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version française

Download povedit.tgz (for manual installation)

Download povedit.rpm (automatic install, for Mandrake or Red Hat)

Download the documentation (english)

Download povedit light.tgz (no doc )

Download povedit.verylight.tgz (no doc , no icons)

Fast presentation

click here to read a complete documentation

Povedit is a graphical user interface for POV.

A widespread legend claims that Unix users don't like to work with a graphical user interface, and prefer stronger tools like emacs, vi, shell...
Hmmm.... I'm not really convinced...

Povedit is written in python, and should be fairly easy to port under Windows.

Povedit has the same "look'n feel" than povray for windows, ant implements most of its features. But povedit has some important enhancements :

ability to control the numerical values of a pov source file with the mouse.

pov's SDL extension : multiple renderings

automatic update

portfolio with the thumbnails of the last renderings.

direct connexion with an external program (typically a code generator, or a mesh generator)

    shared computation of an image on several computers

    configurable tool bar.

    language support : french or english

Povedit is fairly intuitive, but let's have a fast and uncomplete presentation.

The main part of povedit is a "notebook", composed of editors for your pov source. You can either type directly the source, or load it from a file. Usual edition functionalities are available: open, close, save, saveas.
Concerning the editors, you can find most of the useful gadgets: copy, paste, cut, syntax coloration (not great), brackets matching, word completion (key: F9), insertion of any object (right click or Insert menu).

You can of course see the result of a source by hiting F4.

The edit window allows you to pass some options to pov.

When a file is loaded, you have the following controls in the edit window:
                    Right button : open a floating menu, with billions of things that you can select.
                    Choose what you want to add to your file, it will be inserted where the cursor is.
                    Control-h : hide the selection. Be careful! The selection will be used for the rendering, even though it is hidden.
                    Alt-h : Unhide the hidden selections.
                    Alt-a : Select all.
                    F9 : Autocompletion.
                   Control-r or F4 : Launch the rendering.
                    Control-u : Undo.
                    Control-r : Redo.
You can notice that "Undo" and "Redo" are unlimited.
                    Control-c : Copy the selection in a buffer.
                   Control-v : Paste the buffer to the insert point.
                   Control-x : Delete the selection while copying it into the buffer.
                   Control-z : Delete the selection, but without copying it into the buffer.
                    Control-f : Find an expression.
                    Control-g : Ask for a line number, and goto this line.
                    Control-b : look for the matching bracket just after the insert point, if it is an opening bracket, or just before the insert point, if it is a closing bracket.

Choice of the rendering options:
With the pulldown list on the left you can pass some standard options. With Editor/Options you can add your favorite options. These options are written in your configuration file, and loaded when you launch povedit.

Some additional options can be entered in the right side of the pulldown list. These options can overload primary options.

Notice: the first time that you use povedit, the software will try to find some needed addresses.
You will then be proposed to modify these addresses if you wish (for example you could have several versions of pov).

If you want, these addresses will be written in a configuration file named ~/.poveditrc to avoid the search through your file system everytime you start povedit.

This presentation is far from being complete, you should read the complete documentation!