G-RAW(1)

💅 G-RAW(1) — the g-raw page, bestie edition 🎀

okay so you found the g-raw page in the BRL-CAD manual set, and honestly? you're about to have a great time. this one's from the BRL-CAD crew and it's literally the glow-up pipeline from BRL-CAD geometry to RAW triangle facets. let's get into it ✨

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🌸 NAME 🌸

g-raw — converts BRL-CAD geometry into the RAW triangle facet format. that's it. that's the whole vibe. 💖

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

g-raw [-vi8] [-x rt_debug] [-X nmg_debug] [-a abs_tol] [-r rel_tol] [-n norm_tol] [-D dist_tol] [-o output_file.raw | -m output_directory] database.g object...

like, yes, that's a lot of brackets, but hear me out — every single one of them is doing something. 👑

💫 DESCRIPTION 💫

so g-raw takes the object(s) you named and pulls them out of a BRL-CAD database.g file, converting them into the RAW triangle facet format. each region you specify gets tessellated using the NMG boolean evaluator and then written out as a list of triangle vertex coordinates. that's the whole serve. 🔥

by default, all the converted geometry goes out as one single stream to standard output. no cap. but if you pass -o the output lands in a named file instead, and if you pass -m each region gets its own file inside a directory. the two are mutually exclusive — pick one, you can't have both, that's the rules bestie. 💅

when you're writing to a directory, the file names are derived from the region's full path name, with "/" replaced by "@" and spaces and periods replaced by "_". so your paths stay cute and filesystem-safe. 🎀

coordinates come out in millimeters unless -i asks for inches. millimeters is the default, don't come for me. 🫶

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

• -v — turn on verbose output! it reports the objects processed plus the tessellation and calculation tolerances that are actually in effect. very "let me tell you everything" of it. 🙈
• -i — emit vertex coordinates in inches instead of the default millimeters. yep, that's the whole flag. ⭐
• -8 — tessellate using the marching cubes algorithm instead of the standard NMG boolean evaluation. different algorithm, same goal. 🧚
• -o output_file.raw — write all output to the named file rather than standard output. mutually exclusive with -m (i said what i said). 💀
• -m output_directory — write each converted region to its own separate ".raw" file inside the named directory. mutually exclusive with -o. 🍓
• -a abs_tol — set the absolute tessellation tolerance in millimeters. heads up: specifying this disables the relative tolerance. 😭
• -r rel_tol — set the relative tessellation tolerance, expressed as a fraction of the bounding box size. the default is 0.01. 👑
• -n norm_tol — set the surface-normal tessellation tolerance, in degrees. specifying this also disables the relative tolerance. 🌈
• -D dist_tol — set the calculation distance tolerance in millimeters, used to decide whether two vertices are coincident. the default is 0.0005. 🌸
• -x rt_debug — set the librt debug flags, given as a hexadecimal value. 🔍
• -X nmg_debug — set the libnmg debug flags, given as a hexadecimal value. 🔍

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🎀 EXAMPLES 🎀

Example 1. Convert selected regions to a single RAW file

g-raw -o engine.raw engine.g block piston

this tessellates the regions named "block" and "piston" from engine.g and writes both of them as triangles into engine.raw. two regions, one file, iconic. 💖

Example 2. Export every region to its own file in inches

mkdir parts
g-raw -i -m parts -a 0.1 model.g top_assembly

this walks the "top_assembly" tree in model.g, tessellating each region with an absolute tolerance of 0.1 mm, and writes a separate ".raw" file per region into the "parts" directory — with coordinates expressed in inches. the mkdir parts first is not optional, she needs a home. 🦋

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💜 SEE ALSO 💜

brlcad(1), g-stl(1), g-obj(1), mged(1) — go read those too, iykyk. 📚

🌟 AUTHOR 🌟

BRL-CAD Team — legends, honestly. 👑

💐 COPYRIGHT 💐

This software is Copyright (c) 1989-2026 by the United States Government as represented by U.S. Army Research Laboratory. periodt. 🇺🇸

🫶 BUG REPORTS 🫶

Reports of bugs or problems should be submitted via electronic mail to devs@brlcad.org. if something's acting up, tell them — don't suffer in silence, bestie. 💌

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ok that's the whole page, no skips, no summaries, every flag accounted for. now go tessellate something gorgeous. ✨

and finally, the cutest sign-off: this little beauty is from BRL-CAD, page G-RAW(1) — mwah, go ship some triangles 💅🎀