https://brlcad.org/w/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=83.82.70.7&feedformat=atomBRL-CAD - User contributions [en]2024-03-28T19:50:59ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.32.2https://brlcad.org/w/index.php?title=FAQ&diff=580FAQ2008-06-10T23:18:35Z<p>83.82.70.7: /* How do I start BRL-CAD? */</p>
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==How do I start BRL-CAD?==<br />
BRL-CAD is a suite of more that 400 tools and utilities. The suite of applications are intentionally designed to perform a succinct task so that they can be chained together, scripted, and expanded upon in order to provide powerful flexibility.<br />
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That said, most users will be interested in using [[mged]] for editing geometry as a first step in getting started with BRL-CAD. Documentation on mged can be found in the share directory where BRL-CAD was installed. There is also extensive mged documentation available on the website under [[Documentation]].<br />
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If you're on Windows, there should be an icon for MGED in your start menu or on your desktop. For any other platform, you should be able to run this in an X11 terminal: '''/usr/brlcad/bin/mged'''<br />
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Although /usr/brlcad/bin/mged works under Ubuntu as well, the alternative is to use a special BRL terminal which can be started with brlterm. In this terminal the command mged will run the program.<br />
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==How do I get a hard copy of what I'm looking at in MGED?==<br />
The File->Raytrace and File->Render_View->RT_Script menu options in MGED will generate a raster image of MGED's current view. The [[pix-png]] utility can be used to convert from BRL-CAD's .pix raw image file format to the .png file format, and can then be printed or embedded into other documents using other tools.<br />
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Additionally, the other File->Render_View options for generating standard Plot and PostScript output files of the MGED wireframe suitable for printing. The [[pl-fb]] and [[fb-png]] tools can be used to rasterize a Plot file to the .png format.<br />
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Finally, there are a variety of renderers and lighting models available in BRL-CAD that are useful for various purposes. The [[rt]] tool is the primary ray-tracer that is used for shaded view rendering. The [[rtedge]] and [[rthide]] commands are used for hidden-line renderings similar to what you'd want for generating drafting documents. [[rtwizard]] is a graphical 'wizard' tool that can be used to generate a variety of hybrid renderings.</div>83.82.70.7