art [options] model.g objects...ART(1)
NAME
art - appleseed ray tracer for BRL-CAD geometry
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SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
The art program renders BRL-CAD geometry with the Appleseed physically based rendering engine, producing a photorealistic image of the indicated objects in the input model.g database.
art shoots rays into the database with librt(3) to derive each region’s geometry, then builds an equivalent Appleseed scene. Each region becomes an Appleseed procedural object with a native plastic-like surface. Region RGB colors, including colors inherited from parent combinations, are honored. Regions using BRL-CAD’s light shader become colored point lights located at their model-space centroids; their bright and fract values scale the light intensity. If the database has no light regions, art supplies a default point light. A constant-color sky environment also illuminates the scene.
The view is autosized about the model centroid; the orientation is set with the -a and -e options. A perspective camera is used by default (-p 85); setting the perspective angle to 0 selects an orthographic camera. Unless image dimensions are given, a 512x512 image is rendered.
The result is written to the exact path named by -o (default art.png). The output format is inferred from the file extension.
art is built only when BRL-CAD is configured with Appleseed enabled; otherwise it is not installed. Art shares its command-line parser and rt-script command set with rt(1), but only the options below are currently supported.
OPTIONS
- -o filename
-
Render to the named image file (e.g. image.png or image.pix). Default is art.png.
- -F framebuffer
-
Also display the render in the named framebuffer (see FB_FILE in brlcad(1)); defaults to opening a window.
- -s #
-
Square image size in pixels (implies a x image). Default 512.
- -w #
-
Image width in pixels.
- -n #
-
Image height in pixels (scanlines).
- -C //#
-
Background (sky) color as R/G/B, either 0-255 or 0.0-1.0. Default 191/204/255 (light blue).
- -R
-
Disable reporting of overlapping region names.
- -a #
-
View azimuth in degrees (default 0). Used with -e.
- -e #
-
View elevation in degrees (default 0). Used with -a.
- -p #
-
Perspective angle in degrees, side to side (0 ⇐ # < 180). The default is 85; a value of 0 selects an orthographic camera.
- -P #
-
Number of processors (render threads) to use. Default is all available.
- -c "command"
-
Run a semicolon-separated list of rt script commands before rendering. In addition to the standard rt(1) commands, art honors these set variables: samples (or s) controls the number of samples per pixel (the main quality/time tradeoff, default 25); background (or bg) sets the sky color as an R/G/B string; and light_intensity (or li) scales the point-light brightness (default 200).
- -M
-
Read a model-to-view matrix and animation commands from standard input, as produced by an mged(1) saveview script.
- -D #
-
Starting frame number (ending frame is set with -K).
- -K #
-
Ending frame number (starting frame is set with -D).
- -T | /#
-
Modeling tolerance as distance, or distance/angular.
- -v [#]
-
Increase or set the rt verbosity level.
- -x #
-
Set librt debugging flags (hexadecimal).
- -X #
-
Set rt optical/program debugging flags (hexadecimal).
- -N #
-
Set libnmg debugging flags (hexadecimal).
EXAMPLES
Example 1. Render a region to a PNG file
art -o havoc.png -s 1024 -a 35 -e 25 havoc.g havocRenders the havoc object from havoc.g at azimuth 35 and elevation 25 into a 1024x1024 image named havoc.png in the current directory.
Example 2. Increase sample count and use an orthographic camera
art -p 0 -c "set samples=100" -o ortho.png moss.g all.gSets the perspective angle to 0 (orthographic projection) and raises the per-pixel sample count to 100 for a smoother, less noisy image at the cost of longer render time.
Example 3. Render an mged saveview script
mged moss.g 'saveview view.rt; q'
art -M -o moss.png moss.g all.g < view.rtCaptures the current mged(1) view as an rt script, then feeds that script to art via -M so the rendered image matches the saved camera position.
SEE ALSO
brlcad(1), mged(1), rt(1), rtedge(1), pix(5)
AUTHOR
BRL-CAD Team
COPYRIGHT
This software is Copyright (c) 1989-2026 by the United States Government as represented by U.S. Army Research Laboratory.
BUG REPORTS
Reports of bugs or problems should be submitted via electronic mail to devs@brlcad.org