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Yup, writing POV files would be a very, very handy feature. Remember also that parallel POV processing is an ancient and pretty much perfected art. It also gives the best raytraced output of anything I've come across, which is why I use it despite the lack of modelers.

To become truly cunning, integrate the POV script reading engine from Giram (another GPL modeller, based on the GTK), and add the ability to display camera views on different X desktops. This will allow people to add 3D VR modeling capabilites through stereo viewers etc.

I fancy making a stereo VR viewer from a couple of cheap LCD TVs, 2 VGA cards with video output and some magnifier goggles. I've waited too damned long for VR to go mainstream already.

Rant over.

Vik :v)

That said, the UI is important! That is what the users will see and interact with. It should be efficient and enjoyable as possible. Minimize keystrokes and mouse clicks to get the job done. Watch the users use it - see what they have to do to use it. Make it easier!

Very important! Also make sure to preserve screen real estate. Many Unix and Linux programs are particularly bad at this point, whereas most Windows applications successfully conserve screen space. Remember, not everyone has large screens - and those who have will be confronted with ridiculously huge dialogs if you don't optimze them for space. Somebody above mentioned GIRAM, a linux 3D modeller: take a look at the screenshots and see how they waste screen space - and this for a program that is intended for model design (where you want as accurate as possible display of the model, not of the pushbuttons). EndOfRant.

Another thing that I have observed is lacking in many 3D modellers is the possibility to enter exact numbers for all aspects of the model. If one really wants to do serious design one has to use numbers sooner or later.

I do. Giram (http://www.giram.org/)
is a GPLed Modeller, use povray as backend, and gtk+-2.0 for the gui.
Give it a try.

Have you tried Giram (http://www.giram.org/) ?
It's a nice modeller I'm working on. Still on development, but I'm working hard on it to make it usable. Giram use Povray to render and can read and save Povray files.
Have a look at the site for more information.

It needs a GPL modeller, and I've put a bit of work into Giram. It's not bad, but it needs more work by better GTK+ programmers than I. Runs on Linux & BSD. Help. Please.

Vik :v)

If you're interested in some other 3D software for Linux (some GPL, some not), there's 3dom, 3dpm, Behemot, G3D, Giram, 3delight, AC3D, and of course Blender as mentioned above.

Come on Karma, don't fail me now! The Linux Pimp

I use POVray from http://www.povray.org to do the actual rendering - and its quality is absolutely f'ing brilliant.

For Windows users, Moray is a nice designer that generates POV files. It's not free but there is a try-before-you-buy version. See POVray homepage.

Under Linux there wasn't one - so I'm helping build Giram. It's GPL, usable and does DXF files as well as POV. The new (0.1.7) release is coming RSN, so watch http://www.giram.org/ for details.

Vik :v)