POV-Ray license (was Re: 1-10-11 report)

Werner Almesberger werner at openmoko.org
Thu Jan 13 04:42:38 EST 2011


Jane Andreas wrote:
> I would be more interested at this point in finding a 2d graphics program
> that could generate objects based on equations/descriptions.

Hmm, if all else fails, there's always fped. It's designed for drawing
footprints for electronical components, so its set of drawing primitives
is quite limited (line, circle, arc, plus some non-drawing elements. No
color, but you get to choose the line width).

It has a GUI but its file format is intended to be human-friendly and to
allow for non-GUI use. The basic principle is that you define the
geometry using vectors and then connect points with lines, arcs, etc.

In terms of constructive geometry, it only has the concatenation of
vectors. Vectors can do a bit of math, so it can be complemented with
algebraic geometry. Analytic geometry is beyond its scope.

Here's an example:
http://downloads.qi-hardware.com/people/werner/tmp/smile.fpd
http://downloads.qi-hardware.com/people/werner/tmp/smile.ps

The design of my lab tables (done with the GUI, so many of the
identifiers are cryptic):
http://www.almesberger.net/misc/ndep/parts.fpd
http://www.almesberger.net/misc/ndep/parts.ps

The language is described here:
http://svn.openmoko.org/trunk/eda/fped/README

fped uses Gtk+, but it should be relatively easy to strip the GUI if it
gets in the way. (It already has a .fpd to .ps conversion that doesn't
invoke Gtk+.)

- Werner




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