Of course, some of us use *both*. I use GUM (ftp.povray.org) for model
creation (very simple program- extremely intuitive) and the Pov-Ray editor for
positioning, texturing, etc.
Works great.

H.E. Day

Ken wrote:

> Larry Fontaine wrote:
> >
> > I've read a lot of posts that say people don't like modellers because
> > you can't do multiple rotates etc. Just to let you know, this is what I
> > do: I write my source directly in POV. When there's a complex object I
> > can't just measure, I use a 2-D metafile drawing program (In my case,
> > Micrografx Designer) to draw an orthographic plan of the object. When I
> > like my results, I transfer the measurements back to POV. It's also
> > great for zooming way in to check tangent lines and such.
> > This also allows for a great "cheat" of sorts--if you have a real 3-D
> > object sitting in front of you, scan it or photograph it or whatever,
> > then bring the picture into your drawing program, draw your curves over
> > the pic, delete the pic, and copy the curve measurements into POV
> > source.
> > The only thing I really can't do well is bezier patches and
> > height_fields. Height_fields for things like mountains or whatever are
> > fairly easy, but what if I want a height_field that's a perfect
> > hemisphere? Anyway, I'll leave you with this idea.
> > PS. I've always thought a modeller with hard-code POV on one side and
> > the wireframe preview on the other would be great. Then you could use
> > the tools, or just change the POV code directly and get instant results.
> > And support for multiple transforms and CSG. I've got Visual C++ and
> > Visual Basic, so maybe I could make it myself someday...
>
>   There is more to the modeller issue than simply the lack of textual
> interface. Scenes created in a modeller are often wire frame only.
> When the scene reaches a certain level of complexity all the overlapping
> wire frames makes it difficult to visualize all of the elements in the
> scene due to clutter.
>  Additionally where POV-Ray is concerned there is no one single modeller
> that supports every function and option that Pov offers. This limits
> your creativity because of the limited support. Another issue is that
> many people such as myself are still using small screen monitors. It
> is difficult to work in a modelling environment with a small monitor.
> There are many other arguments I could go into but the lack of a textual
> interface is only one of the issues at hand.
>
>   You will also note a certain amount of Pov snobbery involved with
> them that write their pov scenes in a text only environment. Kind
> of a "I'm better that you cause I don't need no stinking modelling
> program" type or mentality. This of course has about as much validity
> as the DOS vs. Windows wars of a few years ago as to which is better
> to work in. So I say different strokes for different folks and leave
> it at that. Work in whatever environment that makes you the most
> productive and ignore any peer pressure you may feel.
>
> --
> Ken Tyler
>
> See my 850+ Povray and 3D Rendering and Raytracing Links at:
> http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html

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