Re: [Open Babel] povray output

[Steven W. <SW...@si...>]

After trying a few things, I have found that the pov file generated by OpenBabel is missing several things:

There needs to be a lightsource, a camera, and there should probably be a background color - otherwise the background will be black and any organic compounds will be hard to see.

In addition, the pov file defines a number of objects using the name of the input file (e.g. filename_atoms or filename_bonds).  In order for these to be rendered, the last line of the file needs to be "filename" (or whatever label babel assigns - in a few cases I tried, there were errors and in place of "filename" it used the phrase "InValid".)

It would be helpful if there were some documentation for the pov output.  There are several display options defined in the pov file:  Ball and Stick, Capped Stick, Spacefilling, and something labeled "TRANS" that I'm not sure about.  Ball and stick is the default, for any of the others to be rendered there needs to be a declaration at the start of the pov file like:

//Ball And Stick is the default
#declare BAS=true;

// Capped STick
#declare CST=true;

//SPaceFilling
#declare SPF=true;

// transparent bonds?
#declare TRANS=true;

Maybe all these options could be included in the pov file, but commented out so that they would provide a bit of documentation within the file itself.

I hope this makes sense and someone will be able to correct the OPenBable pov output.

Thanks,

Steve
________________________________________
From: Steven Wathen
Sent: Friday, November 27, 2009 11:11 AM
To: ope...@li...
Subject: [Open Babel] povray output

Hello,

Does anyone have any experience with converting molecular files to the povay format?

When I try to render the pov file I get from babel, the povray output says there are zero objects in the file and I get a totally black image file.

When I open the pov file in a text editor, I don't see a camera or light source.  There are a number of IF statements that define different display options (ball and stick, etc), but none of them seem to render.  Short of editing the pov file by hand, how do I specify which display option I want rendered?

I am running Ubuntu 9.04, OpenBabel 2.2.3 and Povray 3.6

Thanks for your help,

Steve

-------------
Dr. Steven P. Wathen
Associate Professor of Chemistry
Siena Heights University
1247 East Siena Heights Drive
Adrian, MI 49221

(517) 264-7657
sw...@si...
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