LuxCoreRender
Description
LuxCoreRender is a phisically based rendering engine, reboot of the now outdated LuxRender. It is not officially supported by the Raytracing Workbench, although it might work.
Installation
Raytracing Workbench
Stable Version
LuxCoreRender is under active development, so for the latest stable version check on GitHub.
Linux
macOS
Windows
Check on GitHub for the latest stable release, scroll down to the Assets section (expand it if needed) and download dthe Windows file. It will be something like luxcorerender-{version number}-win64.zip.
Then check in the note above the assets if there are any notes about dependencies for Windows user. For example to use LuxRender 2.5 you are required to install the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2017 and the Intel C++ redistributable.
After installing dependancies, extract the downloaded archive in a suitable folder, like C:\Tools\LuxCoreRender. Avoid using system folders like C:\Program Files or C:\Program Files (x86).
After installing LuxCoreRender, launch FreeCAD, open the Preferences Editor, load the Raytracing Workbench, and go to the Raytracing Preferences.
Set the Luxrender executable path to point to your installation of LuxCoreRender, that will be something like C:/Tools/LuxCoreRender/luxcoreui.exe, and apply.
Development Version
Linux
macOS
Windows
Render Workbench
As of now there are no significant differences between the Raytracing Workbench and the Render Workbench in the part regarding the installation of the external software, so refer to the Raytracing Workbench section to install POV-Ray and to this section for the Render Workbench configuration..
First of all install the Render Workbench through the Addon Manager and restart FreeCAD.
Linux
After installing the Render Workbench and LuxCoreRender, launch FreeCAD, open the Preferences Editor, load the Render Workbench, and go to the Render Preferences.
Set the POV-Ray executable path to point to your installation of LuxCoreRender and apply.
Windows
After installing the Render Workbench and LuxCoreRender, launch FreeCAD, open the Preferences Editor, load the Render Workbench, and go to the Render Preferences.
Set the LuxCore command (cli) path, something like C:/Tools/LuxCore/pyluxcoretool.exe and LuxCore UI path, something like C:/Tools/LuxCore/luxcoreui.exe, then apply.
Then, before trying to render something, start POV-Ray separately and set I/O restrictions according to POV-Ray documentation, otherwise rendering will not work properly (or will not work at all).