Vector Graphic / HPGL file processing VI ???

[Peter]

Hi all,

Is there a VI out there that will load AND interpret any common type
of vector file format, producing an array of line start and end point
coordinates (I only need to read lines, not shapes) ???

I have some "motorised" hardware to control via Labview with a NI
6025E i/o board. Now, I have routines in dev. to x/y drive the device
but would like to do some fancy movements with it like "draw" pictures
output from Windows graphic software. I don't need to do this
directly, just accept a common file type.

Obvious candidates are WMF and HPGL (used for x/y plotters). I was
under the impression that HPGL was an ASCI "readable" language, but my
attempts to print to file from a HP DesignJet printer driver produces
a heade
r mentioning HPGL*2* with some readable pen colour settings and
the rest of the data in binary format.

Any suggestions for a HPGL (V. 1 or 2) printer driver that produces
"readable" ASCI would be useful as I could probably write my own
interpret.

Many thanks,

Peter

[Lab Viewer]

Hi Peter,

Try this HPGL to Array and and Array to HPGL kind of libraries.
I didn't have the opportunity to test them, so I'm not sure about related file versions.

Hope this helps

[Peter]

Lab Viewer wrote in message news:<506500000005000000D0830000-1023576873000@exchange.ni.com>...
> Hi Peter,
>
> Try this
> href="http://www.hamiltondesign-consulting.com/Utils.htm">HPGL to
> Array and and
> href="http://www.info-labview.org/the-archives/vi/lv3.1/hpglplot.zip">Array
> to HPGL kind of libraries.
> I didn't have the opportunity to test them, so I'm not sure about
> related file versions.
>
> Hope this helps


Thanks, I came accross this library after my post.

I also came up with a solutions to getting vector files into Labview
if anyone is interested:

GhostView (the shareware viewer / front-end for Ghostscript) will
export/conver .PS and .EPS files to the HPGL-level-1 language. This
means I can get most vector softw
are to print to a PS printer or
export an EPS file and generate a HPGL-level-1 file.

I had no luck getting the above library to work, but fortunatly the
HPGL output of Ghostview is in a very readable ASCI format so writting
my own interpretor with string funtions was quite stright forward.

Many thanks,

Peter