Thanks for the answer. Being a noob, I didn't see the tiny drawing of both canvas and machine in the corner.
I don't have a middle button on my laptop, will check tomorrow once back in the studio with an external mouse.
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I did play around with the settings of machine and page sizes, which seem to influence the rendering correctly (on screen). I also tested a variety of window sizes and positions (didn't change anything). Either way, I didn't manage to zoom out of the 10% which are set by the controller - didn't yet know that mousewheel and middle button would influence. thanks for the info!)
Will test tomorrow and get back here ;)
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Re: No canvas to click in - grey background instead
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Re: No canvas to click in - grey background instead
And: yes it seems to always start up like that - also when having deleted the settings file before starting the controller.
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Re: Inverted colour plotting
Put a frame around both source SVGs so they have the exact same outside dimensions - they'll align ok that way.
I had shied away from putting commands for the _controller_ itself into the command queue... I smell a bit of an opportunity for complexity there, but... why not!
sn
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Re: No canvas to click in - grey background instead
Hum, I should dig a little deeper on that, it'll be pretty annoying. I've seen it once or twice, but couldn't reliably replicate it.
If you don't have a middle mouse button/wheel, you can use ctrl+pgup / pgdn to zoom, and ctrl-arrow keys to move the canvas. I think.
sn
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Re: No canvas to click in - grey background instead
I actually have a suspicion - will get back to you a little later!
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Re: No canvas to click in - grey background instead
hey sandy - following feedback:
the info regarding zoom and pan with mouse and keyboard was excellent - both work perfectly.
i could reproduce the mentioned behaviour as follows:
1. i work on a laptop.
2. i have an external monitor connected when in the studio. the external monitor's resolution is higher than the laptop's internal screen. when the external monitor is connceted, i use it as the only screen (the laptop's internal screen is turned off)
3. i open the controller, and use it normally.
4. while the controller is running, i disconnect the external monitor - resulting in the internal laptop screen taking over. the controller app works nicely on the smaller resolution screen
the problem arises once i close and RESTART the controller app on either monitors. doing so results in the canvas being super tiny.
does this help you?
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Pen lift/drop - problem with initial state
Hey,
I'm slowly getting into the wondrous world of the Polargraph. It works nicely in general, but: i don't yet understand how the pin lift works. For the drawing the machine currently creates, all lift/drop operations seem to be inverse. For previous drawings done today, this wasn't the case.
This was the first drawing for which i used the polargraph optimizer (so awesome!), could i be because of that? Like - could it be that the queue i exported (to become the optimizer's input) had a "wrong" pen lift status at the beginning?
Could you maybe elaborate on commands in the queue represent pen lift and drops?
thanks! =)
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Re: Pen lift/drop - problem with initial state
There's two commands for pen lift:
C13,END - pen drop
C14,END - pen lift
Though you can also specify the position of each one with
C13,180,END
which would say "drop the pen by moving to position 180",
C14,90,END
which would say "lift the pen by moving to position 90".
Once the C13/C14 commands with the position parameter are used, the machine will remember the new position for the rest of the session - but it will not survive a reset.
When you use the "pen drop" or "pen lift" buttons in the controller, the position parameter is sent. The exact value of the parameter is set on the pen lift position section on the setup tab.
When you do a "draw vector", the C13/C14 command is used _without_ the parameter.
The optimizer knows the difference between C13 and C14, so your problem might be that the positions for "up" and "down" have been changed, or switched or something. You can test the positions using the "pen up position""pen down position""test lift range""upload lift range"
options on the setup tab."Upload lift range" uploads the new range/positions, and sets it as a permanent setting for the machine, that will be remembered after a reset.
sn
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Re: Inverted colour plotting
It worked this time. :) Couldn't really say why it didn't the first time. So maybe that Pause command isn't really necessary after all. Will keep you posted how the next drawing turn out.![Image]()
Maria
Maria
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Re: Inverted colour plotting
Looking good!
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Questions about "Show Queue Preview"
I wanted to ask what the red lines (Input > Show Queue Preview) actually show;
* every movement of the gondola?
* or only the movement of the gondola where the pen is dropped?
I'm asking because I'd like to know how to get rid of the "connecting strokes", which seem to be inherent to rendering vectors.
Is there a way to suppress them - in the controller, or in Inkscape, etc?
Thanks!
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Re: Questions about "Show Queue Preview"
Can't quite remember, but pretty sure it's every movement is previewed from the queue. So even the connecting lines will be shown. Unless they are part of the SVG though, the pen will move indirectly, and with the pen tip raised off the surface.
sn
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Re: No canvas to click in - grey background instead
Kind of does - I've tried a couple more things, but for me now, it seems to be miniaturised about a third of the time. I might sneakily remove that "feature"...
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How to create good vector data from straight (pixel) lines
I wanted to ask about your workflows on how to create good vector data - especially when coming from raster images.
I'm currently using Inkscape and it's "Trace Bitmap" tool, but especially when having straight forward lines (as in e.g. a black and white grid), I always end up with double lines.
I watched YouTube videos like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_DrqXkw0Bo and understand the concept of removing double lines - yet i still always end up with them. 8O
I'd be especially interested in creating prints with the aesthetics achieved by kongorilla in his post http://www.polargraph.co.uk/forum/polargraphs-group2/drawing-techniques-forum4/render-3d-meshes-to-svg-using-blender-and-freestyle-thread213/ - how to get there with raster images as sources?
Thanks for all help!
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Re: How to create good vector data from straight (pixel) lines
I wanted to show what kind of source imagery i'm working from.
I'm really mostly interested in using the Polargraph to render the black lines.![Image]()
![Image]()
Any help appreciated =)
Any help appreciated =)
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Re: How to create good vector data from straight (pixel) lines
Very tricky choice of stuff to trace.
Where the automatic tracing works is on images that have lots of squiggles to hide the inaccuracies of the auto tracing procedure. So you get good, representative results from high-detail, high-noise images like photographs.
In low-detail, sparse images like the ones you show, any deviations from the lines stick out like a sore thumb. Sharp linework should be drawn from the source vector graphic - I don't think I'd even bother trying to trace from it, unless you're specifically looking for an interpretation. All Kongorilla's stuff is generated directly as digital vector files, so that's how it's sharp and clean.
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Re: How to create good vector data from straight (pixel) lines
I'm actually producing the images in Processing, but didn't find a smart way to export the data as vectors. I can only export as raster images or PDF.
Is there an SVG exporter for Processing you're happy with?
Is there a smart way to convert PDF vectors to SVG vectors?
Alternatively, I'll start exporting DXF to get the data into Blender (didn't use that one before, so shied away from that route previously).
So many things to explore! =)
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Re: How to create good vector data from straight (pixel) lines
Aha! Inkscape can open PDFs and export as SVGs!
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Re: How to create good vector data from straight (pixel) lines
For a long time I've been meaning to write a post about using WinTopo for stuff like this. Give it a shot. The output is amazingly good, all things considered.
http://wintopo.com/
(freeware version is fine)
BTW, using Blender to generate SVGs has gotten a lot easier since I wrote the post you mentioned. The Freestyle renderer in Blender now includes its own SVG exporter.
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Re: How to create good vector data from straight (pixel) lines
whoa, that's awesome. i owe you one! =)
already have it in the controller - curious to see what it will create physically!
i'll still check out blender- always meant to do that anyway..
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