IDL object graphics POV-Ray destination

An IDL interface for creating POV-Ray images using the IDL object graphics system.

POV-Ray is an open source ray tracing tool capable of making high quality images of 3-dimensional scenes. See povray.org for more information. The vis_povray library makes creating POV-Ray input files from within IDL easy.

The POV-Ray destination class VISgrPOVRay is an object graphics destination class. Object graphics views created in the normal manner can be drawn by it:

pov = obj_new('VISgrPOVRay', file_prefix='halfcell')

pov->draw, view

This will produce an .ini file, a .pov file, and one .inc file for every graphics atom in the object graphics hierarchy. These files are meant to be input files for the povray command, which can be executed from within IDL via the VIS_POVRAY routine or from the system command line.

Many object graphics scenes can be drawn in this manner with no extra work or knowledge of POV-Ray. IDLgrView, IDLgrModel, IDLgrPolygon, IDLgrSurface, IDLgrPolyline, are IDLgrLight currently supported (though not all of there properties are currently used when rendering the POV-Ray input files).

Other classes are provided, like VISgrPOVRayView, VISgrPOVRayGrid, VISgrPOVRayLight, and VISgrPOVRayTubes, to allow for functionality supported by POV-Ray, but not IDL. These classes will render normally under IDL, but will provide additional functionality when rendered with POV-Ray.

Download

The vis_povray library may be downloaded below:

• vis_povray-0.1.zip

Requirements

IDL 6.1 or later is required to create the POV-Ray input files. The input files created run on POV-Ray 3.6.1, but earlier versions should be acceptable as well.

To use, restore vis_povray.sav:

IDL> restore, filename='vis_povray.sav'

Documentation

Information on using vis_povray is included in the .zip file, but may also be viewed online.