Paul Hustava wrote:
>I work in a beverage manufacturing facility. We recently added a tank farm
>-- lots of blending tanks, pumps, pipes & control pods. This particular
>area was fully engineered & placed in an AutoCAD drawing (3D) before any
>ground was broken.
>
>There were 'after' photos taken of the area, but the ambient [and|or] flash
>lighting don't do justice to the thought and labor which was put into this
>project.
>
>Rather than calling in a professional photographer, we discussed the
>possibility of converting the AutoCAD drawings to POV and creating images
>from that.
>
>Before I delve into unknown areas and make promises I cannot keep, I want
>to know if there is a particular CAD > POV conversion application anyone
>has used with any success? I would prefer to be able to manipulate lighting
>and camera positioning (a'la Moray) before export to POV.
>
>A couple of requirements:
>
>Preferbly should support Autocad 2000. If not, I could convert to earlier
>version I guess.
>
>Said application should cost $500 (US) or less.
>
>Thanks!


The autocad2pov looks like the keep it simplist approach.
I don't have experience with it as I use Pro Engineer (is there a proE2pov )
and then the 3rd party software of Ultimate Unwrap at
http://www.unwrap3d.com/
Recently Brad Bolthouse added a plugin ( I guess he owns the joint) to
accomadate POVRAY users.  Below is an excerpt from his news letter...

"The POV-Ray plugin has been updated to support the newly released
POV-Ray v3.5 rendering engine, which now supports UV mapping.
When exporting your model as mesh2, a POV file and a INC file
are created.
...."

His software can open dxf files among a number of other formats (I'm forced
to save as 3dpaint), he charges very little for it.  He also maintained me
(high maintance) with problems I was having.

You also have the option of using his software for UV mapping which I
believe is what most would use Ultimate Unwrap for.
Tony

ton### [at] xenomechanicscom

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