Very true, it seems that open source (kinda) programming works best and gets
the good features in quickly.  I guess Linux is a good example of that.

Luckily MAX comes with a lot of plug-ins (MeshSmooth as it's called, being
one of them) that are for mesh manipulation, but also work on patches, NURBS
(well not MeshSmooth because the meshes are handled internally in that
case), etc etc.

A feature that someone might consider making a macro for is an FFD (Free
Form Deformation) box.  The basic idea is that it builds an imaginary box of
verticies around an object and then as you move the vecticies it deforms the
object it's attached to.  What do you think, possible with POV-Ray?
(judging on all the cool mesh warps I've seen it should be)

If anyone's interested in making such a macro, here are the values that FFD
boxes use:

Falloff:  Adjusts the falloff of the effect of each vertex.  When 0, the
effect of each vertex is continuous (so distance doesn't matter).

Tension/Continuity:  Adjusts the tension and continuity of the deformation
splines (like the tension and continuity of a NURBS)

And of course the other standard ones you'd expect like number of divisions
on X, Y and Z.

*back to programming CGI*

--
Lance.


---
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Ken wrote in message <37C8C65D.B9778F5D@pacbell.net>...
>
>
>Lance Birch wrote:
>>
>> Excellent idea!  MAX (yes sorry to say the forbidden word) has a plugin
that
>> does a similar thing and I use it for the same reasons.
>
>  It has surprised me for years now that with all of the features available
>in Pov modelling programs not one of then that I have evaluated has this
>feature. AutoCad 14 has an internal sub division ability (factres command)
>for rendering meshs but has no ability to export them this way.
>
>> P.S.  I finally have some more time now to get to these NGs, so you'll
hear
>> a lot more of my usual dribble again.  ;)
>
>Good things comes to thems that waits I supposed. (Good grammer eh !)
>
>--
>Ken Tyler
>
>See my 850+ Povray and 3D Rendering and Raytracing Links at:
>http://home.pacbell.net/tylereng/index.html

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