Questions about documentation for kpovmodeler

[Bob Hinchman]

PREFACE:  I have a couple questions about kpovmodeler documentation. I apologize in advance if I've posted to an incorrect forum, but the kpovmodeler-devel forum appeared to be most appropriate one that I could find.  If there is a more appropriate forum for me to post my questions, would you please direct me there?

QUESTIONS:

I recently installed kpovmodeler 1.1.2 and I'm trying to learn to use the program. This is a fascinating program and I'm greatly looking forward to using it.

I've read the kpovmodeler Handbook and read the English language tutorials on the www.linuxgraphic.org site.

Unfortunately, I have been unable to locate on the Internet additional documentation for kpovmodeler.  Even having read the Handbook and the English translations of a few tutorials, the program has a large number of features and tool bar selections that I'm simply unable to figure out.

There are lots of web sites with .pov sample files, but I've had greater difficulty locating .kpm files which I can import so I can study them. Even for those that I can import, it is not clear how to use kpovmodeler to create the imported scenes.

The example files that kpovmodeler installed in in/usr/share/apps/kpovmodeler/examples/scene will render and I will study them. Unfortunately, the files in /usr/share/apps/kpovmodeler/examples/includes do not render and I can't determine what I'm doing wrong or how to import them into working scenes.

I've downloaded and have started to read the "Introduction to POV-Ray" documentation.

However, I haven't previously used POV-Ray and I'm having trouble relating the POV-Ray examples to kpovmodeler.

Could you please suggest where I might find additional documentation for kpovmodeler?

I'd be happy to purchase a book about using kpovmodeler, but I can't locate anything on Amazon.com

Thanks in advance for your help.

Bob Hinchman
[e-mail]

When i started using KPovmodeler I had the same sort of problem at
understanding all the concepts.

The way I did it is was to go to some of the POV sites and download their demo
files and import the files.

Each time I did this I could see on the side menu the items appear and the
actual correct use of such items.

Some of the items in POV are not covered as yet by KPM

I found it fun and easier to use than the direct hard coding of POV files.

I don't know of any books as yet or other resources directly aimed at KPM.


Regards Michael Cole.




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[Haakon Meland Eriksen]

Fredag 09 mars 2007 18:10, skrev Bob Hinchman:

> Could you please suggest where I might find additional documentation for
> kpovmodeler?

Hi Bob,

I use Kpovmodeler regularly, take a look at http://far.no/ for a couple of
illustrations.

Since Kpovmodeler is just an easy way to use the POV-Ray Scene Description
Language (SDL), you will learn a lot quicker reading and doing the tutorials
that come with POV-Ray.

You will quickly notice that the SDL supports creating definitions of larger
objects, textures and so on, and Kpovmodeler lets you do the same, but this
is not covered in the documentation. Definitions makes it easy to reuse these
complex objects in your scene by just linking to them whenever you need them.
When you open or import scenes that contains definitions, you will find icons
in the object tree that you don't see on the toolbars. The definition icon in
the tree changes to reflect the type of definition you have defined.

Now, definitions are not visible objects. Let's say you have modelled a table
using five cubes - just copy the green cube from the start scene five times
for now and shape and move them apropriately. Place all of them in a union
object, so you can move all five as one object. Create a definition, move the
union into the definiton. You will notice that your table is not visible on
camera anymore. This is as it should be - your table is now a definition of
an object.

Create two object link objects below your definition. Object links must be
below their definitions, or you will get an error when trying to render you
scene. Select one object link, and among it's parameters you get to  link to
your table definiton. Your table is on camera again. Do the same with the
second object link. Try to use the translate (move) icon of each table
object, and place them side by side, then render.

Cheers,
Haakon

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