Photo-realistic rendering of FreeCAD models with CADRays

Have some feature requests, feedback, cool stuff to share, or want to know where FreeCAD is going? This is the place.
Forum rules
Be nice to others! Read the FreeCAD code of conduct!
Post Reply
Zerginator
Posts: 15
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2015 6:30 pm

Re: Photo-realistic rendering of FreeCAD models with CADRays

Post by Zerginator »

Are there any news on the Linux version of CadRays?
User avatar
yorik
Founder
Posts: 13640
Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2009 9:16 pm
Location: Brussels
Contact:

Re: Photo-realistic rendering of FreeCAD models with CADRays

Post by yorik »

I'm always looking if there isn't a linux version coming too, but so far no signal...
User avatar
PrzemoF
Veteran
Posts: 3520
Joined: Fri Jul 25, 2014 4:52 pm
Contact:

Re: Photo-realistic rendering of FreeCAD models with CADRays

Post by PrzemoF »

Don't hold your breath, this is directly from the source:
We do not have any plans to make our CADRays application open source, or to release it on any additional platforms. The purpose of this application is to demonstrate our advanced visualization technology and so to attract any potential business opportunities.
triplus
Veteran
Posts: 9471
Joined: Mon Dec 12, 2011 4:45 pm

Re: Photo-realistic rendering of FreeCAD models with CADRays

Post by triplus »

Too bad. But at least there is a plethora of raytracing solutions out there. FOSS and cross platform.
Zerginator
Posts: 15
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2015 6:30 pm

Re: Photo-realistic rendering of FreeCAD models with CADRays

Post by Zerginator »

That really is a shame. I enjoy using CadRays, at it is by way the simplest and fastest solution for quick good looking renders.
Just import the STEP File with having the parts structure still intact, assign some materials to these parts - done.
User avatar
Joel_graff
Veteran
Posts: 1949
Joined: Fri Apr 28, 2017 4:23 pm
Contact:

Re: Photo-realistic rendering of FreeCAD models with CADRays

Post by Joel_graff »

Zerginator wrote: Wed Jan 02, 2019 12:22 pm That really is a shame. I enjoy using CadRays, at it is by way the simplest and fastest solution for quick good looking renders.
Just import the STEP File with having the parts structure still intact, assign some materials to these parts - done.
Given the CADRays view of their renderer, I honestly wouldn't use it. Not because it's proprietary software, but taking @PrzemoF's citiation at face value, the vendor has a proprietary purpose for it and aren't interested in accommodating community feed back, regardless of what it may be.

Still, maybe it's worth trying under Wine? With Steam's beta release of Proton, a lot of huge improvements have been upstreamed, and CodeWeavers has even beefed up their staff to handle the Proton improvements coming their way. The addition of the Vulkan / DirectX compatibility layer has easily superseded Wine's own Direct3D implementation, which, I'm hoping, means that newer software may start running
better under Wine than older software...

No doubt it'd be a challenge getting something as complex as a 3D renderer to run under Wine, and again, given the vendor's view of the purpose of CADRays, I'd argue it's not worth anyone's time to really use it. Still, it's worth a look to at least identify the show-stopping issues and report them - especially if that issue is common to running other Windows applications under Wine...
FreeCAD Trails workbench for transportation engineering: https://www.github.com/joelgraff/freecad.trails

pivy_trackers 2D coin3D library: https://www.github.com/joelgraff/pivy_trackers
BeardPower
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2019 11:56 pm

Re: Photo-realistic rendering of FreeCAD models with CADRays

Post by BeardPower »

Hi,

As the CADRays is similar to Cycles and Cycles can be compiled as a standalone renderer, it could be integrated directly into FreeCAD.
Another possibility is to integrate https://github.com/google/filament into FreeCAD. It would open the opportunity to have an additional view mode in FreeCAD similar to EEVEE in Blender.
Are there any projects/proposals to implement either of the two?

Thanks!
User avatar
Kunda1
Veteran
Posts: 13434
Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2017 9:03 pm

Re: Photo-realistic rendering of FreeCAD models with CADRays

Post by Kunda1 »

Re:Eevee
I think there is a ticket in the tracker and also in the FreeCAD-render workbench on GitHub.
Alone you go faster. Together we go farther
Please mark thread [Solved]
Want to contribute back to FC? Checkout:
'good first issues' | Open TODOs and FIXMEs | How to Help FreeCAD | How to report Bugs
BeardPower
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2019 11:56 pm

Re: Photo-realistic rendering of FreeCAD models with CADRays

Post by BeardPower »

Thanks!

The issue with EEVEE is that it's not a stand-alone renderer like Cycles. It currently is deeply integrated into Blender so extracting it and using it in FreeCAD is hard to do.

AMD and NVIDIA provide many Open Source libraries from Scene Graphs, to Renderers to FEM so maybe these technologies could even be used as an alternative to Coin3D.
User avatar
Kunda1
Veteran
Posts: 13434
Joined: Thu Jan 05, 2017 9:03 pm

Re: Photo-realistic rendering of FreeCAD models with CADRays

Post by Kunda1 »

BeardPower wrote: Wed Jul 10, 2019 1:06 am so maybe these technologies could even be used as an alternative to Coin3D.
This is no small ask, my friend. If you search the forums you will see discussions about what to do about Coin3D, especially when upstream went almost dormant and then picked back up recently (finally accepting our Pull Requests).

Edit:
Alone you go faster. Together we go farther
Please mark thread [Solved]
Want to contribute back to FC? Checkout:
'good first issues' | Open TODOs and FIXMEs | How to Help FreeCAD | How to report Bugs
Post Reply