MGF2RAD(1)						      General Commands Manual							MGF2RAD(1)

NAME

       mgf2rad - convert Materials and Geometry Format file to RADIANCE description

SYNOPSIS

       mgf2rad [ -m matfile ][ -e mult ][ -g dist ] [ input ..	]

DESCRIPTION

       Mgf2rad	converts  one or more Materials and Geometry Format (MGF) files to a RADIANCE scene description.  By definition, all output dimen-
       sions are in meters.  The material names and properties for the surfaces will be those assigned in MGF.	Any materials not defined  in  MGF
       will  result  in  an  error  during  translation.  Light sources are described inline as IES luminaire files, and mgf2rad calls the program
       ies2rad(1) to translate these files.  If an IES file in turn contains an MGF description of the local fixture geometry, this may result	in
       a recursive call to mgf2rad, which is normal and should be transparent.	The only side-effect of this additional translation is the appear-
       ance of other RADIANCE scene and data files produced automatically by ies2rad.

       The -m option may be used to put all the translated materials into a separate RADIANCE file.  This is not always advisable,  as	any  given
       material  name  may be reused at different points in the MGF description, and writing them to a separate file loses the contextual associa-
       tion between materials and surfaces.  As long as unique material names are used throughout the MGF description and material properties  are
       not  redefined,	there will be no problem.  Note that this is the only way to get all the translated materials into a single file, since no
       output is produced for unreferenced materials; i.e. translating just the MGF materials does not work.

       The -e option may be used to multiply all the emission values by the given mult factor.	The -g option may be used to establish a glow dis-
       tance  (in  meters) for all emitting surfaces.  These two options are employed principally by ies2rad, and are not generally useful to most
       users.

EXAMPLE

       To translate two MGF files into one RADIANCE materials file and one geometry file:

	 mgf2rad -m materials.rad building1.mgf building2.mgf > building1+2.rad

       To create an octree directly from two MGF files and one RADIANCE file:

	 oconv '!mgf2rad materials.mgf scene.mgf' source.rad > scene.oct

FILES

       tmesh.cal Used to smooth polygonal geometry
       *.rad	      RADIANCE source descriptions created by ies2rad
       *.dat	      RADIANCE source data created by ies2rad
       source.cal     Used for IES source coordinates

AUTHOR

       Greg Ward

SEE ALSO

       ies2rad(1), mgf2meta(1), obj2rad(1), oconv(1), rad2mgf(1), xform(1)

       MGF web site "http://radsite.lbl.gov/mgf/HOME.html"

RADIANCE
							      4/12/95								MGF2RAD(1)