ildaGen - ILDA frame creation tool

[Grixm]

Greetings! Today I am releasing the first public version of my new program, an ILDA frame creation tool called ildaGen. There are very few and limited ways to make your own ilda files without spending a lot of money on enterprise laser show suites. This program makes custom ilda frame production possible for both hobbyists and price-sensitive professionals.

It is commercial, but the introductory price is only US$ 9.90, which I hope you will find is a good deal. Combined with a show composer, you can now make your own high-quality laser shows for cheaper than ever before.

You can download the program and test it out for yourself without purchasing a license (but exporting won't work) using the links below. Only windows supported right now, but Mac support should be available in the future sometime.

• v0.9.0 Windows - Installer
• v0.9.0 Windows - ZIP

The program is available for purchase on my site Bitlasers.com: ildaGen - ILDA frame creation tool . Paypal and bitcoin accepted.

FEATURES

Drawing:

• Free drawing
• Line tool
• Circle tool
• Wave tool

Coloring:

• Solid color
• Gradient colors
• Dashed colors

Blanking and dotting:

• No blanking
• Dashed blanking
• Dotted blanking
• No blanking with dots
• Dots at start and end of blanking intervals

Animation:

• Color shifts
• Coloring and blanking frequenzy
• Coloring and blanking duty cycles (in dashed mode)
• Coloring, blanking and wave offsets

By combining these tools you draw nearly anything. There are also tools to make alignment and placement simpler, like automatic snapping to the end or start of the last element, guidelines to place element perfectly symmetrically, etc. Many simple but gorgeous frames can be made in less than a minute.


Here is a screenshot of the program in action:



And here are some frames I've made with it:


simpson.ild


fireicecircle.ild


animated.ild


dottedwaves.ild


This program is still in the beta phase. New features and bug fixes will be implemented as new versions are released. The price may increase in the future as the program matures, but any license bought now will continue to be valid.

Please tell me what you think! If you have any criticism or suggestion for new features, please share!

[Grixm]

I've released a couple of updates in the last few days. Updated download links can always be found at ildaGen at Bitlasers.com

I plan to release translated versions, for example German and French, sometime soon, as I'm sure many people here would like that. Unfortunately I don't speak them myself so it's hard to properly introduce my program

[Grixm]

I have released a few new version since this thread, the newest is v0.9.3, with two major new features! Download link is in the product page: http://bitlasers.com/opencart/index.php ... duct_id=82

- Curve tool - A proper cubic bezier curve tool like most vectoring programs have. When using this, press enter after adjusting the curve to finalize and place it.
- "3D" scanner preview - Press space to switch to a simulated scanner preview like in the second ilda example in the first post in this thread.
- You can now double click S or R to toggle the grids rather than having to hold down the button.
- You can now hold down Ctrl while adjusting color to move all RGB sliders at once.
- And some various bugfixes

[Grixm]

New version: 0.9.4!

ildaGen - ILDA frame creation tool

Position displacement (movement) animation
Different animation modes such as sine, bounce, damped, etc
Automatic update checker
Tools for copying/cloning colors
Curve points out of range bug fix
Press 0 to jump to first frame
Some performance improvements
Other minor stuff

Here's an example ilda file using the two new features in bold (the gif is a bit choppy, download the actual ilda file to preview it properly):


sailor.ild

[Grixm]

NEW: HTML5 version! Create ilda files directly in your browsers without installing any programs: http://bitlasers.com/ildagen

Keep in mind it is full of bugs, and browser support is a bit messy. If it does not work properly, try using another browser. Particularily the exporting seems to be broken in certain browsers.

[Grixm]

New version 0.9.5 !

http://bitlasers.com/opencart/index.php ... duct_id=82

In this version you can now load existing ilda files.
You can also select already placed objects (and loaded ilda files) by using the up/down arrow keys, and remake them by reapplying all or some of the properties such as blanking, coloring or displacement.
You can also delete individual objects by pressing delete.
In addition to this there are quite a few minor refinements, like performance increases and bug fixes.

[Grixm]

I have a new version for you today, 0.9.6, with a bunch of new, very cool features if I dare say so myself!

- Text tool
You can now write text, thanks to Laserboy's font ilda files. You can choose from several different fonts, from fancy outlines to super scanner-friendly single-lined.
- Shaking animation
- Scope selection
Very useful feature, you can now select the editing scope, in other words exactly which frames you want to edit or place the animation at.
- Rainbow coloring
- Import ILDA format 0 and 1
- Laserboy included
Laserboy itself is now included with ildaGen, and the manual has a few chapters on how to use it, to for example convert files exported from ildagen into legacy ILDA format 0 or 1.
- Too many bugfixes and minor improvements to count

PS: I am also announcing a price hike in the near future. The program have already grown a lot since it was released, with probably close to twice the amount of features. It will still be relatively cheap, though, and of course all existing purchases or purchases from now until the price change will not be affected.

[Grixm]

New version today, 0.9.7, and I am pretty happy with this release! In addition to two new major features, I have done a lot of tweaking and bug fixing, and I dare say it's an overall solid improvement. Also it looks a bit better with a new layout.

Remember to NOT use the outdated download link in the first post of this thread, visit the product link instead! the forum doesn't let me edit posts.

- Arbitrary function modes for shape, coloring and blanking
You can now write your own mathematical functions to describe the objects in the ILDA file. I haven't used it so I'm not sure, but I believe this is kind of similar to some of LSX's features. It's potentially a very powerful tool, but it might take some studying and getting used to.

- Better object manipulation tool with rotation, scaling and displacement
This is a big improvement over the earlier slider-based movement tool. You can now move, scale and rotate selected objects super intuitively by just clicking and dragging them with the cursor. You can also manually set the anchor point for rotation and scaling, meaning the manipulations doesn't necessarily have to be symmetrical and uniform.

- Interface design refresh, a better look and layout.

- Simple scanner optimization at export, right click on the export button to choose between minimized and optimized output. This is very basic though, it is still recommended to run the files through something with better post-processing if your DAC/show software doesn't do it automatically.

- Many bug fixes
- Performance improvements
- Minor tweaks
- Help file improvements

Take a look at the updated screenshot in the first post of the thread for a quick look!

[Grixm]

New version today, v0.9.7.2. Another relatively minor update. Much of my work since the last release have been in features that didn't make this release, but there are some new stuff.

The biggest change is that you can now save and load your ildaGen projects in a dedicated file format (.igf = IldaGen Frames) so that you can continue your work at a later time if you are making something that takes a lot of time. All information about separate objects and such are kept, in contrast to a regular export to ILDA. igf files are associated with ildagen when using the installer, so that you can just double click the files to open them firectly instead of opening ildagen itself and then clicking "load". Same goes for ilda files (but automatic file associations are not created).

You can now copy and paste whole objects spanning several frames instead of just one frame at a time.

Fixed several bugs and improved performance some.

[Grixm]

I just released version 0.9.9, one of several releases since the last time I posted in this thread. They are not huge releases, but if you have not updated yet, I very much recommend it. The program is getting more and more solid, with many bug fixes and small tweaks. There are also a few new features, such as more animation modes, the ability to easily repeat animations x times and somewhat better scanner optimization.

You may also notice some buttons referencing a timeline mode, which is not active yet. This is the reason the updates in the last few months have been relatively minor, I have mostly been working on the timeline mode behind the scenes. Soon, you will be able to create full-length shows in ildaGen, with layers and music, not just snippets!

Also, I have submitted ildaGen and Vrilda to the ILDA Fenning awards. Here goes nothing!

[Grixm]

New version today. Please note that the program have changed name, from ildaGen to LasershowGen. I should have realized sooner that I'm not actually allowed to use the name ILDA in my product, which I was informed of when I submitted the program to the ILDA awards. Sorry about that! The new name, (though admittedly bland, I didn't have that much time to think of a new one ) probably fits a bit better too as I hope to make the program a full laser show solution some time, not just an ILDA file creator.

https://github.com/Grix/ildagen/releases/tag/v0.9.10

NB: Please uninstall the last version of ildaGen before installing LasershowGen to avoid multiple instances of the program on your computer.

New features in this version:

- Symbol tool, based on Hershey fonts. You can insert lots of different symbols including western, greek, cyrillic and japanese glyphs, and also math, weather, music notation etc. See the screenshot below for some examples.

- You can now select and manipulate multiple objects at once. Note that you need to use CTRL + click to select, the up/down arrow keys no longer work.

- Bugfixes and tweaks

- Better updater, from now on the program will automatically download and launch the installer for the next version when it is released (if you want it to), so you don't have to manually download.

[Grixm]

Well I released a new update today, v1.2.3.

It's a while since I posted in this forums so a lot have happened, but for example this version has preliminary support for output to DACs. But it's a bit meager still, only RIYA is supported as of now, and only one DAC at a time.

Also, optimization have improved a lot over the last few versions, it now has ballistic blanking jumps, better dwell settings, color shift settings, etc. And I will continue to work on it.

[Grixm]

In case you missed it, a while ago LasershowGen become FREE to use! Well, with some limitations. More info on the new main page for the project:

http://pages.bitlasers.com/lasershowgen/

Since I last posted there have been many updates to the program, it support many more DACs, like Ether Dream, Laserdock, Easylase, OLSD, sound card DACs, etc. The scanning optimization code is also much improved.