Photo-realistic rendering of FreeCAD models with CADRays

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OPEN CASCADE
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Photo-realistic rendering of FreeCAD models with CADRays

Post by OPEN CASCADE »

FreeCAD was created to design complex industrial CAD models.
For some FreeCAD users, it might be interesting to render their 3D models with photo-realistic quality fully interactively and spending minimum time on this.
For this purpose, OPEN CASCADE has announced a new free application named CADRays recently.
Those who are interested can have a look at it here: https://www.opencascade.com/content/cadrays
It will be interesting to see some nice renderings published in this topic.
opencascade_cadrays_engine_3.png
opencascade_cadrays_engine_3.png (978.45 KiB) Viewed 12660 times
Last edited by OPEN CASCADE on Wed Mar 15, 2017 12:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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PrzemoF
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Re: Photo-realistic rendering of FreeCAD models with CADRays

Post by PrzemoF »

Welcome to the forum OPEN CASCADE!

Thanks for sharing the link - it look interesting. Is there an API that we could use to interact with CADRAYS from FreeCAD? Are there any plans to have linux/mac versions?
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Re: Photo-realistic rendering of FreeCAD models with CADRays

Post by duv »

Thanks for the interest!

Firstly, note that rendering core of CADRays integrated into OpenCASCADE Technology and FreeCAD could use it since FreeCAD already uses OCCT libraries.
Secondly, the CADRays scene consists of TCL script and .brep files (or PLY for meshes). It should be easy to export this kind of data from FreeCAD.

We are planing to release a Linux version in near future.
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Re: Photo-realistic rendering of FreeCAD models with CADRays

Post by PrzemoF »

Great, so it's even better than I thought! I thought it's possible with an external app only. It's beyond my sill level, but I'm sure will see photo realistic view port in FreeCAD at some stage :D
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Re: Photo-realistic rendering of FreeCAD models with CADRays

Post by Jee-Bee »

Currious about the difference between povray and cadrays results...
maybe something for later :D
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Re: Photo-realistic rendering of FreeCAD models with CADRays

Post by duv »

CADRays is definitely faster, you can tune scene and materials interactively! Though, for now it has less features than POV-Ray.
Please take a look at the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6_uGxmhuVk
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Re: Photo-realistic rendering of FreeCAD models with CADRays

Post by denisb »

The key point is that CADRays performs all the computations on a GPU (both AMD and NVIDIA are supported), so it provides interactive path tracing. But, it means that you need discrete GPU in order to get the maximum from this technology.
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Re: Photo-realistic rendering of FreeCAD models with CADRays

Post by NormandC »

This is really exciting! But what a bummer that the Linux version is not out yet. :( (Many of us FreeCAD users are on Linux)
denisb wrote:The key point is that CADRays performs all the computations on a GPU (both AMD and NVIDIA are supported), so it provides interactive path tracing. But, it means that you need discrete GPU in order to get the maximum from this technology.
So that's in real time like Luxion KeyShot and Bunkspeed Shot?
duv wrote:rendering core of CADRays integrated into OpenCASCADE Technology and FreeCAD could use it since FreeCAD already uses OCCT libraries.
Secondly, the CADRays scene consists of TCL script and .brep files (or PLY for meshes). It should be easy to export this kind of data from FreeCAD.
It's a pity you guys didn't release this 2 months ago when GSoC 2017 started, integration with FreeCAD could have been a nice project for a student. :D

Thanks for sharing this!
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Re: Photo-realistic rendering of FreeCAD models with CADRays

Post by r-frank »

Thanks for sharing ...

Already registered and downloaded, looking forward to play around with it (hopefully upcoming weekend).

BTW: Since we need to install MS VS 2015 X64-version what about 32 bit users ?
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Re: Photo-realistic rendering of FreeCAD models with CADRays

Post by duv »

NormandC wrote:This is really exciting! But what a bummer that the Linux version is not out yet. :( (Many of us FreeCAD users are on Linux)
CADRays is basically ported on Linux, it just lack some polish :) . So release of Linux version will definitely happen in near future.
NormandC wrote: So that's in real time like Luxion KeyShot and Bunkspeed Shot?
Yes, although as far as I remember, KeyShot performs simplified preview rendering in real time and starts from scratch for final rendering. CADRays always do final rendering progressively. Bunkspeed Shot seems to work only on NVIDIA cards since it based on IRay.
r-frank wrote: BTW: Since we need to install MS VS 2015 X64-version what about 32 bit users ?
We are not sure that there is a real demand on 32 bit version. It limits memory usage badly which is undesired for huge modern CAD models. If anyone really need it please post your request here and we will consider release of 32 bit version.
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