PTAP2DXF - make paper tapes without a punch

[Eric Schlaepfer]

This is awesome! I've had an idea on the back burner that would require
some fairly custom plastic punched tape. I was thinking of using a laser
engraver but this would be a lot better -- no scorched edges.

On Fri, Dec 1, 2017 at 5:51 AM, Steve Malikoff via cctalk <
cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:

> If you have a paper tape reader and no punch, you can now make real
> working paper tapes using a normal home stencil-cutting machine.
> I've written a small command line utility that can take a .PTAP (or any
> other binary or textfile) and generate output that these
> machines will cut. that your reader will read.
>
> It can easily make repair pieces for existing old broken tapes from any
> byte offset. In addition it can make banner tapes, 5-level
> Baudot RTTY tape, your own custom n-level paper tape or cut tapes from
> other materials such as plastic.
> Even if you don't need it to make or repair tapes, it can be used to
> visualise a paper tape through the console output it produces.
>
> I'd never claim it's any sort of replacement for a real punch, and it's a
> whole lot slower. But, it does work :)
>
> A simple example to make a tape of the characters ABCDEF with 1/2 inch of
> sprocket leader and 1/2 inch of trailer:
>
> C:\> ptap2dxf --text="ABCDEF" --leader=5 --trailer=5 --output=ABCDEF.dxf
> +---------+
> |     .   |
> |     .   |
> |     .   |
> |     .   |
> |     .   |
> | O   .  O|
> | O   . O |
> | O   . OO|
> | O   .O  |
> | O   .O O|
> | O   .OO |
> |     .   |
> |     .   |
> |     .   |
> |     .   |
> |     .   |
> +---------+
> Joiner 0000: data byte 00000000  absolute position 00000011
>
> The resulting ABCDEF.dxf file can be viewed in a DXF viewer such as
> Inkscape and directly loaded into the paper/vinyl cutter for producing
> the actual working tape.
>
>
> Another example: say you need a repair piece for an absolute loader,
> starting at byte 57 for 12 bytes. (A repair piece has removeable side
> tabs for handling as a self-adhesive vinyl joiner):
>
> C:\> ptap2dxf DEC-11-L2PC-PO.ptap --range=57,12 --joiner --ascii --control
> +---------+
> |  O  .O O| JOINER     %
> |     . O | JOINER     <STX>
> |     .   | JOINER     <NUL>
> |  O  .  O| JOINER     !
> |     . OO| JOINER     <ETX>
> |OOOO .OOO| JOINER
> |    O.  O| JOINER     <HT>
> |  O O.O  | JOINER     ,
> |     .   | JOINER     <NUL>
> |O    .O  | JOINER
> | OO  . OO| JOINER     c
> |     .  O| JOINER     <SOH>
> +---------+
>
> The output for machine cutting will be in DEC-11-L2PC-PO.dxf
> For larger tapes, the output can be chunked into sections which can be cut
> individually. There are other options to invert, mirror, reposition
> the sprocket feed and so on.
>
> If you think you may find it useful, it's fully open source and available
> at  https://github.com/1944GPW/ptap2dxf
> It will run on Windows (pre-built exe provided) and Linux and Mac (follow
> building instructions).
> The 26-page illustrated User Manual PDF is at  https://github.com/1944GPW/
> ptap2dxf/blob/master/Documentation/PTAP2DXF_User_Manual_v1.0.pdf
>
> Steve.
>
>
>