POV-Ray-Rendering Workbench

Introduction
The POV-Ray-Rendering Workbench is an external workbench built to make rendering easy but it also offers options for advanced users. The workbench uses the POV-Ray renderer.



Applying textures
There are more than 100 predefined textures you can apply, but you can also define your own textures.



Thumbnails and live preview
To see the impact of the selected texture options you can check the pre-rendered thumbnail or use the live preview to render the texture.

Lighting
With the three light types: area light, point light and spot light, and their different options, you can create advanced lighting.



Indirect lighting (GI)
The workbench has the option to enable indirect lighting to create more realistic images.



HDRI environments
With support for HDRI environments, beautiful environments are simple to use.



User inc file
Power users who want access to all options of the POV-Ray renderer can do so by creating a special file. For more details see the Power User page on our Wiki.

Usage
Here is a simple demonstration of the workbench:



There are many more options on the other tabs, please explore them yourself, or you can visit our Wiki: Workbench Wiki

Installation
This workbench can be installed and updated from the Addon Manager. The POV-Ray renderer used by the workbench has to be installed separately. For Windows users, the installer can be downloaded from POV-Ray Download Page, for Linux users it can usually be installed from the package manager. Look up the detailed instructions in the POV-Ray Wiki if you're on a Mac.

To complete the installation the path to the POV-Ray executable has to be defined in the workbench preferences, usually, this are the default paths:
 * Windows: C:/Program Files/POV-Ray/v3.7/bin/pvengine64.exe
 * Linux: /usr/bin/povray
 * MacOS: if you know, please let us know, since I have no Mac to look up the path



Tools

 * [[Image:POV-Ray-Rendering_OpenDialog.svg|32px]] OpenDialog: Opens the dialog where most of the work is done. Here you can apply textures, add HDRI environments, etc. and start the rendering.


 * [[Image:POV-Ray-Rendering_PointLight.svg|32px]] Point Light: Inserts a Point Light.


 * [[Image:POV-Ray-Rendering_AreaLight.svg|32px]] Area Light: Inserts an Area Light.


 * [[Image:POV-Ray-Rendering_SpotLight.svg|32px]] Spot Light: Inserts a Spot Light.

Links to POV-Ray Workbench

 * Workbench Wiki: https://gitlab.com/usbhub/exporttopovray/-/tree/master/doc
 * FreeCAD Forum: https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=48629
 * Report bugs: Please report bugs at GitHub or the FreeCAD Forum

Other useful links

 * External workbenches