Hi All,

I'm trying to render a scene in pov ray of a real life mineral ore body. The ore
body has been made and is a complicated wireframe modeled in a mining software
in .dxf format. What is the best way to convert this to something pov-ray can
read, where I can then use the program to adjust the textures, colors and the
usual stuff once its placed where I want it.

Ive downloaded 'PoseRay' by FlyerX and had played with this for a while but I'm
wondering if there is something that can make it a little easier to import.

It doesn't have to be .dxf, if someone knows and easier format that pov-ray
likes while retaining its detail, I'm willing to try this too.

Apologies for the repeat question, but I've tried multiple links provided on the
'resources: Conversion utilities' page and many appear to be not in use anymore.

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On 16/09/2016 01:33, SecondCup wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I'm trying to render a scene in pov ray of a real life mineral ore body. The ore
> body has been made and is a complicated wireframe modeled in a mining software
> in .dxf format. What is the best way to convert this to something pov-ray can
> read, where I can then use the program to adjust the textures, colors and the
> usual stuff once its placed where I want it.
>
> Ive downloaded 'PoseRay' by FlyerX and had played with this for a while but I'm
> wondering if there is something that can make it a little easier to import.
>
> It doesn't have to be .dxf, if someone knows and easier format that pov-ray
> likes while retaining its detail, I'm willing to try this too.
>
> Apologies for the repeat question, but I've tried multiple links provided on the
> 'resources: Conversion utilities' page and many appear to be not in use anymore.

If your mining software can export a mesh-based format like .obj, .stl, 
.slp, .vrml then there's software to convert to POV format.

Post a reply to this message

Am 16.09.2016 um 08:50 schrieb scott:

> If your mining software can export a mesh-based format like .obj, .stl,
> ..slp, .vrml then there's software to convert to POV format.

... and direct OBJ import into POV-Ray is on its way.

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scott <sco### [at] scottcom> wrote:
> On 16/09/2016 01:33, SecondCup wrote:
> > Hi All,
> >
> > I'm trying to render a scene in pov ray of a real life mineral ore body. The ore
> > body has been made and is a complicated wireframe modeled in a mining software
> > in .dxf format. What is the best way to convert this to something pov-ray can
> > read, where I can then use the program to adjust the textures, colors and the
> > usual stuff once its placed where I want it.
> >
> > Ive downloaded 'PoseRay' by FlyerX and had played with this for a while but I'm
> > wondering if there is something that can make it a little easier to import.
> >
> > It doesn't have to be .dxf, if someone knows and easier format that pov-ray
> > likes while retaining its detail, I'm willing to try this too.
> >
> > Apologies for the repeat question, but I've tried multiple links provided on the
> > 'resources: Conversion utilities' page and many appear to be not in use anymore.
>
> If your mining software can export a mesh-based format like .obj, .stl,
> .slp, .vrml then there's software to convert to POV format.


Thanks Scott.

I'm not sure how familiar you are with PoseRay but it renders the wireframe
(whether a .dxf or .obj) as a kind of a snapshot of the solid as it is on the
screen at the time of rendering. Then when you run the .pov, it produces a black
and white shaded image of the solid and exports it as a .png too. When run in
pov-ray, its a badly pixelated shaded surface

In summary, its not producing the wireframe as a true solid the way it is when
viewed as a .dxf or .obj in other software. I'm probably not explaining my self
very well, but I can provide all the files if you want

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On 9/19/2016 6:09 PM, SecondCup wrote:
>
>
> Thanks Scott.
>
> I'm not sure how familiar you are with PoseRay but it renders the wireframe
> (whether a .dxf or .obj) as a kind of a snapshot of the solid as it is on the
> screen at the time of rendering. Then when you run the .pov, it produces a black
> and white shaded image of the solid and exports it as a .png too. When run in
> pov-ray, its a badly pixelated shaded surface
>
> In summary, its not producing the wireframe as a true solid the way it is when
> viewed as a .dxf or .obj in other software. I'm probably not explaining my self
> very well, but I can provide all the files if you want
>

Just a thought. A wireframe is not a solid it is just the edges as far 
as I understand it.

When I use PoseRay. I do not allow it to render the scene but export the 
geometry and material then import it into Bishop3D* to work on it and 
view it in openGL.

*
Bishop3D is a modeller for PovRay which is now free but only works with 
PovRay Ver 3.6
Also you would need to use an older version of PoseRay ver 3.12.2.456 or 
Bishop3D will not be able to import it.

-- 

Regards
     Stephen

Post a reply to this message

On 19-9-2016 19:09, SecondCup wrote:
> scott <sco### [at] scottcom> wrote:
>> On 16/09/2016 01:33, SecondCup wrote:
>>> Hi All,
>>>
>>> I'm trying to render a scene in pov ray of a real life mineral ore body. The ore
>>> body has been made and is a complicated wireframe modeled in a mining software
>>> in .dxf format. What is the best way to convert this to something pov-ray can
>>> read, where I can then use the program to adjust the textures, colors and the
>>> usual stuff once its placed where I want it.
>>>
>>> Ive downloaded 'PoseRay' by FlyerX and had played with this for a while but I'm
>>> wondering if there is something that can make it a little easier to import.
>>>
>>> It doesn't have to be .dxf, if someone knows and easier format that pov-ray
>>> likes while retaining its detail, I'm willing to try this too.
>>>
>>> Apologies for the repeat question, but I've tried multiple links provided on the
>>> 'resources: Conversion utilities' page and many appear to be not in use anymore.
>>
>> If your mining software can export a mesh-based format like .obj, .stl,
>> .slp, .vrml then there's software to convert to POV format.
>
>
> Thanks Scott.
>
> I'm not sure how familiar you are with PoseRay but it renders the wireframe
> (whether a .dxf or .obj) as a kind of a snapshot of the solid as it is on the
> screen at the time of rendering. Then when you run the .pov, it produces a black
> and white shaded image of the solid and exports it as a .png too. When run in
> pov-ray, its a badly pixelated shaded surface
>
> In summary, its not producing the wireframe as a true solid the way it is when
> viewed as a .dxf or .obj in other software. I'm probably not explaining my self
> very well, but I can provide all the files if you want
>

If I understand you correctly (I may be wrong) I think that what you 
need to do is 'export' your .dxf or .obj to POV-Ray using Poseray. This 
generates a couple of files (MyObject_POV_geom.inc and 
MyObject_POV_mat.inc) containing a mesh2{} file that describes the 
original geometry and textures, and which you can then render in POV-Ray 
as an object{}. You may probably need to edit the material file.

-- 
Thomas

Post a reply to this message

On 09/15/2016 08:33 PM, SecondCup wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I'm trying to render a scene in pov ray of a real life mineral ore body. The ore
> body has been made and is a complicated wireframe modeled in a mining software
> in .dxf format. What is the best way to convert this to something pov-ray can
> read, where I can then use the program to adjust the textures, colors and the
> usual stuff once its placed where I want it.
>
> Ive downloaded 'PoseRay' by FlyerX and had played with this for a while but I'm
> wondering if there is something that can make it a little easier to import.
>
> It doesn't have to be .dxf, if someone knows and easier format that pov-ray
> likes while retaining its detail, I'm willing to try this too.
>
> Apologies for the repeat question, but I've tried multiple links provided on the
> 'resources: Conversion utilities' page and many appear to be not in use anymore.
>
>

I'm not aware of a direct path to povray from dxf. If the mining 
software can output obj(povray import just added to 3.7.1) or something 
PoseRay can handle that is probably the easiest path into POV-Ray as 
others have suggested. The latter the better path, if you are getting 
materials/textures from which you'd like to start.

Though I've not used them, I know of FreeCAD and OpenSCAD. At least from 
their docs it looks like there is perhaps path for the mesh data:

dxf -> openscad -> off -> freecad -> povray

There is too the MeshLab tool I've played with a little, which can 
import/export many mesh formats as well as process them in various ways 
- but it doesn't import or export from the POV-Ray native mesh formats.

Bill P.

Post a reply to this message

William F Pokorny <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
> On 09/15/2016 08:33 PM, SecondCup wrote:
> > Hi All,
> >
> > I'm trying to render a scene in pov ray of a real life mineral ore body. The ore
> > body has been made and is a complicated wireframe modeled in a mining software
> > in .dxf format. What is the best way to convert this to something pov-ray can
> > read, where I can then use the program to adjust the textures, colors and the
> > usual stuff once its placed where I want it.
> >
> > Ive downloaded 'PoseRay' by FlyerX and had played with this for a while but I'm
> > wondering if there is something that can make it a little easier to import.
> >
> > It doesn't have to be .dxf, if someone knows and easier format that pov-ray
> > likes while retaining its detail, I'm willing to try this too.
> >
> > Apologies for the repeat question, but I've tried multiple links provided on the
> > 'resources: Conversion utilities' page and many appear to be not in use anymore.
> >
> >
>
> I'm not aware of a direct path to povray from dxf. If the mining
> software can output obj(povray import just added to 3.7.1) or something
> PoseRay can handle that is probably the easiest path into POV-Ray as
> others have suggested. The latter the better path, if you are getting
> materials/textures from which you'd like to start.
>
> Though I've not used them, I know of FreeCAD and OpenSCAD. At least from
> their docs it looks like there is perhaps path for the mesh data:
>
> dxf -> openscad -> off -> freecad -> povray
>
> There is too the MeshLab tool I've played with a little, which can
> import/export many mesh formats as well as process them in various ways
> - but it doesn't import or export from the POV-Ray native mesh formats.
>
> Bill P.


Hi all,

Ive found a great online conversion program called AccuTrans. Its converts to
..pov and other formats for seamless importing.

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On 9/21/2016 7:55 PM, SecondCup wrote:
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> Ive found a great online conversion program called AccuTrans. Its converts to
> ...pov and other formats for seamless importing.
>

I've just had a look at the file formats. It supports Pov ver 3.0
That is quite old and it is not free.
I use Bishop3D which is dead but supports Pov Ver 3.6
I use it to generate pov files that I can run in Pov 3.7 for the speed 
of using all my CPUs

Although not supported now. There are a couple of uses here who could help.


-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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On 21-9-2016 21:14, Stephen wrote:
> On 9/21/2016 7:55 PM, SecondCup wrote:
>>
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Ive found a great online conversion program called AccuTrans. Its
>> converts to
>> ...pov and other formats for seamless importing.
>>
>
> I've just had a look at the file formats. It supports Pov ver 3.0
> That is quite old and it is not free.
> I use Bishop3D which is dead but supports Pov Ver 3.6
> I use it to generate pov files that I can run in Pov 3.7 for the speed
> of using all my CPUs
>
> Although not supported now. There are a couple of uses here who could help.
>
>

And I am stubborn: I still would like to hear (maybe see an example in 
p.b.i.?) from SecondCup how he fares with a proper pov-ray mesh2{} 
export in Poseray.

-- 
Thomas

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