1-Touch Photo

[Scott Shepherd]

Got the email with the download for the trial version of new 1-touch photo program from ULS. No cost related information anywhere to be found, but I installed it on the 30 day free trial.

Just gave it a quick run through. I'll put the bad first.

I have no idea how this thing is supposed to work. It's confusing. It's a stand alone program, yet it's pulling off the ULS database somewhere for something.

Installation wasn't very smooth, when I click on print, which should send it to the laser control panel, I get database errors. Click through all the errors and finally get the thing into the control panel and we're all good from there.

Again, I really don't understand that entire process.

Now, for the good, it's got a few steps on the right hand side, you select the photo, it pulls it in (no resizing prior to bringing into this), the first box is a height/width box. You can resize it right there. Mirror Image and Rotate are also buttons right there. That's step one.

Step 2- Crop tools. Square, Round, or oval are icons. Click it and it crops it with that shape. You can drag the edges to change it around. Does a good job and quick work of it.

Step 1 and 2 are optional.

Step 3- mandatory- select material. Pick the material from the list. It has 7 or 8 materials. Tiles, Marble, Acrylic, plastics, leather and a couple more.

Step 4- print or save, which takes you into the actual control panel of the laser, more or less.

Pretty darn simple.

I picked acrylic and engraved a photo on some acrylic. I started it and went back to work. Came back and was stunned to see the result. VERY NICE. Very very nice. Without a question, the best photo I have ever engraved on acrylic.

Probably took less than 5 minutes from start to finish on opening the photo and getting it to the engraver. Would probably be less if I understood the flow, but it's a little confusing since it's a standalone program and not within the control panel itself.

[Mike Mackenzie]

Scott,

The print directly is not completely functional what you should do is save the file once it has been processed and then import it into corel and then run it through the UCP you will avoid all of the errors. This is one of the issues they are still working on each power of laser tube has its own data base for materials settings thus the error messages. If you process it for the material and then save it it works great and yes very good detail from very poor graphics. We ran a couple of data base repair utilities that corrected the printing errors. Send me an e-mail and I will check to see if they will work for your system if so I can send them to you.

[Scott Shepherd]

Thanks Mike, it looks like the database problem is with the new driver, not the photo thingy. When I try to use the new driver 5.26.45, it gives me the same message if I use the materials database (which I almost never do), so it looks like the photo thingy is pulling off that materials database rather than letting you use any manual settings right out of that.

I'm engraving everything in site. I had plenty to do tonight and didn't need to be playing with this photo thing, but dang, it's good. Really good. I'm lucky to have saved some of my "best" efforts with photograv in real life samples. I'm engraving those same photographs using 1-touch now and can't wait to see the results and compare.

I'll post photos when I have some time. Might be a day or two, as I'm getting further behind since I'm playing more than working tonight.

[Eric Seest]

Got it today as well, and had to try it on acrylic first and was amazed at how it came out. Don't have photograv so nothing to really compare it to. The only thing I was a little confused on was that in the material selection there is no option for wood, so I used the leather setting and it turned out okay. Any suggestions on the wood setting?

[fred sanchez]

hummm wonder when ill get my email ?

[John Wagstaff]

Could I also have the link please

Many Thanks


John

[Scott Shepherd]

They apparently are emailing it to people. It has password and username info in it, so it's tied directly to you, which would prevent me from posting a link.

I did a few more things last night, all on clear acrylic and it really is outstanding. As soon as I can get some time, I'll post some photos.

[Dee Gallo]

Interesting (and good!) that Universal has developed this...must be lurking here! I wonder if Epilog or anyone else is going to do the same thing? It will be interesting to find out how this works out in the long run, and how it works in general. Is it simply a macro like the Gold Method?

- dee

[Mike Mackenzie]

Scott,

I tried to send you a PM and your box is full and it will not allow me to send it to you. You need to clear up some space.

[Jacob Hebert]

I have to admit, I'm interested in trying this trial as well. :eek:

[Scott Shepherd]

Cleared my inbox up Mike, send away!

Thanks!

[Lee DeRaud]

Mike, it sounds like this runs "upstream" of the normal drivers (i.e. not hardware-specific)...
is there any reason it wouldn't work with my older VL200?

And if not, how do I get on the list? :cool:

[Dan Hintz]

Got my call today. I was informed it required the new driver to work, so unless they have one for the VL200 you may be out of luck Lee.

I questioned Ed on the possibility of a price being charged, and although he claimed to not know one way or the other, I simply cannot imagine them putting a 30-day licensed trial out if their intention was to give it away. No, I think they're trying to hook everyone on how great/easy it is, then stick you with a bill if you want to continue using it.

My laser's computer isn't connected to the net, which is required to activate the license, so I'm going to jump through some extra hoops if I want to try it out. This simply isn't starting out on the right foot for me...

[fred sanchez]

i just got my copy im going to install it and see if the wait was worth it

[Scott Shepherd]

It's not perfect, and it lacks some materials and features, but it's a good start.

I can't wait to spend some time with it.

All I can report is that I had PhotoGraV for over a year and I never produced a single image I was happy with. It would take me 10 times to get it to a point where it was better than the other 9 times. There is no way I could have ever made a penny off of using it (and I didn't make a penny from it). However, with this, I can see how I could make money with it.

To me, that's a giant leap forward. Might not be a leap to the end of the rainbow, but it's certainly a leap out of the backwards way I was working through before.

I quite literally took a photo, opened it in the program, clicked on the material, applied the filter, sent it to the laser and cut it and it was something that had the quality level I could sell. Less than 5 minutes.

I've only tried it on acrylic, so I can't speak for the rest of the items. We'll give it a try on some other materials in the near future.

[fred sanchez]

Ok so here is my first test of the software 1touch photo on anodized aluminum.
Here are 3 pictures 1 is the orignal then a side by side of 1 touch and photo grav. The photo grave pic i had to do all the usual steps abd the 1 touch all i did was use the raw photo and hit apply filter. So far 2 thumbs up for the new software pretty easy to use but theres no wood seting hummmmm

[Frank Corker]

Fred try putting it through with this version of your picture. You might get an even better result

[Mike Mackenzie]

FYI,

Everyone the 30 day trial versions are being sent out to test the licensing portion of the software. On the complete release you will have the option to phone in for your access code so the system will not have to be connected to the Internet.

The software will have to be connected to the computer that is running the laser in order for it to function.

Dan, you can just use the Evaluate button without connecting to the Internet.

As for the filters they are still working on the wood filter and the Glass filter.

I am waiting on sort of a press release from the MFG. to post here so everyone can understand whats going on with the software.

[Scott Shepherd]

Mike's files corrected my issue. Now I see how it's supposed to work :) Makes a little more sense now.

Thanks Mike (and Trevor)!

[Dan Hintz]

Everyone the 30 day trial versions are being sent out to test the licensing portion of the software.
Mike,

I haven't installed it yet (my father is coming into town for a visit and I know he'd like to play), so I don't know the software's format. If I am reading between the lines of your reply correctly, the software can be run on a computer different than the one controlling the laser (i.e., it's a stand-alone piece of software, hence a requirement for licensing to prevent non-ULS owners from using it). Is this a correct assessment? If so, I'll keep my clam shut until ULS decides if they want to charge or give it away. I'm okay with a licensing scheme that is in place to prevent others from using it.

[James Jaragosky]

Cleared my inbox up Mike, send away!

Thanks!
Pictures Scott Pictures.
Please:D

[Scott Shepherd]

I'll have to apologize up front for crappy photos. Poor light and little patience on my end. I need to pull out the light tent and do it correctly, but that's too much like work.

The dime is put in there to show size. No adjustments were made. Just put it in there, selected the height, selected acrylic, hit the go button on the laser.

Not perfect and it's a really poor photo. One kid is wearing a white sweater and the other kid is wearing a solid black vest. Just wrong image to try and engrave. I was getting a glare on the first photo, so it's a little hazy looking.I've never gotten a photo to look like that in the 2 1/2 years I have been trying. It's not perfect, but it's about a country mile closer to being what I expect.

Material is cast acrylic, 1/8" thick.

[Dave Johnson29]

the software can be run on a computer different than the one controlling the laser


I don't think so Dan,

Mike said, "The software will have to be connected to the computer that is running the laser in order for it to function."

My take on that is the Laser is the dongle. A good marketing ploy locking the software to a ULS laser.

I have been wrong before though. :eek::):)

[James Jaragosky]

I'll have to apologize up front for crappy photos. Poor light and little patience on my end. I need to pull out the light tent and do it correctly, but that's too much like work.

The dime is put in there to show size. No adjustments were made. Just put it in there, selected the height, selected acrylic, hit the go button on the laser.

Not perfect and it's a really poor photo. One kid is wearing a white sweater and the other kid is wearing a solid black vest. Just wrong image to try and engrave. I was getting a glare on the first photo, so it's a little hazy looking.I've never gotten a photo to look like that in the 2 1/2 years I have been trying. It's not perfect, but it's about a country mile closer to being what I expect.

Material is cast acrylic, 1/8" thick.
The detail looks impressive. I can see the photo mat finish in the last photo. thanks for the pictures.
jim j.

[Tor Amundson]

How does one apply for the beta/trial? I'd like to get in line for a similar email for the 30 day trial if at all possible.

[Mike Mackenzie]

Contact your sales rep!

[Eric Seest]

1 Touch what else do you have to say, I am amazed. Well for those that have seen some of my other posts as far as it comes to photos I am struggling, well that was until 1 Touch showed up. I had posted a picture a while back of some kids I was trying to engrave on marble and got several suggestions but nothing seemed to turn out very good. With 1 Touch I cut the image out in Photo Paint and then sent it to 1 Touch saved it and imported it into Draw and sent it to the Laser (no touch up done). With a few adjustments to the power settings the final result is amazing (at least to me). I can't wait until they release the wood filters and more than the 30 day trial.

[Scott Shepherd]

I've had a chance to try out a couple more items using this and the thing that is coming to the front of the list is that you don't have to do anything, size wise. You don't have to know DPI or PPI or make sure it's at 600DPI or 300DPI or whatever. You don't need a high quality image either.

You can plot in small file that the quality isn't that high on and it just does it's thing. No more calculating that if it's a 35" tall image at 72 DPI, and I need it to 300 DPI, then how big does that make it type stuff.

Just open the picture, click the button and it's done. The only thing I'm spending time on now is determining the right power level for various materials. I've just about got that dialed it, so hopefully once that's figured, then it won't need to be done again.

I've shown a few things I have tested to people over the last couple of days and the comments are almost always the same, "That's amazing". I'm sure this end result is nothing more than what photograv is supposed to be giving, but from the user standpoint, I couldn't ever get it to work like this thing does, so I'm happy.

The interface lacks some features for sure, but the core of it seems to work really well.

[Dave Johnson29]

You don't have to know DPI or PPI or make sure it's at 600DPI or 300DPI or whatever.


Scott, Have you checked to see what the resultant file actually was for DPI? Also, is the resultant file 1-bit B&W or grayscale?

[Scott Shepherd]

Scott, Have you checked to see what the resultant file actually was for DPI? Also, is the resultant file 1-bit B&W or grayscale?

Nope, sure haven't. Don't care, that's my whole point! :)

[Dave Johnson29]

Nope, sure haven't. Don't care, that's my whole point!


I thought you might like to spread the joy to those of us who cannot use it. I have a ULS but I sincerely doubt the software would recognize it as a ULS model as it runs under DOS 6.22 and w3.1.

Besides as some wise person once said, "there is no crime in not knowing, the crime is in not wanting to know."

[Lee DeRaud]

With 1 Touch I cut the image out in Photo Paint and then sent it to 1 Touch saved it and imported it into Draw and sent it to the Laser (no touch up done).That makes it sound like the output from 1-Touch is just a bitmap of some sort.

But the people at ULS are claiming that 1-Touch is "not compatible with older ULS systems" (in particular my 2005-vintage Versalaser). Does that make any sense to anybody? It sure doesn't to me.

Followup question: can you re-import the 1-Touch output into PhotoPaint and/or print it to a regular (e.g. inkjet) printer?

[Scott Shepherd]

Dave, I don't know the answers to those, not because I don't care, but because the workflow of it never takes me near that info. I supposed I could figure it out if I needed to know, but here's the workflow, which might help in the explanation-

1) Open 1-Touch
2) Open photograph you want to engrave
3) (assuming no cropping or flipping, which are available options) Select Material, Apply Filter.
4) Print
5) Open ULS Control Panel for Laser, Image is there
6) Make sure "1-Touch Photo" is selected
7) Hit green button

So I don't currently ever see or manipulate the image outside of the ULS programs. There is a "Save" button instead of print, but I see no point in saving it, opening corel, importing it into corel, then printed from corel, when I can skip all that and go right from the software into the laser job control program.

That's why I don't know the answer to your question, because I'm not working with the image outside of the software.

[Eric Seest]

After running the photograph through 1 Touch I saved it instead of printing it because I wanted to put it in the center of my work. I also did one on an alder plaque that I needed more than just the picture, so by saving it and importing it back into corel draw I can engrave everything at one time and have it exactly where I want it to be. I have attached the one I did on the alder; I used the leather settings to get the results but turned the power down to 50%.

[Lee DeRaud]

I'm still trying to get a handle on what this software actually outputs and how it interacts with the rest of the system. Will someone please post a sample of a 1-touch output file as an attachment?

(I assume that's possible: it's apparently a file format that CorelDraw recognizes for import...worst case, put it inside a .zip file.)

[Lee DeRaud]

Scott, Have you checked to see what the resultant file actually was for DPI? Also, is the resultant file 1-bit B&W or grayscale?Mike Mackenzie sent me a sample file (Thanks, Mike!): it's a plain-jane 1-bit BMP. This one was 1000DPI, but I don't know if that varies by material settings.

[Scott Shepherd]

Here's 2 photos I did on marble using 1-touch. This is the photo, full size, full color, taken in and processed using 1-touch. The photos don't do them justice, they are beautiful.

[Dan Hintz]

Is it just your photo skills, or are they that dark/low-contrast in person? The images look sweet and crisp, just not as bright of white as I would have liked. Did you consider hitting it a second time to brighten it up?

[Scott Shepherd]

My photo skills. It was indoors, and the lights and ceiling tiles were reflecting back into the marble, so I turned off the lights. I really should start using my white balance card and making them color correct, but I figure for what, it's just for Dan to look at :D

Maybe I'll correct the color and post them again.

P.S., for those who say "I don't like the veining", this was for someone that owns a tile store, so they loved the veining and wouldn't want it without it. It's not for my taste, but I don't pay the bills :)

[Kevin Baker]

Steve -

I'm using 1-Touch to produce the results you see in the attached pics. When I look at your results, they seem to have a better white/black contrast. My results are more gray than white. Are my results a laser power/speed setting for do I need to adjust the photo (brightness/contrast) prior (or after) I run it through 1-Touch. The marble is a sample from LaserSketch.

Thanks,
Kevin

[David Dustin]

Hey all!

How do I get my copy of Onetouch?

I did not receive my email from ULS :(.

Thanks,
David

[Scott Shepherd]

Call tech support and they'll get you the info needed to obtain it.

Kevin, what are you using for settings? From 1-touch, I clicked on the "print" button, used the materials database, stone, marble, soft and was done with it. I never use that materials database, so this was unusual for me. If you do that, it makes sure the "1-touch photo" button is selected and handles everything else.

I think the settings for my 45W were something like 38P, 80S.

[Kevin Baker]

Scott -

I started like you did, but it seems very light (using the stone, marble, soft) so I started playing with the manual.. which didn't make things any better. I guess I need to do a full tile and see how it turns out.. thanks for the help.

Kevin

[Scott Shepherd]

Kevin, I don't that that's marble. I sent away for the same sample from them and they sent 2 pieces. One that I thought was marble and one that was thicker and looked more like granite. I was showing it to a stone guy and I said "we could use this marble" and he said "That's not marble, it's granite". I told him it was sent as a marble sample. He said he didn't care what it was sent as, it wasn't marble. I pulled out a piece of real marble and he's right, it's not marble, it's a very fine grain granite.

I suspect it's what you have as well. Your engraving would verify that. You're not getting shades of gray because it's granite, and the 1-touch doesn't have a granite driver yet.

Just my opinion, I could be wrong, but I am able to see the specks in that piece you posted and that tells me it's granite, not marble.

[Randy Walker]

Hi all
I have been playing with 1 Touch for several days now. What I have found is that the program seems to be a seriese of macro's or parameters, that correspond to the characteristics of certain materials (as listed by Scott). Once you complete the modifications of your photo you can send it directly to the Uls driver or save it and reopen it with another program like Corel. When sent directly to the Uls driver you can use the manual controls to set the laser to what ever power level you want.
Another interesting thing that I have found is the processing for marble and leather are exact oposites. That may also be true of some of the other settings that I have not tried. The mirrors posted below are done in leather (left) and marble (right) settings (adjusted for mirror). They are copper leafed on the back. I still have lots of playing to do.
Sorry about the poor pic quality I used my cell phone because its quick but shows oposing images

Back to playhttp://www.sawmillcreek.org/images/icons/icon7.gif

Randy Walker

[Kevin Baker]

Scott -

Yeah, I got two pieces as well... just as you describled... where do you get your marble from?

Thanks again for all your help and input..
Kevin

[Scott Shepherd]

I got those pieces from a tile shop, but they were for a person that sells granite.

[David Dustin]

We received our copy of 1-touch and I am very pleased with the results.

The speed of processing and ease of use are quite good (and I'm a tough judge).
David

[Bill Cunningham]

Steve -

I'm using 1-Touch to produce the results you see in the attached pics. When I look at your results, they seem to have a better white/black contrast. My results are more gray than white. Are my results a laser power/speed setting for do I need to adjust the photo (brightness/contrast) prior (or after) I run it through 1-Touch. The marble is a sample from LaserSketch.

Thanks,
Kevin

Laserskech marble wont turn white, because it's not really marble..
Real marble turns very white, and will brighten up with a second pass.. Don't try that on the lasersketch, it won't work.. Real marble also requires more power 30-40% speed, 100% power where the LS stone etches with 75-80% speed, 100 power. You can use the same setting for the abs. black granite as the LS marble .. The LS stuff renderes photos very well, but they need to have whitener added.. Thats why the also sell the VanSon white ink..

[Ed Lang]

I found this interesting.

http://www.natural-stone.com/testmarbleiq.html

[Dave Johnson29]

I found this interesting.


:D:D Er...



NEGRO MARQUINA _____
ROJO ALICANTE _____
BIANCO CARRARA_____
TRAVERTINE CLASSICO_____
CREMA MARFIL_____
EMPERADOR_____
CHANDORE_____
JERUSALEM STONE_____
ROSATTA_____
How many of the above did you classify as marble?
You may be surprised to discover that only one of the above materials is true marble (see answers ar the end of article). The rest are all limestone, except for Ubatuba, which is a granite.

Ubatuba is not on the list!!!! :):rolleyes: :D:D

[Dan Hintz]

:D:D Er...
Ubatuba is not on the list!!!! :):rolleyes: :D:D
Man, I thought it was just me!

[Lisa Higginbotham]

Does this only work with a ULS machine or does it work with Corel so I can send it to my Trotec?

[Randy Walker]

Ok ... some more messing with 1 Touch. I imported the pic below into Corel photo paint and adjusted the contrast and brightness levels to bring out some dark areas and dampen down the areas that were too light. Then I brought into 1 Touch and began trying the filters until I found one that had all of the contrast about equal. For this pic that was the "microsurfaced plastic" filter. I saved the adjusted pic and closed the program. In Corel draw I opened the pic and printed as usual. In the Uls driver I used "wood - medium density" and printed it.
The picture is on birch plywood. The first one is one pass. The second one is two passes. The third one is three passes. The photo's don't show how good these turned out. The quality is excelent. In fact the first one turned out so good I thought I might get a 3-D effect with multiple passes. I was right. You cant tell in the photos but the second and third are very nice 3-D relief. Eventualy I intend to gold leaf them.
I don't have any experience with any other programs so I can give no comparissons. In fact I have only had my laser a few months and consider myself a NU-B. But I can tell you that I am impressed with this programs quality and simplicity.http://www.sawmillcreek.org/images/icons/icon14.gifhttp://www.sawmillcreek.org/images/icons/icon14.gif

Good stuff

Randy Walker

The pics are worse than I thought they would be. I lowered the resolution on my camera to keep the file size down. Sorryhttp://www.sawmillcreek.org/images/icons/icon9.gif

[Trevor Watson]

Does this program only optimize for ULS lasers or could it be used with
Xenetech by saving out going through corel .. Already use Photograv 3 and find I get better results with Adromeda Etchtone lol ..

Trev

[Randy Walker]

I was able to save to my computer and close 1 Touch, then open the processed file in Corel. My guess is that it could be opened with any compatable progran but I don't have any other programs to test it with so can't speculate about that.

Randy Walker

[Mike Mackenzie]

One touch is tuned for the Universal systems (speeds, pulsing, ramping, powers, Len's, Etc.) Even though they give you an option of saving the file it probably won't give you the same out put on different laser systems.

Even Photograv must be configured for the laser system it is getting used on.

[Scott Shepherd]

Mike, any updates on when they will have wood and granite materials in the database?

+/- 12 months? :D

[Mike Mackenzie]

Scott,

I wish I could answer that!

[Scott Shepherd]

I did give you plus or minus 12 months Mike :D

[Barry Clark]

So far so go here. I like the simplicity of it over photograv, though I haven't really put it though it's paces yet..

[Wade Cook]

If you don't mind I would like to have the trial please.

[Mike Null]

Wade

welcome to SMC. The thread you posted to is more than three years old so you may not get a response.

[Brian J Rogalny]

Never happened if you don't have pictures Steve

[Wade Cook]

Wade

welcome to SMC. The thread you posted to is more than three years old so you may not get a response.

Thx mike ill have to pay closer attention

[Dave Bonde]

If you go to their website(just search 1 touch photo) you can now download a 30 day trial version of the software, the software is $250.

[jordan djeu]

looks good only if they lower the pixel... tooo many fat pixels!!

[Ian Wilson (AUST)]

Hi Mike,

Is the 1 Touch program only for Universal Lasers?

Cheers Ian

[Bruce Dorworth]

No, it will work on any laser. You can print directly from the program to a Universal laser. There is a full blown free demo that you can download and run for 30 days I believe.

[Bert Kemp]

I downloaded it directly from their site and when I try to run it it tells me my trial has expired. Never did get it to run.