIT some Lazerboy

[heroic]

Cool! Where do I download them?

thanks!

-J.

[James Lehman]

I don't know much about LaserBoy except that it is free. OK, sure it's free, but exactly what can be done with LaserBoy, and exactly how much effort is required on the part of a would-be user?

William Benner

Well... you need a computer!

You need to be able to read English reasonably well or at least recognize words. You need to be able to find keys on the keyboard.

As far as the original purpose of this thread goes, to convert a folder full of name-ordered DXF files, you need to type:

i 2 3 folder_name

Then to convert the DXF colors to default laser colors, you need to:

p A [Esc]

Now you can minimize the data like this:

h D [Esc]

And save it as 2D (with no saved palette) ILDA like this:

o 3 file_name

That's 11 keystrokes and a couple of names you have to type.

Bill, you are a world leader in laser display technology. I bet you have at least had one of your employees take a look at LaserBoy. If not, you're missing out.

James.

[Pangolin]

Cool! Where do I download them?

The "What's new at Pangolin" page is always a good place to start...
http://www.pangolin.com/whatsnew.htm

That's 11 keystrokes and a couple of names you have to type.

Seems pretty cryptic... What, no mouse clicks?

Bill, you are a world leader in laser display technology. I bet you have at least had one of your employees take a look at LaserBoy.

I am sorry to dissapoint you, but no. And I don't "have my employees" do things like this. But as for myself, shortly after posting my message, I went to your web site, and really didn't see much. At least, not an answer to my question "what does it do"...

In any event, I do hope that you will come to the upcoming SELEM. As I continually say, the proof of the puding is in the eating. If you come, then we can all see what LaserBoy is, and does, and how it works.

Best regards,

William Benner

[Dr Laser]

In any event, I do hope that you will come to the upcoming SELEM. As I continually say, the proof of the puding is in the eating. If you come, then we can all see what LaserBoy is, and does, and how it works.

Best regards,

William Benner

What it does it takes dxf files and converts them to ILDA. In my video all animations are dxf exports to ilda.

[James Lehman]

Hi Bill. I'm glad you got back to me. I have made plans to attend SELEM. I can't think of anything I've ever looked forward to so much! A big part of that is to meet you!

I know my website doesn't say a whole lot about the current state of LaserBoy, but the pictures were enough to inspire several people to contact me about my project. That is how I originally got invited to the PL. That's how I was encouraged to give it away for free and that's how I found out how to make it run on just about any OS. I've always been more than happy to share any information about what I know with anyone who asks (sometimes to rolling eyeballed, drooling people who wished they'd never...). I have not had the time or inclination to update that site since sometime in 2005.

I'm surprised you don't know more about what LaserBoy does. It seems like you are right on top of many other issues that pop up here at the PL and in a few other public places. When I write about LaserBoy in public, I try to keep in mind that everyone is reading it, not just the person who might have questioned or commented me.

In short, LaserBoy is a generic computer development platform for laser vector art and signal generation. It reads and writes industry-standard* file formats that are useful or pertinent to laser display. Most notably, a special variation of wave that, when played through a 6 or 8 channel DC modified sound card, can directly control an RGB 24bit color laser projection system. But, you already know that.

No, there is no mouse. You have to be a super genius to use LaserBoy. You actually have to read! It's not all that cryptic. It's kind-of a Zen thing. Less is more. You are never more than one key stroke away from a key-map menu. When I developed the original application for the Linux console, there was no way to have a mouse. It worked over an ANSI terminal server. I spent a lot of time writing around the need for a mouse and as a result I came up with a lot of interesting ways to directly create and manipulate 3D vector art that I believe are much more precise than anything that could be done with an ordinary 2D, low resolution mouse.

LaserBoy is very conceptual. You have to have a good working image in your head to understand what you are looking at on the screen and how to take it where you want it to go; while at the same time, it offers you such an accurate view of 3D laser vector art that you will probably learn a lot without even noticing. I have worked very hard to provide an interface that stays out of your way! Once you learn some keys and get a feel for the whole thing, you can fly.

If you are a C/C++ programmer, you might also notice that the bulk of the code that you get with the LaserBoy distribution is all about creating a hierarchy of objects that together make a very useful set of tools for getting to the business of... well.... ILDA!

"ILDA", to me, is more than just a file format that got all F***ed up (very much on purpose*) a few years ago by a tiny group of people who probably do not represent the ideals of the entire ILDA organization.

I imagine ILDA as something much more than what it probably is. I see it as the best ideas and ethics the whole Planet Earth has to offer with regards to the use of visible laser light in artistic and technical display.

The open file format can be a great place to start as a generic, archival, laser art file format that, when imported into application memory, can become a beautifully mutable, conglomerate object that can do just about anything. That is the core of LaserBoy.

But there is more than enough public evidence that the-powers-that-be, in the laser industry, are very opposed to any kind of standards or common knowledge about how any of this magical stuff is done.

Whether you believe it or not, I am going to have a real impact on general public knowledge of laser display. I don't believe there is any other project out there, in open source, that is as complete and comprehensive of a solution as LaserBoy.

It may not be absolutely everything it needs to be right now, but I'm going to keep working on it. At the moment, it goes from generic art files to the laser projector with no proprietary anything in between.

I'll be glad to show you everything it can do at SELEM. I hope that in the coming days, other people here on the PL will show you what they can do with it too.

Get the latest version of LaserBoy here:
http://hacylon.case.edu/laser/LaserBoy/

James.

[heroic]

I don't know much about LaserBoy except that it is free. OK, sure it's free, but exactly what can be done with LaserBoy, and exactly how much effort is required on the part of a would-be user?

Well, it took me less than three hours to port it from Linux to MacOS so that I could design material for my laser on my Mac. Given how little effort that took, I daresay for a Windows or Linux user, especially one with an audio card DAC, the effort is minimal. The menus are extremely easy to use. (The only thing I'd really like is a freehand drawing tool that uses the mouse, and the ability to use Truetype fonts.)

In comparison, the Pangolin software doesn't run on my Mac at all; it even manages to crash VMWare Fusion every time I close it (and this applies to all the Pangolin software, even the LAStudio stuff). It seems to be somehow related to your dodgy FB3 USB driver; it's not very good, Bill... this is supposed to be production quality software. I was hoping that an update would cure this, but no- it seems to be a persisting problem.

LaserBoy is a bit rough round the edges, but it's coming along fast. It's the core of my laser workflow now, I only use Cypher to sequence material from LaserBoy- and LaserBoy's never once crashed my entire machine in the middle of a show. More than I can say for Pangolin's stuff.

[carmangary]

and LaserBoy's never once crashed my entire machine in the middle of a show. More than I can say for Pangolin's stuff.

Not exactly a fair thing to say since LaserBoy doesn't even do shows.

[heroic]

Not exactly a fair thing to say since LaserBoy doesn't even do shows.

That's what you think! I'm working on an extension for it right now that does.

Also, since LaserBoy's hardware interface is open, I don't have to be running it to use my laser.

[James Lehman]

It takes a bit of imagination, but yes, LaserBoy can do shows. It currently has no way to incorporate audio tracks into the multi channel wave, but that can be done in other pro audio editing software. Or, you can do like some of the others do and just press play on the CD player at the right time. It is quite time accurate. It should maintain synch for a good long time. I have found a computer audio API written in C++ that will integrate with SDL. It can do more than just play mono and stereo wave; which is a limitation of the SDL audio interface. It can play and record any number of channels available.

It is also very easy to find applications that allow you to draw with a mouse and save your work as DXF. That goes right into LaserBoy!

No, LaserBoy is not everything.... YET. It will continue to grow and have more features. My primary interest, right now, is to make it do everything that a laserist needs that can not be done with any other readily available software.

It IS a great foundation.

James.

[decix]

Revolutionary!
With german keyboard-layout I have some problems finding the special keys like '~()`...
Is there a chance of mapping self-defined keys or maybe you could assign an alternatives for them.