POV-Ray-Rendering Workbench

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POV-Ray-Rendering Workbench icon

Introduction

The POV-Ray-Rendering Workbench is an external workbench which is built to create renderings easily but also offering advanced options for advanced users.

Features

Applying Textures

There are more than 100 predefined textures you can apply easily or define your own materials.

Thumbnails and Live Preview

You can check the appearance of the material/texture with the pre-rendered thumbnails of the textures. If you want to see the impact of changed options of the texture, you can use the live preview that renders the chosen texture and the options to fine tune the material.

Lighting

With the three light types area light, point light, spot light and their different options, you can create advanced lightings to create the convenient atmosphere of the picture.

Indirect Lighting (GI)

The workbench has the option to enable indirect lighting to create more realistic images.

HDRI Environments

With the support for HDRI environments, beautiful environments are simple to use:

User Inc File

The user has the option to use an extra file what offers the option to use all options of the renderer. For more details, checkout our wiki: Power User

Usage

It's a lot easier to watch this simple demo of the workbench instead of describing it:

There are many more options in the other tabs you can explore by yourself, or look into our wiki: Workbench Wiki

Installation

This workbench can be easily installed and updated from the Addon Manager available in version 0/17 and above. This workbench is part of FreeCAD's External workbenches. After the workbench is installed, the renderer in the background, POV-Ray, must be installed. How to do this is described here: http://wiki.povray.org/content/HowTo:Install_POV

Finally the path to the POV-Ray installation has to be defined in the workbench settings:

Tools

Almost every setting, except the settings of the light objects, is done in the dialog, so there are not many commands:

• OpenDialog: Open the Dialog where you can apply textures, add HDRI environments, etc. and start the rendering

• Point Light: Insert a Point Light

• Area Light: Insert an Area Light

• Spot Light: Insert a Spot Light

References

• Authors:
  • Usb Hub: https://gitlab.com/usbhub
  • DerUhrmacher: https://gitlab.com/DerUhrmacher
• Source code on GitHub: https://github.com/TheRaytracers/freecad-povray-render

Links to POV-Ray Workbench

• Workbench Wiki: https://gitlab.com/usbhub/exporttopovray/-/tree/master/doc
• FreeCAD Wiki: XXX
• FreeCAD Forum: https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=48629
• Report bugs: Please report bugs at GitHub or FreeCAD Forum

Other useful links

• External workbenches

User documentation

• Getting started
• Installation: Download, Windows, Linux, Mac, Additional components, Docker, AppImage, Ubuntu Snap
• Basics: About FreeCAD, Interface, Mouse navigation, Selection methods, Object name, Preferences, Workbenches, Document structure, Properties, Help FreeCAD, Donate

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• Addons: Addon Manager, External workbenches, Scripting and macros

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• Hubs: User hub, Power users hub, Developer hub