I'm trying to experiment with some project code and save the results as a .ai or .PDF file so I can modify it in Adobe Irritator later. But despite my best efforts at using SimplePostScript library and the PDF library, I get no files; instead I get various error messages which make no sense to me.

I'm not familiar with Java or programming, so I admit my ignorance. Add to this the fact that some of the code is not in English so I can't read it, there's no printed documentation of the language, and you have a very bad situation. But really, it should be a built-in function of Processing to allow you to save any drawing as .ai or .PDF, as well as other image formats such as .tiff, .jpeg, etc.

Hopefully, someone can tell me exactly how to set up these projects I got so that I can output the results to .ai or .PDF; i.e., exactly what code goes where to make this work.

Mulder

same here:

i tried to export all the frames of my sketch and got an empty/blank PDF.

Anybody got an idea?

thanks

//code starts here:

Agent myAgent;
Agent[] myAgentArray;
final int NUMBER_OF_AGENTS = 16;
float STROKEWEIGHT = 15;
float STROKEALPHA = 100;
import processing.pdf.*;


void setup() {
 size(600, 600);
 background(255);
 noFill();
 ellipseMode(CENTER);
 frameRate(30);
 smooth();

 /* array */
 myAgentArray = new Agent[NUMBER_OF_AGENTS];
 for (int i=0; i < myAgentArray.length; i++) {
   myAgentArray[i] = new Agent(width/2, height/2);
   myAgentArray[i].size = 10;
   myAgentArray[i].setVelocity(random(-4.0f, 4.0f), random(-3.0f, 3.0f));
   myAgentArray[i].setRadius(15);
   myAgentArray[i].setAcceleration(random(-1.0f, 1.0f), random(-1.0f, 1.0f));
   myAgentArray[i].setMaximumSpeed(3.5f);
   myAgentArray[i].setMaximumAcceleration(0.75f);
 }



}



void draw() {


 for (int i=0; i < myAgentArray.length; i++) {
   myAgentArray[i].loop();
   myAgentArray[i].draw();
   myAgentArray[i].setAcceleration(random(-1.0f, 1.0f), random(-1.0f, 1.0f));
 }
}


/* Class */
class Agent {


 Vector2f _myPosition = new Vector2f();
 Vector2f _myVelocity = new Vector2f();
 Vector2f _myAcceleration = new Vector2f();
 int size = 10;
 float _myMaximumSpeed = 0;
 float _myMaximumAcceleration = 0;

 /* constructor */

 Agent(float theX, float theY) {
   _myPosition.set(theX, theY);
 }

 float _myRadius = 0;

 void setPosition(float theX, float theY) {

   _myPosition.set(theX, theY);
   {
     _myPosition.set(theX, theY);
   }
 }

 void setVelocity(float theX, float theY) {
   _myVelocity.set(theX, theY);
 }

 void setAcceleration(float theX, float theY) {
   _myAcceleration.set(theX, theY);
 }

 void setMaximumSpeed(float theMaximumSpeed) {
   _myMaximumSpeed = theMaximumSpeed;
 }

 void setMaximumAcceleration(float theMaximumAcceleration) {
   _myMaximumAcceleration = theMaximumAcceleration;
 }

 void setRadius(float theRadius) {
   _myRadius = theRadius;
 }



 void loop() {
   float myAccelerationSpeed = _myAcceleration.length();
   if (myAccelerationSpeed > _myMaximumAcceleration) {
     _myAcceleration.normalize();
     _myAcceleration.scale(_myMaximumAcceleration);
   }
   _myVelocity.add(_myAcceleration);
   float mySpeed = _myVelocity.length();
   if (mySpeed > _myMaximumSpeed) {
     _myVelocity.normalize();
     _myVelocity.scale(_myMaximumSpeed);
   }
   _myPosition.add(_myVelocity);
   if (_myPosition.x > width-size || _myPosition.x < 0 + size){
     _myPosition.set(width/2,height/2);
   }
   if (_myPosition.y > height-size || _myPosition.y < + size) {
     _myPosition.set(width/2,height/2);
   }
 }

 void draw() {

   beginRecord(PDF, "Lines.pdf");

   if (STROKEWEIGHT > 1) {
     STROKEWEIGHT = STROKEWEIGHT - 0.01;


   }
   else {
     noLoop();
     endRecord();
   }

   if (STROKEALPHA > 1) {
     STROKEALPHA = STROKEALPHA - 0.015;
   }
   else {
     noLoop();
     endRecord();
   }

   stroke(0,STROKEALPHA);
   strokeWeight(STROKEWEIGHT);
   line(_myPosition.x,
   _myPosition.y,
   _myPosition.x + _myVelocity.x,
   _myPosition.y + _myVelocity.y);
   stroke(255, 0);
   line(_myPosition.x + _myVelocity.x,
   _myPosition.y + _myVelocity.y,
   _myPosition.x + _myVelocity.x + _myAcceleration.x,
   _myPosition.y + _myVelocity.y + _myAcceleration.y);
   /*
   if (mousePressed = true){
    saveFrame("imgs/sprouts_#####.svg");
    }
    */
 }
}


public class Vector2f {
 public float x = 0;
 public float y = 0;


 public void set(Vector2f theVector) {
   x = theVector.x;
   y = theVector.y;
 }

 public void set(float theX, float theY) {
   x = theX;
   y = theY;
 }

 public void add(Vector2f theVector) {
   x += theVector.x;
   y += theVector.y;
 }

 public void sub(Vector2f theVector) {
   x -= theVector.x;
   y -= theVector.y;
 }

 public void scale(float s) {
   x *= s;
   y *= s;
 }

 float length() {
   float myLengthSquard = x*x + y*y;
   float myLength = (float)Math.sqrt(myLengthSquard);
   return myLength;
 }

 public void normalize() {
   float d = length();
   x /= d;
   y /= d;
 }

 public void cross(Vector2f a) {
   /*
   *
    * the cross product does not make much sense in this context.
    * we just asume that vector b is the z-axis and the z component
    * of our vector a is 0. after simplifing we have
    * x = a.y and y = -a.y
    *
    * Vector3f b = new Vector3f(0, 0, 1);
    * Vector3f a = new Vector3f(x, y, 0);
    * x = a.y * b.z - a.z * b.y;
    * y = b.x * a.z - b.z * a.x;
    * z = a.x * b.y - a.y * b.x;
    *
    */
   x = a.y;
   y = -a.x;
 }

 public String toString() {
   return "("+x+", "+y+")";
 }
}

So every frame you are saying,

"New .pdf file please!"

with beginRecord() as the first line in  draw(), and you're wondering why it doesn't work?

Try putting beginRecord() in setup() and you'll find it works now.