Hi!

I am trying to render a Rhino file saved in .pov format.  The Povray process
does not complete, it finds parsing errors in the file.  I have used the
standard output from rhino, and materials.inc from the Rhino folder.

Any pointers?

Thank you!

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"cyberpunk" <cou### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> Hi!
>
> I am trying to render a Rhino file saved in .pov format.  The Povray process
> does not complete, it finds parsing errors in the file.  I have used the
> standard output from rhino, and materials.inc from the Rhino folder.
>
> Any pointers?
>
> Thank you!

// This is where the process stops (the second line), and says 'Parse Error:
Cannot assign uninitialized identifier':
#include "C:/Program Files/Rhinoceros 4.0/Plug-ins/POV/materials.inc"
#declare Object1Material = Plane (19)

One material in the materials.inc file looks like this:

#declare plastic = material {
texture {
  pigment { rgbf rh_color }
  finish {
    ambient 1
    diffuse 1
  phong rh_phong
  phong_size rh_phong_size
    }
  }
}

Should I add a section in the materials file like this?:

#declare Object1Material = material {
....

Post a reply to this message

cyberpunk schrieb:

> I am trying to render a Rhino file saved in .pov format.  The Povray process
> does not complete, it finds parsing errors in the file.  I have used the
> standard output from rhino, and materials.inc from the Rhino folder.
> 
> Any pointers?

Sounds like version incompatibility to me; what version of POV-Ray are 
you using?

With POV-Ray 3.7.beta, one possible problem would be buggy exporters 
writing illegal code which used to be accepted by 3.6, but not so by 
3.7. (A known instance are extra decimal points in numbers, which were 
silently ignored by POV-Ray 3.6, but are rejected by 3.7.)

Post a reply to this message

clipka <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
> cyberpunk schrieb:
>
> > I am trying to render a Rhino file saved in .pov format.  The Povray process
> > does not complete, it finds parsing errors in the file.  I have used the
> > standard output from rhino, and materials.inc from the Rhino folder.
> >
> > Any pointers?
>
> Sounds like version incompatibility to me; what version of POV-Ray are
> you using?
>
> With POV-Ray 3.7.beta, one possible problem would be buggy exporters
> writing illegal code which used to be accepted by 3.6, but not so by
> 3.7. (A known instance are extra decimal points in numbers, which were
> silently ignored by POV-Ray 3.6, but are rejected by 3.7.)

Thank you for your response!

I am using POV-Ray 3.6.2.msvc9.win32.  Here's what i (am trying to) do:

*  Save the model from Rhino (4.0 eval - will get full licence)
*  Save as .pov geometry
*  Open the .pov file, POV-Ray opens
*  Then I 'Run' the renderer - and the parsing jams on the described line...

Post a reply to this message

One step closer!

I removed all material definitions from the model in Rhino, then re-saved as
..pov.

Now POV-Ray goes through the whole file - no parsing errors.  I think if I
carefully re-define materials and properties for the model from within Rhino
now, I should get moving.

The first render I did now became very flat (of course!), but at least I
produced a rendered image, that was fun!

Thank you for the feedback :-)

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cyberpunk schrieb:

> // This is where the process stops (the second line), and says 'Parse Error:
> Cannot assign uninitialized identifier':
> #include "C:/Program Files/Rhinoceros 4.0/Plug-ins/POV/materials.inc"
> #declare Object1Material = Plane (19)

Just in case you should be running into the same problem again:

> Should I add a section in the materials file like this?:
> 
> #declare Object1Material = material {
> ....

No, definitely not. In the way "Plane" is used, it must be defined as a 
macro. It's pretty hard to guess what should go in there, so the 
Rhino-to-POV exporter should better take care of that.

Unless it's documented somewhere in Rhino (or the exporter).

Post a reply to this message

cyberpunk wrote:
> One step closer!
> 
> I removed all material definitions from the model in Rhino, then re-saved as
> ...pov.
> 
> Now POV-Ray goes through the whole file - no parsing errors.  I think if I
> carefully re-define materials and properties for the model from within Rhino
> now, I should get moving.
> 
> The first render I did now became very flat (of course!), but at least I
> produced a rendered image, that was fun!
> 
> Thank you for the feedback :-)
> 
> 
> 
If Rhino can export meshes in the OBJ format you could use PoseRay 
(http://mysite.verizon.net/sfg0000/) to convert it to a PovRay INC file 
as an alternative method of rendering it.

-- 

Best Regards,
	Stephen

Post a reply to this message

> One step closer!
> 
> I removed all material definitions from the model in Rhino, then re-saved as
> ..pov.
> 
> Now POV-Ray goes through the whole file - no parsing errors.  I think if I
> carefully re-define materials and properties for the model from within Rhino
> now, I should get moving.
> 
> The first render I did now became very flat (of course!), but at least I
> produced a rendered image, that was fun!
> 
> Thank you for the feedback :-)
> 
> 
> 

If that works, it means that the Rhino exporter is making gross errors.
In this case, it's obvious to an experienced user, that at least one of 
the following is appening:

rh_color  is not defined.
rh_phong  is not defined.
rh_phong_size  is not defined.

A workaround would be to create your own definitions for those variables.


#declare rh_color = <0.1, 0.8, 0.27, 0>;
// Slightly bluish green
// Change the colour definition as you want.
// The last value controlls transparency.
// Zero = no transparency, 1 = fully transparent.

#declare rh_phong = 0.5;
// medium phong highlight
// smaler value for more subtil highlight, larger for srtonger effect

#declare rh_phong_size = 200;
// relatively tight highlight
// small value = broad highlight.


Manualy add those #declare at the very top of the generated .pov file 
and start the render.

Personnaly, I'd edit that material and set ambient to zero. ambient 1 
difuse 1 is highly unrealistic.

ambient 1 makes the object fully illuminated without any light source. 
If you use radiosity, then that object will act as an illumination 
source. You probably don't want that.

diffuse 1 makes the object react 100% to the illumination from light source.

This often leads to oversaturation where surfaces with a pigment of 
rgb<1, 0.5,0.5>, rgb<0.5,0.75,0.8> and rgb<1,1,1> can all looks identical.

Do a search and replace to change ambient 1 to ambient 0 or some small 
value no larger than 0.1
If you set ambient to a non-zero value, you should also reduce the 
diffuse value somewhat.




Alain

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Hi guys!

Thank you all for the assistance & feedback!  Turns out the non-functioning
material definitions were Brazil-materials previously used in my model.  At the
time of export the Brazil module was de-activated.

I am trying to find the best combination of tools for modelling + rendering
(photo-realistic / mechanical engineering), and in this process I have been
testing a time-limited trial version of the Brazil renderer for Rhino, which was
expired before I tried PR today.

Now I have started wondering:

Do all you experts generate your geometry in one system [without 'materials'],
and then syntactically edit the .pov file from within the POV-Ray application?

OR

Do you use some other tricks to smooth the integration between your geometry
application and POV-Ray?

:-)

Post a reply to this message

> Hi guys!
> 
> Thank you all for the assistance & feedback!  Turns out the non-functioning
> material definitions were Brazil-materials previously used in my model.  At the
> time of export the Brazil module was de-activated.
> 
> I am trying to find the best combination of tools for modelling + rendering
> (photo-realistic / mechanical engineering), and in this process I have been
> testing a time-limited trial version of the Brazil renderer for Rhino, which was
> expired before I tried PR today.
> 
> Now I have started wondering:
> 
> Do all you experts generate your geometry in one system [without 'materials'],
> and then syntactically edit the .pov file from within the POV-Ray application?
> 
> OR
> 
> Do you use some other tricks to smooth the integration between your geometry
> application and POV-Ray?
> 
> :-)
> 
> 

Usualy, I create my images in pure SDL. No modeler used, most of the time.

I've tried Wings3D and some others.

You can also use Poseray. It's a scene editor and format converter. It 
can convert scenes created in many modelers and convert them for use in 
POV-Ray. It can do some manipulations, like subdividing a mesh to make 
it smoother.




Alain

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