Raytracing tutorial/en

Introduction
This tutorial is meant to introduce the reader to the basic workflow of the Raytracing Workbench, as well as most of the tools that are available to create a rendered image. Note that the Raytracing workbench is progressively being obsoleted in favor of the newer Render Workbench, available via the Addons Manager



Requirements

 * FreeCAD version 0.16 or above
 * POV-Ray and/or LuxRender is installed on the system
 * In the case of POV-Ray, it's not enough to have just the binary executable in place, but it also requires the installation of supporting files. In Ubuntu, these are provided by the Recommends-flagged package povray-includes. Potential issues have also been seen with Linux installations requiring local configuration files to be manually created in a user's home folder, as discussed here.
 * In the case of POV-Ray, installation of psicofil's macro is recommended
 * The reader has the basic knowledge to use the Part and PartDesign Workbenches

Modeling
In this example a Cube is used as the study object, but models created in the Part or PartDesign Workbenches can be used instead.


 * 1) Create a new document
 * 2) Activate the Part Workbench
 * 3) Create a Cube. You are free to change its properties in any way.

Now we have a model with which to work.

Preparing for the render

 * 1) Switch to the Raytracing Workbench
 * 2) Change your View to Perspective. Go to View menu and select Perspective.
 * 3) Set the location for the renderer. Go to the Edit menu and select Preferences. Click on Raytracing and set the location to the executable.
 * 4) Set the size of the rendered image. Go to the Edit menu and select Preferences. Click on Raytracing and set the desired image size.

POV-Ray

 * 1) Select  [[Image:Raytrace_New.svg|32px]] New PovRay project. From the dropdown menu pick RadiosityNormal

LuxRender

 * 1) Select [[Image:Raytrace_Lux.svg|32px]] New LuxRender project. From the dropdown menu pick LuxClassic

Setting the camera position

 * 1) Position the 3D View to the desired location and distance from the model. In this case we will use the Axonometric View.
 * 2) Select the Project Folder from the Tree View
 * 3) Select [[Image:Raytrace_ResetCamera.svg|32px]] Reset camera

Importing the model

 * 1) Select the model to render.
 * 2) Select [[Image:Raytrace_NewPartSegment.svg|32px]] Insert part

Running the Renderer

 * 1) Select  [[Image:Raytrace_Render.svg|32px]] Render.
 * 2) Set the path to which the image will be stored.
 * 3) Wait for the rendering to finish. This may take a while.

Viewing the results
FreeCAD will immediately open the image after the render is finished.

We are now finished with the basic workflow for the Raytracing workbench.