Can anyone tell me if POVRAY has any automation or any DDE calls ect for
VB 4.0.
I'd like to increase my knowledge of both programs at the same time.

Thanks,

Doug

dou### [at] identitechcom

Post a reply to this message

On Wed, 08 Apr 1998 16:41:28 -0400, Doug Williams
<wil### [at] telsurfnet> wrote:

>Can anyone tell me if POVRAY has any automation or any DDE calls ect for
>VB 4.0.
>I'd like to increase my knowledge of both programs at the same time.

Nope.  That's not a bad idea, though.  What automation functions would
you like to see?  I can see at least having an interface to the kind
of stuff that's available to a GUI-extension.

Post a reply to this message

That sounds like a good idea to me too.  How about things like the time
taken, current PPS, well, yeah, the things for the GUI-Extensions.

COOL!!!

--
Lance Birch
Remove the smiley to e-mail.
http://www1.tpgi.com.au/users/ambient/lance

Post a reply to this message

Well since this program is free I can't ask for much.  But I would like to
add a button
to the toolbar and run my own little .dll that would insert text as it would
appear in any
number of fields.  For example, I could write a VB form that already has all
the "finish"
keywords and the fields associated with them.  A user could fill them in and
insert it right
into the document itself.  That's my idea.  I'm new to POVRAY, so I have to
keep going
back and forth to the help documentation to see what keywords go with what.
I'd like to
do that all at once and move on.  Am I delusional or what?

Doug

Ronald L. Parker wrote:

> On Wed, 08 Apr 1998 16:41:28 -0400, Doug Williams
> <wil### [at] telsurfnet> wrote:
>
> >Can anyone tell me if POVRAY has any automation or any DDE calls ect for
> >VB 4.0.
> >I'd like to increase my knowledge of both programs at the same time.
>
> Nope.  That's not a bad idea, though.  What automation functions would
> you like to see?  I can see at least having an interface to the kind
> of stuff that's available to a GUI-extension.

Post a reply to this message

Doug Williams wrote in message <352C06A4.55D0A994@identitech.com>...
>Well since this program is free I can't ask for much.  But I would like to
>add a button
>to the toolbar and run my own little .dll that would insert text as it
would
>appear in any
>number of fields.

Well, the problem with that is the editor in Pov-Ray is a Delphi .DLL.
Unfortunately, it appears that only this DLL has "permission" to write to
the editor.. As i saw earlier ( in the gui.extentions group) It's not
possible to do this. Am I wrong? Did I misread this?

Twyst================================
EFnet and NewNet #povray Channel Operator
Website: http://twyst.home.ml.org
E-Mail: twy### [at] v-wavecom
=====================================

Post a reply to this message

I'm not sure.


Twyst wrote:

> Well, the problem with that is the editor in Pov-Ray is a Delphi .DLL.
> Unfortunately, it appears that only this DLL has "permission" to write to
> the editor.. As i saw earlier ( in the gui.extentions group) It's not
> possible to do this. Am I wrong? Did I misread this?
>
> Twyst================================
> EFnet and NewNet #povray Channel Operator
> Website: http://twyst.home.ml.org
> E-Mail: twy### [at] v-wavecom
> =====================================

Post a reply to this message

On Wed, 8 Apr 1998 20:12:49 -0700, "Twyst" <sir### [at] hotmailcom>
wrote:

>
>Doug Williams wrote in message <352C06A4.55D0A994@identitech.com>...
>>Well since this program is free I can't ask for much.  But I would like to
>>add a button
>>to the toolbar and run my own little .dll that would insert text as it
>would
>>appear in any
>>number of fields.
>
>Well, the problem with that is the editor in Pov-Ray is a Delphi .DLL.
>Unfortunately, it appears that only this DLL has "permission" to write to
>the editor.. As i saw earlier ( in the gui.extentions group) It's not
>possible to do this. Am I wrong? Did I misread this?

As the one who wrote the message you're referring to, I guess I have
to respond.  You are exactly right; only the DLL has the ability to
write to an editor window.  My philosophy is to wait and see what
happens with POV 3.1, and if that's still the case, someone should
write a replacement editor DLL in C with the same functionality as the
existing one, but with the ability to insert text as well.  If no one
else jumps up, I'll probably take that on myself, because I think
being able to drop in modular object-design components would be a big
win.  Imagine if CTDS or Torpatch were "built in" like this.

In addition to this, I'd like to see a way for a "plugin" to intercept
the code that's about to be rendered, translate parts of it on the
fly, and pass that code to the rendering engine.  This way, you could
have a plugin that does, for example, L-systems, and be able to just
write your tree or whatever in LParser language right in the .POV file
and have it translated into cylinders, cones, and what-have-you "just
in time."  Ditto Torpatch or CTDS, actually.  The thing is, most of
the plugins that allow you to design things using graphical tools
would benefit from being able to insert their code using a notation
that they can parse, so that it can be edited later.  This could also
be accomplished with comments, as in MS Visual C++ ClassWizard, but
then you couldn't "tweak" the generated code.

Post a reply to this message

>As the one who wrote the message you're referring to, I guess I have
>to respond.  You are exactly right; only the DLL has the ability to
>write to an editor window.  My philosophy is to wait and see what
>happens with POV 3.1, and if that's still the case, someone should
>write a replacement editor DLL in C with the same functionality as the
>existing one, but with the ability to insert text as well.  If no one
>else jumps up, I'll probably take that on myself, because I think
>being able to drop in modular object-design components would be a big
>win.  Imagine if CTDS or Torpatch were "built in" like this.


Actually, I remember seeing a Class Library for C++ that is a fullt function
editor, and it's free for freeware and shareware developers. =)
it can be found at http://www.sophists.com/Led/LedClassLib. Look there for
info.. I don't know enough C/C++ to integrate it. I'm just basically a
hacker. =P

AS for CTDS.. I'm actually surprised that someone else uses it! I have
written a VERY LIMITED converter for CTDS -> Moray UDO/Pov Inc files. It's
in VB.. It converts it just fine, but I don't know enough math to make the
UDO preview look like more than a line with a box at either end. :/ It also
will only do 1 string, or "worm" (if you use the WORM program), but it will
output either primitives, or blobs, using spheres and cones... ( cylinders
in the blobs). If anyone is interested, I can post the source here. it needs
some MAJOR work. =/ the UI is very basic, and there is minimal error
checking. Basically, I'm stuck at figuring out how to get it to support
multiple objects.

Twyst================================
EFnet and NewNet #povray Channel Operator
Website: http://twyst.home.ml.org
E-Mail: twy### [at] v-wavecom
=====================================

Post a reply to this message

The Iso surfaces patch has the ability to link to external DLLs. You
might want to scope out their source code and see how they did it? I don't
know - just my $0.02 - I don't program so I might not know of what I speak
:)

Post a reply to this message

Good 2 cents, thanks.  I am, in the mean time, going to try to get in and out
via the clipboard.

Charles Krause wrote:

>     The Iso surfaces patch has the ability to link to external DLLs. You
> might want to scope out their source code and see how they did it? I don't
> know - just my $0.02 - I don't program so I might not know of what I speak
> :)

Post a reply to this message

On Thu, 9 Apr 1998 12:46:58 -0700, "Twyst" <sir### [at] hotmailcom>
wrote:

>Actually, I remember seeing a Class Library for C++ that is a fullt function
>editor, and it's free for freeware and shareware developers. =)
>it can be found at http://www.sophists.com/Led/LedClassLib. Look there for
>info.. I don't know enough C/C++ to integrate it. I'm just basically a
>hacker. =P

Thanks for the pointer; I'll go check it out.

Post a reply to this message

Lance Birch wrote:
> 
> That sounds like a good idea to me too.  How about things like the 
> time taken, current PPS, well, yeah, the things for the 
> GUI-Extensions.
> 

This would be really useful for a modeller. You could take the output of
POV and place it right in a window of the modeller. Maybe for a higher
quality preview option?

-- 

Theran Cochran - the### [at] geocitiescom
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Way/8201

Post a reply to this message

Hi Theran Cochran, you recently wrote in povray.programming:

> This would be really useful for a modeller. You could take the output of
> POV and place it right in a window of the modeller. Maybe for a higher
> quality preview option?
You can already do this now. Moray V3.0 does exactly that.

- Lutz
  email : lut### [at] stmuccom
  CIS   : 100023,2006
  Web   : http://www.stmuc.com/moray

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Hi!

Please don't crosspost like this. Wouldn't this thread be best situated in
povray.programming?

Sincerely

//Hans Wachtmeister

Post a reply to this message

Hans Wachtmeister <6m### [at] tlthlthse> wrote:

>Hi!
>
>Please don't crosspost like this. Wouldn't this thread be best situated in
>povray.programming?
>
>Sincerely
>
>//Hans Wachtmeister
>

I agree - I have noticed a tendancy for some users (not just relating to this
particular thread) to crosspost to three or more groups. Please, people, try
to post to the appropriate groups - no more than one crosspost per article.

In future, if you really have something that should be mentioned in multiple
groups, then please either post them manually, or direct followups to the one
group via the followup-to header.

-- System Administrators

Post a reply to this message

Another thought.  Since POV files are just plain text files, you could write
your own editor.  save the file then load and render in POV, or call POV
(ShellExecute()) with the proper command line switches.  True this is not
what you (or I) would really want, but if your just learning VB then that
might be the best route.

DC :)

p.s.  I've worked with VB for a long time and I've just changed over to
Borlands C++ Builder.  If you are just learning programming, you might look
into that.  BCB is based on the Delphi VCL (Visual Component Library) and
has done to C++ windows programming what VB did for BASIC windows
programming.

p.s.s.  I've been playing with the idea of porting POV to BCB and made the
UI in about 2~3 hours.  I'm looking for the POV source code to see how to
merge the two.  Any thoughts about new UI options would be appreciated.

Post a reply to this message

I have a Microsoft DevStudio Add-In that does POV-Ray...  Command
highlighting and all the bells and whistles associated with VC5, VInterdev,
and VJ++...

--
_____________________________________
Justin Rogers, CEO DigiTec Web Consultants
Personal Programmer and Web Consultant
Email:  dig### [at] 3nnet
DreamChaser wrote in message <3599e609.0@news.povray.org>...
>Another thought.  Since POV files are just plain text files, you could
write
>your own editor.  save the file then load and render in POV, or call POV
>(ShellExecute()) with the proper command line switches.  True this is not
>what you (or I) would really want, but if your just learning VB then that
>might be the best route.
>
>DC :)
>
>p.s.  I've worked with VB for a long time and I've just changed over to
>Borlands C++ Builder.  If you are just learning programming, you might look
>into that.  BCB is based on the Delphi VCL (Visual Component Library) and
>has done to C++ windows programming what VB did for BASIC windows
>programming.
>
>p.s.s.  I've been playing with the idea of porting POV to BCB and made the
>UI in about 2~3 hours.  I'm looking for the POV source code to see how to
>merge the two.  Any thoughts about new UI options would be appreciated.
>
>

Post a reply to this message

Attachments:
Download 'Justin Rogers.vcf.txt' (1 KB)

Wonder if it would work in Borland C++Builder?


Justin Rogers wrote in message <35a330d1.0@news.povray.org>...
>I have a Microsoft DevStudio Add-In that does POV-Ray...  Command
>highlighting and all the bells and whistles associated with VC5, VInterdev,
>and VJ++...
>
>--
>_____________________________________
>Justin Rogers, CEO DigiTec Web Consultants
>Personal Programmer and Web Consultant
>Email:  dig### [at] 3nnet
>DreamChaser wrote in message <3599e609.0@news.povray.org>...
>>Another thought.  Since POV files are just plain text files, you could
>write
>>your own editor.  save the file then load and render in POV, or call POV
>>(ShellExecute()) with the proper command line switches.  True this is not
>>what you (or I) would really want, but if your just learning VB then that
>>might be the best route.
>>
>>DC :)
>>
>>p.s.  I've worked with VB for a long time and I've just changed over to
>>Borlands C++ Builder.  If you are just learning programming, you might
look
>>into that.  BCB is based on the Delphi VCL (Visual Component Library) and
>>has done to C++ windows programming what VB did for BASIC windows
>>programming.
>>
>>p.s.s.  I've been playing with the idea of porting POV to BCB and made the
>>UI in about 2~3 hours.  I'm looking for the POV source code to see how to
>>merge the two.  Any thoughts about new UI options would be appreciated.
>>
>>
>
>
>

Post a reply to this message

Yea How about a object tree for easy editing of scene files.

>>>p.s.s.  I've been playing with the idea of porting POV to BCB and made
the
>>>UI in about 2~3 hours.  I'm looking for the POV source code to see how to
>>>merge the two.  Any thoughts about new UI options would be appreciated.
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>

Post a reply to this message

I've done this exact sort of thing before, having failed to find a quick
and efficient way to interface my VB programs to pov-ray( i.e. without
rewriting the source code in VC++ to operate as an ocx, which I'm not sure
would be cool with their licensing...)
	And I have to say that although it isn't a perfect solution, calling a
	shell on pov-ray isn't a total pain. Plus you can use the API to catch the
	window handle and send signals that way.  I always just stuck to writing a
	batch file and calling pov-ray with the right command line switches. It
	worked fine for specialized animation work.

	But I also have to agree, an easy ocx patch between vb and povray would be
	super awesome.

On 30-Jun-1998, "DreamChaser" <Dre### [at] spydeenet> wrote:

> Another thought.  Since POV files are just plain text files, you could
> write
> your own editor.  save the file then load and render in POV, or call POV
> (ShellExecute()) with the proper command line switches.  True this is not
> what you (or I) would really want, but if your just learning VB then that
> might be the best route.
>
> DC :)
>
> p.s.  I've worked with VB for a long time and I've just changed over to
> Borlands C++ Builder.  If you are just learning programming, you might
> look
> into that.  BCB is based on the Delphi VCL (Visual Component Library) and
> has done to C++ windows programming what VB did for BASIC windows
> programming.
>
> p.s.s.  I've been playing with the idea of porting POV to BCB and made the
> UI in about 2~3 hours.  I'm looking for the POV source code to see how to
> merge the two.  Any thoughts about new UI options would be appreciated.

Post a reply to this message

guy### [at] charternet wrote:
> But I also have to agree, an easy ocx patch between vb and povray
> would be super awesome.

Second that
--
Rick

Kitty5 NewMedia http://Kitty5.co.uk
POV-Ray News & Resources http://Povray.co.uk
TEL : +44 (01270) 501101 - FAX : +44 (01270) 251105 - ICQ : 15776037

PGP Public Key
http://pgpkeys.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x231E1CEA

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On Tue, 18 Mar 2003 08:35:55 -0000, Rick [Kitty5] wrote:

> guy### [at] charternet wrote:
>> But I also have to agree, an easy ocx patch between vb and povray
>> would be super awesome.
> 
> Second that

I can't stand visual basic but I still think it's a good idea. It could 
allow for "POV-Ray consoles" in other programs and web sites. If you're 
afraid about licensing issues you could add a watermark or something.

-- 
light_source#macro G(E)sphere{z+E*y*5e-3.04rotate-z*E*6pigment{rgbt#end{
20*y-10#local n=162;1}#while(n)#local n=n-.3;G(n)x}}G(-n).7}}#end//GregE

Post a reply to this message

What's the licensing problem?  I thought the POV-Ray license was quite
liberal in what you could do with it, as long as you distribute the source
to your special version.

"Greg Edwards" <edw### [at] hotmailcomremovethis> wrote in message
news:1prjy30hra8ck$.83kdilais87b$.dlg@40tude.net...
> On Tue, 18 Mar 2003 08:35:55 -0000, Rick [Kitty5] wrote:
>
> > guy### [at] charternet wrote:
> >> But I also have to agree, an easy ocx patch between vb and povray
> >> would be super awesome.
> >
> > Second that
>
> I can't stand visual basic but I still think it's a good idea. It could
> allow for "POV-Ray consoles" in other programs and web sites. If you're
> afraid about licensing issues you could add a watermark or something.
>
> --
> light_source#macro G(E)sphere{z+E*y*5e-3.04rotate-z*E*6pigment{rgbt#end{
> 20*y-10#local n=162;1}#while(n)#local n=n-.3;G(n)x}}G(-n).7}}#end//GregE

Post a reply to this message

On Thu, 20 Mar 2003 08:35:53 -0500, Rick Gutleber wrote:

> What's the licensing problem?  I thought the POV-Ray license was quite
> liberal in what you could do with it, as long as you distribute the source
> to your special version.
> 
> "Greg Edwards" <edw### [at] hotmailcomremovethis> wrote in message
> news:1prjy30hra8ck$.83kdilais87b$.dlg@40tude.net...
>> On Tue, 18 Mar 2003 08:35:55 -0000, Rick [Kitty5] wrote:
>>
>>> guy### [at] charternet wrote:
>>>> But I also have to agree, an easy ocx patch between vb and povray
>>>> would be super awesome.
>>>
>>> Second that
>>
>> I can't stand visual basic but I still think it's a good idea. It could
>> allow for "POV-Ray consoles" in other programs and web sites. If you're
>> afraid about licensing issues you could add a watermark or something.
>>
>> --
>> light_source#macro G(E)sphere{z+E*y*5e-3.04rotate-z*E*6pigment{rgbt#end{
>> 20*y-10#local n=162;1}#while(n)#local n=n-.3;G(n)x}}G(-n).7}}#end//GregE

By my understanding, if you call POV from an external program, you have to 
make it obvious that POV is being called. If you made a POV-Ray ActiveX 
control, you could silently slip a mini-POV-Ray into your program without 
mentioning it. This could enable users to steal the POV-Ray engine and call 
it their own super 3d program and not even admit that it was POV-Ray they 
were using. Very few people would take notice to an obscurely named OCX 
file that happens to be drifting in the directory.

-- 
light_source#macro G(E)sphere{z+E*y*5e-3.04rotate-z*E*6pigment{rgbt#end{
20*y-10#local n=162;1}#while(n)#local n=n-.3;G(n)x}}G(-n).7}}#end//GregE

Post a reply to this message

What would be really cool is, if the POV-Ray engine were a COM object, and
you fed it interfaces to other COM objects to render.  That way my script
parser and CAD software would simply expose shape and texture interfaces to
the engine, allowing me to embed the POV-Ray Engine anywhere, even a
WebPage.  This model should be flexible enough to allow me to aggregate
custom shapes and textures through the script parser or CAD software.  I
could even have a local Open-GL engine or remote renderer (using DCOM) ,
that I could hot-swap in my client App.

If you're interested and like to know details, email me.  I'd be more than
willing to join the group to do this.

Post a reply to this message

On Fri, 30 Oct 1998 22:10:52 -0500, "J. M. Rowlett"
<row### [at] andrewcmuedu> wrote:

>What would be really cool is, if the POV-Ray engine were a COM object, and
>you fed it interfaces to other COM objects to render.  

[snip]

Here's a relevant excerpt from the new POVLEGAL:

All executables, documentation, modified files and descriptions of
the same must clearly identify themselves as a modified and
unofficial version of POV-Ray. Any attempt to obscure the fact
that the user is running POV-Ray or to obscure that this is an
unofficial version expressly prohibited.

POV-Ray may not be linked into other software either at compile-
time using an object code linker nor at run-time as a DLL,
ActiveX, or other system. Such linkage can tend to blur the end-
user's perception of which program provides which functions and
thus qualifies as an attempt to obscure what is running.

To allow POV-Ray to communicate with outside programs, the official
versions of POV-Ray include several internal communication "hooks" 
for it to call other tasks, often called an Application Programming 
Interface, or API. For example: the generic part of POV-Ray provides
operating system shell-out API commands. The Windows version has a 
GUI-extension API and the ability to replace the text editor.
Modification to these APIs or other officially supported
communication mechanisms to increase functionality beyond that of 
the official version IS EXPRESSLY PROHIBITED.

Post a reply to this message

"J. M. Rowlett" <row### [at] andrewcmuedu> writes:

> What would be really cool is, if the POV-Ray engine were a COM object, and
> you fed it interfaces to other COM objects to render.  That way my script
> parser and CAD software would simply expose shape and texture interfaces to
> the engine, allowing me to embed the POV-Ray Engine anywhere, even a
> WebPage.  This model should be flexible enough to allow me to aggregate
> custom shapes and textures through the script parser or CAD software.  I
> could even have a local Open-GL engine or remote renderer (using DCOM) ,
> that I could hot-swap in my client App.

Man, you can already do this, quite simply really:
script-generator | povray -i- -o- | image-processor-or-whatever

Roland.
-- 
Les francophones m'appellent Roland Mas,
English speakers call me Rowlannd' Mass,
Nihongode hanasu hitoha [Lolando Masu] to iimasu.
Choisissez ! Take your pick ! Erande kudasai !

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