In many computer graphics applications such as CAD, realistic displays have very important and positive effects on the users of the system. There are several techniques to generate realistic images with the computer. Ray tracing gives the most effective results by simulating the interaction of light with its environment. However, it may require an excessive amount of time to generate an image. In this article, we present a survey of methods developed to speed up the ray tracing algorithm and introduce a fast ray tracer to process a 3D scene that is defined by interactive 3D modeling software.