POV-Ray is a free 3D rendering engine used by many people (you can find out more about POV-Ray at http://www.povray.org). PlantStudio can write plants to POV format as an INC (include) file for POV scene files. PlantStudio POV export was written to the POV-Ray version 3.1 specification.

Special options: Minimum size limits

Some POV renderers have lower limits on the sizes of lines and polygons, but PlantStudio does not. This means that when you export a plant to POV format, some lines and polygons might be interpreted by POV renderers to be of zero size. When this happens your renderer might report an error and stop drawing. To avoid this problem, you can set minimum sizes for lines and 3D objects when you export to POV format.

▪        To specify a minimum line length for lines written to POV format, enter a number in the edit box labeled Keep lines at least this long (mm) in the 3D export window for POV. A lower limit of 0.01 mm will probably keep most plants renderable.

▪        To specify a minimum scale for 3D objects written to POV format, enter a number in the edit box labeled Keep 3D objects at least this scale in the 3D export window for POV. A lower limit of 0.01 will probably keep most plants renderable.

Special options: Comment out union of plants at end

By default PlantStudio includes a union in your INC export file that combines all plants into one “allplants” object you can reference in your POV file. The union is written like this: 

       #declare allPlants_<filename> = union {­ 

               object {­ <plant1> }

               object {­ <plant2> }

               ...

               }

By referencing this union you can include all the plants in the file by including only an “allplants”  object in your POV file, thus:

       #include "<filename>.inc"   

       object {­ allPlants_<filename> }

You can then scale, translate and rotate the “allplants” object as a whole. If you don’t want to use this option, PlantStudio can comment out the union (and you can change your mind later and uncomment it). To use the “allplants” union, uncheck the check box labeled Comment out union of plants at end in the Nest panel of the 3D options window for POV. To avoid using the union, check the Comment out union of plants at end check box.

Tips on saving and using POV-Ray INC files from PlantStudio

▪        When you render a POV file using an INC file written from PlantStudio, if you see any messages that lines or polygons have zero length or size, export the plant(s) again using a higher minimum size of lines and 3D objects. If you find that small leaves are disappearing, reduce the minimum size until they appear.

▪        PlantStudio will automatically replace any blank spaces in the file name you specify for an INC file with underscores, because file names referred to in POV cannot have spaces.

▪        PlantStudio uses the placement of plants within the PlantStudio drawing area to place plants within the POV 3D coordinates, so you may find that you need to fuss with the camera location and the overall plant scale a little to get a good result. You can also translate the object you include in your POV file to fix any mistranslations in space. We’ve found that this setting works well for seeing the plants PlantStudio writes:

               camera {­ location <0, 0, -400> look_at <0, 0, 0>}

▪        You can also write leaves, flowers and fruits to POV INC files; in the 3D object editor, click Write POV.

▪        You can translate, scale, color or texture parts of a plant without changing the entire plant. Open the INC file written by PlantStudio and add the appropriate POV modifier. All plant parts are labeled with POV comments, so that you can “read” the plant. For example, if you take this leaf:

               mesh {­ // leaf

                       triangle {­ <...> }

                       ...

                       pigment {­ color rgb <0.83, 0.31, 0.19> }}

and add the modifier “scale 10” after the pigment line and before the last curly brace:

               mesh {­ // leaf

                       triangle {­ <...> }

                       ...

                       pigment {­ color rgb <0.83, 0.31, 0.19> }

                       scale 10 

                       }

the plant will draw with that leaf ten times larger. For more information on unions, meshes and other terms, see your POV documentation.

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