Is it possible to "import" objects or shapes created in other graphics
drawing programs such as DXF meshes, WMF etc.

In particular I have a shape which I created in CorelDraw which I can
obviously export in various formats, and I'd like to be able to use it in
PovRAY in an extruded form.

Is this possible in PovRAY, or by using a pre-processor?

I'd also like to know if DXF meshes can imported into PovRAY.

Thanks

Colin

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CB wrote:
> 
> Is it possible to "import" objects or shapes created in other graphics
> drawing programs such as DXF meshes, WMF etc.
> 
> In particular I have a shape which I created in CorelDraw which I can
> obviously export in various formats, and I'd like to be able to use it in
> PovRAY in an extruded form.

It is tyipically very difficult to translate 2D image formats into a
3D environment other than simply using them as image maps to texture
existing 3D objects. The other alternative is to try to use a 2D
image to create a height field which will create a 3D shape from
a 2D image file format, but it has limitations.
 
> Is this possible in PovRAY, or by using a pre-processor?
> 
> I'd also like to know if DXF meshes can imported into PovRAY.

There are several utilities that will allow you to convert from various
3D file formats to POV-Ray. The most popular are 3DWin and CrossRoads3D.
3DWin is shareware and is the most capable. Both will handle dxf2pov
conversions. Links to those and other conversion utilities can be found
at povray.org -

http://www.povray.org/resources/links/3D_Programs/Conversion_Utilities/

-- 
Ken Tyler

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In article <3e71d811$1@news.povray.org>, "CB" <col### [at] nospamcouk> 
wrote:

> Is it possible to "import" objects or shapes created in other graphics
> drawing programs such as DXF meshes, WMF etc.

There are converters that can handle some of these things...I'm pretty 
sure there's a DXF to POV converter, but I've never heard of WMF.


> In particular I have a shape which I created in CorelDraw which I can
> obviously export in various formats, and I'd like to be able to use it in
> PovRAY in an extruded form.

Hmm...I assume this is a vector drawing? Someone recently posted a 
converter that generated POV-Ray prism objects from PDF or PostScript 
files. Look in povray.binaries.utilities.

Alternatively, you could convert it to a black and white raster image 
and use that as input for a height field. This isn't very efficient, and 
has problems from the use of a height field (you might have trouble 
getting the sides to look OK), but it might work.

-- 
Christopher James Huff <cja### [at] earthlinknet>
http://home.earthlink.net/~cjameshuff/
POV-Ray TAG: chr### [at] tagpovrayorg
http://tag.povray.org/

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Christopher James Huff wrote:

> sure there's a DXF to POV converter, but I've never heard of WMF.

Windows Meta File format. WMF is the native vector file format for the
Microsoft Windows operating environment. WMF files are actually a
collection of GDI (Graphics Device Interface) function calls also
native to the Windows environment. When a WMF file is "played back"
(typically using the Windows PlayMetaFile() function) the graphics is
rendered. WMF files are device-independant and have no limit to their
size.

-- 
Ken Tyler

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"CB" <col### [at] nospamcouk> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:3e71d811$1@news.povray.org...
> Is it possible to "import" objects or shapes created in other graphics
> drawing programs such as DXF meshes, WMF etc.
>
> In particular I have a shape which I created in CorelDraw which I can
> obviously export in various formats, and I'd like to be able to use it in
> PovRAY in an extruded form.
>
> Is this possible in PovRAY, or by using a pre-processor?
>
> I'd also like to know if DXF meshes can imported into PovRAY.
>
> Thanks
>
> Colin
>
>



I think Corel can export TrueType fonts. Maybe you can export a font
containing your shapes, and then use Elefont to make objects out of them.

Daniel

Post a reply to this message

3e71d811$1@news.povray.org...
> Is it possible to "import" objects or shapes created in other graphics
> drawing programs such as DXF meshes, WMF etc.
>
> In particular I have a shape which I created in CorelDraw which I can
> obviously export in various formats, and I'd like to be able to use it in
> PovRAY in an extruded form.
> Is this possible in PovRAY, or by using a pre-processor?

You can use Wings 3D to import Adobe Illustrator files (.ai).
If you are using CorelDraw you can export your shape to
.ai format and open it in Wings 3D and extrude it there.
Later you can export the result to Povray as a mesh.
Wings 3D is available at:
http://www.wings3d.com/

> I'd also like to know if DXF meshes can imported into PovRAY.

As the others said, Crossroads 3D or 3Dwin are a good solution.
Bye

Txemi Jendrix
http://www.txemijendrix.com

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In article <3E726E6F.2BA68C7A@pacbell.net>, Ken <tyl### [at] pacbellnet> 
wrote:

> Windows Meta File format. WMF is the native vector file format for the
> Microsoft Windows operating environment. WMF files are actually a
> collection of GDI (Graphics Device Interface) function calls also
> native to the Windows environment. When a WMF file is "played back"
> (typically using the Windows PlayMetaFile() function) the graphics is
> rendered. WMF files are device-independant and have no limit to their
> size.

Ah...sounds like a clone of the PICT format.

-- 
Christopher James Huff <cja### [at] earthlinknet>
http://home.earthlink.net/~cjameshuff/
POV-Ray TAG: chr### [at] tagpovrayorg
http://tag.povray.org/

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The now free Truespace3.2 is another real good solution for this. It can
import the vector files (ai,eps,dxf) and then you can extrude them and save
in 3ds. Win3d can convert the 3ds to pov.

I did this for many years creating component illustraction.
Corel Draw and Truespace.


"CB" <col### [at] nospamcouk> wrote in message
news:3e71d811$1@news.povray.org...
> Is it possible to "import" objects or shapes created in other graphics
> drawing programs such as DXF meshes, WMF etc.
>
> In particular I have a shape which I created in CorelDraw which I can
> obviously export in various formats, and I'd like to be able to use it in
> PovRAY in an extruded form.
>
> Is this possible in PovRAY, or by using a pre-processor?
>
> I'd also like to know if DXF meshes can imported into PovRAY.
>
> Thanks
>
> Colin
>
>

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"Micheal (Mike) Williams" <mic### [at] quixnetnet> wrote in message
news:3e77d88b@news.povray.org...
> The now free Truespace3.2 is another real good solution for this. It can
> import the vector files (ai,eps,dxf) and then you can extrude them and
save
> in 3ds. Win3d can convert the 3ds to pov.
>
> I did this for many years creating component illustraction.
> Corel Draw and Truespace.

Thanks, Michael. That sounds like an interesting solution. I'll have a look
at
Truespace's web site to see if it is available as a download.

I had managed to get another solution to this before I saw your note (see
my other note which I'm just about to write!)

Colin

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"Daniel Prien" <wil### [at] gmxnet> wrote in message
news:3e72fa9f@news.povray.org...
>
> > Is it possible to "import" objects or shapes created in other graphics
> > drawing programs such as DXF meshes, WMF etc.
> >
> > In particular I have a shape which I created in CorelDraw which I can
> > obviously export in various formats, and I'd like to be able to use it
in
> > PovRAY in an extruded form.
> >
>
> I think Corel can export TrueType fonts. Maybe you can export a font
> containing your shapes, and then use Elefont to make objects out of them.

Thanks Daniel. This worked surprisingly well. The CorelDraw shape was
composed of  6 enclosed curves and when "Combine"-ed I was able to
export the shape as a TrueType font character. CorelDraw seems to use the
bottom-left of the page as the origin for the "character" so you have to
make
sure that the shape is against that corner of the page before exporting.

I was a little sceptical, but when I loaded the ttf into Elefont it was OK.
I could
apply all of the different bevelling types and amounts, and then export it
as
a POV mesh of triangles.

I was a little disappointed that Elefont did not use smooth_triangle for the
curved sides (which I think the Polyray ttf processing utility did), unless
there
was a hidden option I overlooked. But when I set it to export at the highest
quality level I found that for my application the smooth sides looked OK in
the final POV render.

It looks like Elefont has not been updated for the last few years so I doubt
there will be any more enhancements.

Colin

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