Hi! I am a beginner to POV-Ray, and I have a question to experienced users: do
you make meshes manually or use some app and then convert them? if an app, then
what would you recommend?

Thanks :)

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On 2026-09-06 16:43, Demian wrote:
> Hi! I am a beginner to POV-Ray, and I have a question to experienced users: do
> you make meshes manually or use some app and then convert them? if an app, then
> what would you recommend?

There's many ways. Modelers, by procedure, stitch manually, convert obj 
models to mesh2.

For procedural there is meshmaker.inc in the distribution and in the 
insert menu/special shapes/meshes by meshmaker.inc you can find examples 
for that.

For conversion (.obj files) there is Poseray. Also useful in combination 
with modelers as many don't support POV-Ray directly.

For modelers, there are a lot of them. Some free, many at relative low 
cost and the high end modellers. Almost all can export to .obj files.

Have fun!

ingo

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On 06/09/2026 17:43, Demian wrote:
> Hi! I am a beginner to POV-Ray, and I have a question to experienced users: do
> you make meshes manually or use some app and then convert them? if an app, then
> what would you recommend?
> 
> Thanks :)
> 
Hi, Demian.

I can suggest you the following converter from popular formats
(obj,fbx,glb,gltf,stl):
http://povlab.yesbird.online/studio/

The most powerful (and expensive) mesh editors are C4D and ZBrush,
free alternatives are Blender, SculptGL, Mixos and many others ...
--
YB

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"Demian" <cuc### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> Hi! I am a beginner to POV-Ray, and I have a question to experienced users: do
> you make meshes manually or use some app and then convert them? if an app, then
> what would you recommend?
>
> Thanks :)

Welcome to the wonderful world of POV! It always nice to see new users take up
the tool I love to play with. ingo & yesbird gave you a lot good info. I write
most of the meshes I use by hand. But I really don't use them in complicated
objects. POV has a lot of shapes, primitive & complex that can do some fantastic
stuff! (check them out:)
 When I first started with POV, I went at it like a dungeon & dragons game, that
is I try to do something, learned how POV did it and stuck that little fact into
my weapons bag. Pretty soon the bag was almost full then a new version. That was
awhile back. POV has grown since then. I still once in awhile grab a bow and go
looking for that dragon.

Have Fun!

Post a reply to this message

On 06/09/2026 16:43, Demian wrote:
> Hi! I am a beginner to POV-Ray, and I have a question to experienced users: do
> you make meshes manually or use some app and then convert them? if an app, then
> what would you recommend?
> 
> Thanks :)
> 


hello Demian and welcome to POVRay.



to answer your question, I use:
  * manually for simple meshes.
  * generated by SDL.
  * by converting the files with my own programs or online converters.





-- 
klp
compagnie de la banquise

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"Demian" <cuc### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> Hi! I am a beginner to POV-Ray, and I have a question to experienced users: do
> you make meshes manually or use some app and then convert them? if an app, then
> what would you recommend?
>
> Thanks :)

​Hi, and welcome to POV-Ray! I know everyone has probably already covered the
basics, so I’ll just suggest something that might not have been mentioned yet:
Art of Illusion. It is a 3D modeling, rendering, and exporting application.
Since it’s written in Java and available in formats like .jar and .exe, you
can even run it on a phone (which is exactly what I did :)). Additionally, it
can export your models directly into the .pov format!

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