>> A quick Google reveals that OpenCascade is a free core that does that,
>> the only real task would be writing a converter from POV's primitives
>> and CSG commands into a format that OpenCascade would understand. It
>> would probably easiest be written as a patch to the POV binary that
>> could then make use POV's internal data structures after the scene has
>> been parsed.
>>
> Well, apparently, at least some bugs in CarveCSG have been corrected. I
> hadn't looked for an update for a while. Also.. in the case of the
> program I used it in, its not "imbedded", but actually drops the mesh
> out to a command line, then imports the result of the merge/cuts/etc.
> Which means, basically, that there may be things it can do, and tricks
> that are just not possible via the method being used to access it.

It depends how sophisticated it is. I'm biased as I've only ever used 
commercial CAD packages, the free ones may not be as reliable or 
feature-rich, I haven't checked. But the packages I have used allow for 
all geometry POV has apart from isosurface-type things. If such a system 
was developed then a side-effect (or the main effect) would be a 
geometry preview possible on the graphics card :-)

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