This task merely involves downloading, installing, and running BRL-CAD and then proving you got it working.

You'll prove it by creating some really simple geometry, rendering it, and submitting a screenshot.

You have a choice of how to obtain BRL-CAD, each with different learning challenges:

• BEST: You can download and compile directly from our repository: http://brlcad.org/wiki/Building_from_SVN
• EASY: You can download our Virtual Machine image: http://brlcad.org/wiki/Deuces#Getting_Started
• MEH: You can use a binary tarball: http://brlcad.org/d/download

Once you have BRL-CAD installed, you'll want to run either mged or archer. You can see our Intro to MGED on http://brlcad.org/wiki/Documentation for extensive tutorials on how to model, but here are some quick steps to get you going:

1. First, create a simple 512x512 black and white image that has your name in it somewhere. Any paint program will do here.
2. Save that as a png image named hello.png and
3. Convert your png image to a bw image by running our png-bw command (png-bw hello.png > hello.bw). If you can't figure out how to do that on your system command line, this command on the mged> prompt should work if you copy-paste it exactly as written into mged: exec \[ file join \[ bu_brlcad_root bin \] pix-bw \] hello.png \> hello.bw
4. Create your extruded bitmap geometry: in gcirocks.ebm ebm hello.bw 512 512 64
5. Render a pretty picture: B gcirocks.ebm ae 35 25 zoom 1.5 l gcirocks.ebm rt
6. You should see a rendering window pop up if everything else was okay. Take a full screenshot and submit it here.

References:

• http://brlcad.org/wiki/Compiling <-- if you're trying to compile from source
• http://brlcad.org/wiki/Documentation <-- intro to mged and quick ref command card
• http://brlcad.org/wiki/EBM <-- more details on the ebm you are creating