Hi all,

A typical way of using with POV-Ray is the following. You take something from
the real world, say, a hammer that you really like, and model it in POV-Ray.
Subsequently, you use the model to create one or more images. You can, however,
also go in the opposite direction. Model an object in POV-Ray, and use that
model to realize the object in the real world, for example via 3D printing.

I recently did this, and the attached image shows the result. To be absolutely
clear, before anyone starts complimenting me on my wood and metal texturing
skills, the image is a photograph. It is not a render.

The image shows a 3D-printed object, which when viewed from the right direction
looks like an impossible triangle. It has been printed in stainless steel, with
a Bronze Plate finish. In the background you see an image created by POV-Ray.

Both the 3D-printed object and the background image were created from the same
POV-Ray based model. Custom macros were used to calculate each point in the
mesh. Parameters control amongst others the granularity of the mesh and the
number of cubes in the model. To convert the model to a format suitable for
3D-printing, the mesh was exported to file and further processed via MeshLab and
Sketchup.

I have put the object up for sale at Shapeways [1]. I am curious to see if there
will be any takers, but not getting my hopes up too high.

Kind regards,
Erwin

[1] https://www.shapeways.com/shops/eriban

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