• setting up multiple lights
  
• setting a camera position (angle and distance)
  
• defining rudimentary backgrounds
  
• using LGEO part definitions where available
  

(2017-02-23, 10:40)Martin James Wrote: But the really, really big requirement is to be able to initiate this from the command line

(2017-02-23, 14:00)Trevor Sandy Wrote:

(2017-02-23, 10:40)Martin James Wrote: But the really, really big requirement is to be able to initiate this from the command line

This is possible with LDView v4.3.

(2017-02-23, 10:40)Martin James Wrote: Top of my wish list has always been a version of LDView that can generate a POV export with all (well most of) the level of control that L3P offers, in particular:

• setting up multiple lights
  
• setting a camera position (angle and distance)
  
• defining rudimentary backgrounds
  
• using LGEO part definitions where available
  

and I believe it's already just about there.

But the really, really big requirement is to be able to initiate this from the command line. I do a lot of batch generation of POV-Ray files, using batch files with standard sets of L3P parameters. I simply drag/drop a bunch of LDRaw source files onto the batch file icon and the .pov files pop ouit of the other end. If I can achieve the same using an LDView icon on my desktop then I am 100% behind your proposal.

(Going further, I have also built this batch processing into other tools based on Excel, so it is invoked from within macro code. This allows me to build services for my users to to turn allll kinds of data into photo-realistic 3D images without any knowledge at all of LDraw. I define the parameters, and all they do is input the data and push a button. Which is why I need a way to get from LDraw source to POV-Ray source without any user interface in the middle.)

--
Martin James

(2017-02-25, 5:31)Travis Cobbs Wrote:

(2017-02-23, 10:40)Martin James Wrote: Top of my wish list has always been a version of LDView that can generate a POV export with all (well most of) the level of control that L3P offers, in particular:

• setting up multiple lights
  
• setting a camera position (angle and distance)
  
• defining rudimentary backgrounds
  
• using LGEO part definitions where available
  

and I believe it's already just about there.

But the really, really big requirement is to be able to initiate this from the command line. I do a lot of batch generation of POV-Ray files, using batch files with standard sets of L3P parameters. I simply drag/drop a bunch of LDRaw source files onto the batch file icon and the .pov files pop ouit of the other end. If I can achieve the same using an LDView icon on my desktop then I am 100% behind your proposal.

(Going further, I have also built this batch processing into other tools based on Excel, so it is invoked from within macro code. This allows me to build services for my users to to turn allll kinds of data into photo-realistic 3D images without any knowledge at all of LDraw. I define the parameters, and all they do is input the data and push a button. Which is why I need a way to get from LDraw source to POV-Ray source without any user interface in the middle.)

--
Martin James

LDView 4.2 can already do everything on your top list of four points, but two of them can't be done easily. Custom lights setup and custom background setup would require a custom top include file. Note that since the top include is included after all the values that LDView defines (like bounding box, floor location, camera location, camera look at, bounding sphere radius, etc.), you can make use of those defines (as well as re-defining them if you really want). I'm not going to claim it's easy to customize, but I will say that top include files can produce significant customization.

LDView has supported L3P-compatible camera positioning commands (-cg and -ca) for many years. Obviously, most people don't pass command line arguments to LDView, but the support has been there for a very long time. This sets up LDView's camera. If you were to then immediately do a POV export, the camera in the POV file should match one generated with the same camera settings with L3P.

LDView has supported LGEO for as long as it has supported POV exports, as far as I remember.

As mentioned, LDView 4.3 will support command line export of POV files. So the existing -ca and -cg command line arguments (which were designed to be used with -SaveSnapshot/-SaveSnapshots) will work with that also.