In article <web.4170c0d79dbf1f716c2dfc170@news.povray.org>,
 "Gallygaskins" <nor### [at] dahlfamilyorg> wrote:

> Both the Render Settings option and the Render option are inactive until
> you have saved your script with a .pov extension and its window is active;
> these options are replaced with <filename> Settings and Render <filename>
Both of which I find frustrating, having to click back and forth when 
adjusting render settings to rerender.

> Maybe the Mac installer is a bit unstable, as I was surprised to find the
> include path was not defined in a standard installation (and maybe
> other paths I haven't found yet). Earlier posts in this list got me out
> of trouble.

As mentioned, I don't think there is any installer. The download just 
uncompresses. So when you first run the paths to external files is empty 
and you need to specify them. Figuring this out and the greyed menu 
items are the main source of frustration for new users I think, at least 
in my case.

It's not the most intuitive to mac users, there is a steep initial 
learning curve and lots of research before you can start playing with 
making scenes. The usual learning by messing with the app doesn't apply 
here, you have to read, and there's lots to read. But it's well worth 
it, I'm amazed by how much it can do.

Now I've a question. Are there any programs that let you model a scene 
visually on the mac? So I can click on a light and move it rather than 
thinking about coordinates and typing them in. I know of moray on the 
windows side but don't know anything for mac.

Also, I write programs and am working on one that makes shapes and write 
them out as pov files. This isn't a full scene editor, just makes these 
one type of shapes but I'd like to specify all the options in render 
settings for these pov files. PovRay itself seems to store those 
settings in the resource fork of the file, it doesn't seem practical for 
me to do the same. I've tried setting the render width and height in the 
pov file but they are ignored. does it go in an inc file, an ini, some 
other file? Do I need to link to the other file from the pov code?

I want to use pov as a render engine and not have to mess with code, so 
I can make my shape, render it with pov, make changes in my app, 
rerender it with pov. Any insights, notes, caveats about this greatly 
appreciated.

-laz

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