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| Since | 12.0 |
See the following link for further information about the Alembic format.
Tips and notes ¶
-
If you add a spare parameter to an object named
abc_collapseand its value is not zero, this node will skip that object and omit it from the archive. See also the Collapse parameter. -
The Alembic library has some expectations of geometry attributes that this node attempts to satisfy. For polygon meshes, the Alembic library treats position (
P), normal (N), texture coordinates (uv), and velocity (v) differently from other attributes. This node tries to express geometry in the form expected by the Alembic library for better compatibility with other applications.For example, that if you have
vas a vertex attributes, this node will write it out as a point attribute.To avoid this mangling, use a different name than one of the “special” attributes. For example, if you really need to export vertex velocities, name the attribute something different like
v2orvv.
Parameters ¶
Render to Disk
Begins the render with the last render control settings.
Controls
Opens the render control dialog to allow adjustments of the render parameters before rendering.
Valid Frame Range
Controls whether this render node outputs the current frame (Render Current Frame) or the image sequence specified in the Start/End/Inc parameters (Render Frame Range).
Render Frame Range Only (Strict) will render frames START to END when it is rendered, but will not allow frames outside this range to be rendered at all. Render Frame Range will allow outside frames to be rendered. This is used in conjunction with render dependencies. It also affects the behavior of the 'Override Frame Range' in the Render Control dialog.
Two possible cases where you would want the strict behavior:
-
A 60 frame walk cycle written out to a geo, but part of a larger ROP net to render out a larger frame range.
-
A texture loop from 1-20.
Otherwise, you will usually set this to non-strict.
Render Current Frame
Renders a single frame, based on the value in the playbar or the frame that is requested by a connected output render node.
Render Frame Range
Renders a sequence of frames. If an output render node is connected, this range is generally ignored in favor of frames requested by the output render node.
Render Frame Range Only (Strict)
Renders a sequence of frames. If an output render node is connected, this range restricts its requested frames to this frame range.
Start/End/Inc
Specifies the range of frames to render (start frame, end frame, and increment). All values may be floating point values. The range is inclusive.
These parameters determine the values of the following local variables for the output driver.
$NRENDER
The number of frames to be rendered by the output driver.
$N
The current frame being rendered (starting at 1 and going to $NRENDER).
For example, if the parameters are set to:
Start |
10.5 |
End |
12 |
Inc |
0.5 |
There will be 4 frames rendered (10.5, 11, 11.5, and 12), so $NRENDER will have a value of 4. $N will have the value:
Frame |
$N |
|---|---|
10.5 |
1 |
11 |
2 |
11.5 |
3 |
12 |
4 |
Render With Take
The output driver will switch to this take before rendering and then restore the current take when rendering is done.
Tip
Use chs("take") to use this value in other parameters. See the chs expression function for more information.
Alembic File
The name of the archive to generate.
Format
The file format of the archive to generate.
Default
Use whichever file format is the default for the current version of Houdini.
HDF5
Use the HDF5 file format. HDF5 is a common hierarchical data format, and several tools exist to view and edit HDF5 files.
Ogawa
Use the Ogawa file format. Ogawa is an Alembic-specific file format available for use as of Alembic 1.5. Ogawa files are on average smaller (by 5-15%) and faster (4× for single-threaded reads, 25× for multi-threaded reads on 8 core systems) than HDF5 files.
Create Intermediate Directories
Create the directories in the Alembic archive output path if they do not exist.
Render Full Range (Override Frame-By-Frame)
Normally, it’s best to render all frames into a single Alembic archive. This allows Alembic to optimize storage of data and to be more efficient. This is the default behavior of the output driver, even when frame-by-frame rendering is requested.
In some work-flows, you may want to have the Alembic ROP operate on a
frame-by-frame basis (see the -I option on the hscript render
command). Turning this toggle off will let the ROP evaluate
frame-by-frame.
Initialize Simulation OPs
Reset simulations before writing Alembic archive.
Hierarchy ¶
Use SOP Path
When turned on, the Alembic ROP exports a single geometry detail specified in SOP Path instead of exporting objects contained under a root object.
SOP Path
The path to the geometry detail to include in the alembic archive.
Subdivision Group
If a group name is specified here, any polygons in any objects will be saved as subdivision primitives in the Alembic file. Other polygons will be saved as polygon mesh nodes.
The subdivision group can be specified per object with the object
level parameters vm_rendersubd or ri_rendersubd. If present,
they will be used to control whether polygons will be saved as
subdivision primitives and the vm_subdgroup parameter will be used
to select which polygons will be rendered as subdivision surfaces.
Build Hierarchy From Attribute
Use a primitive string attribute to directly specify the path of a primitive in the output archive.
Path Attribute
The name of the attribute containing the path.
Root Object
The root object of the scene. All displayed objects contained under this node will be included in the Alembic archive.
Objects
A pattern/bundle of objects to include in the alembic archive.
Collapse Objects
This option can be used to skip writing transform nodes which have no transform (an identity transform) for the entire animation.
When importing an Alembic scene, there are often empty geometry nodes
created to contain 
Alembic SOPs. These objects are simply
placeholders to contain the geometry. However, when exporting the
scene, they will be added as dummy transform nodes (roughly doubling
the size of the Alembic archive node count).
Do Not Collapse Identity Objects
All geometry containers (geometry objects containing SOPs) will be saved as Alembic transform nodes.
Collapse Non-Animating Identity Objects
All geometry containers which are not animated and have an identity transform will be skipped when writing the Alembic file.
Collapse All Geometry Container Objects
All geometry containers will not be written to the Alembic file. In some cases for subnet hierarchies, having a subnet parent animated will propagate the time dependence to the contained nodes. This option allows you to forcibly skip the geometry nodes.
Any transformations on these nodes will be lost during the save.
If you add a spare parameter to an object named abc_collapse and its value is not zero, this node will skip that object and omit it from the archive. This allows fine-grained per-object control regardless of the setting of this parameter.
Use Display SOP
If this checkbox is turned on, the geometry in the Display SOP will be saved instead of the geometry from the Render SOP.
Partition Mode
When saving a complex piece of geometry, it is possible to partition the geometry into multiple shape nodes by splitting up the primitives based on a string attribute. There are several different ways to interpret the string values.
No Geometry Partitioning
The geometry will be output as a single Alembic shape node.
Use Attribute Value
The value of the string attribute is used to name the shape
node. This mode is ideal when using the name attribute.
Use Shape Node Component Of Path Attribute Value
When loading an Alembic file, you can store the Alembic path in a string attribute. This option will partition the geometry based on the names of the shape nodes stored in the attribute.
Use Transform Node Component Of Path Attribute Value
This option will partition the geometry based on the names of the transform nodes stored in the attribute.
Use Combination Of Transform/Shape Node
Combines both the transform and shape node names to form the name for the new shape node.
Partition Attribute
Specifies a string attribute which is used to partition a single geometry
into multiple Alembic shape nodes. For example, you can use the name or
the abcPath attribute to split a single piece of Houdini geometry into
different Alembic shape nodes based on the string value.
Camera Suffix
Specifies a string to append to the name of shape nodes representing cameras in the generated Alembic archive.
Full Bounding Box Tree
This will cause all Alembic nodes to have proper bounding boxes written. Computing bounds for only the shape nodes is more efficient.
Geometry ¶
Packed Transform
When saving a complex piece of geometry, it is possible to partition the geometry into multiple shape nodes using packed primitives. There are several different ways to handle packed primitives.
Deform Geometry
The packed primitive’s transform will be baked in to the resulting shape node’s geometry.
Transform Geometry
A transform node will be created above the packed geometry.
Merge With Parent Transform
The packed primitive’s transform will be baked in to the parent transform node.
Use Instancing Where Possible
This will cause packed objects to be instanced within the Alembic archive during write, reusing geometry and potentially decreasing the size of the file.
Create Shape Nodes
This will cause Alembic shape nodes to be created for geometry.
Save Attributes
If this checkbox is turned on, geometry attributes will be saved to the Alembic file as arbitrary geometry parameters.
Output Indexed Arrays
Disable saving string attributes as Alembic indexed arrays. By default, Houdini will save strings as indexed attributes in cases where it makes sense. This option will disable this feature.
Point Attributes
Point attributes whose name matches this pattern will be saved in the Alembic file.
Vertex Attributes
Vertex attributes whose name matches this pattern will be saved in the Alembic file.
Primitive Attributes
Primitive attributes whose name matches this pattern will be saved in the Alembic file.
Detail Attributes
Detail attributes whose name matches this pattern will be saved in the Alembic file.
Primitive To Detail
Promote primitive attributes matching this pattern to detail attributes before exporting to Alembic. Sometimes when importing Alembic, Houdini must convert constant Alembic data to uniform data. This option lets you manually re-adjust certain attributes on export.
Force Conversion of Matching Primitive Attributes to Detail
The normal behavior when promoting primitive attributes to detail attributes is to validate that the values are the same for all primitives. Enabling this option will bypass this check forcing all matching primitive attributes to be converted to detail attributes regardless. The attribute value of the first primitive will be used as the single detail value for the exported primitive.
Detail Array Attributes
Detail attributes whose name matches this pattern will be saved as arrays instead of scalars.
Additional UV Attributes
Additional UV attributes whose name matches this pattern will be saved in the Alembic file.
Face Sets
This parameter controls how Houdini primitive groups will be translated to Alembic face sets. Alembic only supports face sets for polygon and subdivision meshes.
No Face Sets
No face sets will be saved out.
Save Non-Empty Groups As Face Sets
Only groups which contain polygons will generate face sets in the Alembic file.
Save All Groups As Face Sets
Face sets will be created for all groups, regardless of whether the group contains any polygons.
Layering ¶
Enable Layering
When turned on, the resulting Alembic archive will only export the subset of the scene specified by the parameters on the Layering tab.
Create Full Ancestors for Output Nodes
When turned on, all data for ancestors to non-pruned nodes specified by the Nodes multiparm will be exported.
Nodes
Use this multiparm to specify which nodes the resulting Alembic layer will fully prune, replace, or merge. Click the + button to add a new rule.
Visibilities
Use this multiparm to specify which nodes the resulting Alembic layer will have their visibility changed. Click the + button to add a new rule.
Attributes
Use this multiparm to specify which attributes the resulting Alembic layer will prune or replace. Click the + button to add a new rule.
Face Sets
Use this multiparm to specify which face sets the resulting Alembic layer will prune or replace. Click the + button to add a new rule.
User Properties
Use this multiparm to specify which user properties the resulting Alembic layer will prune or replace. Click the + button to add a new rule.
Motion Blur ¶
Use Motion Blur
Enabling this will cause sub-frame geometry to be saved to the Alembic file.
Samples
The number of sub-frame motion samples to be saved.
Shutter
The open/close of the shutter for sub-frame motion samples.
Scripts ¶
A script command can be specified for execution at various execution points. The expression language selected for the script parameter determines whether the command is in hscript or python.
Prior to execution, this node is automatically set as the global current node.
To run statements from a file, specify the path to the file with
either a .cmd extension (when the language is set to Hscript) or a .py
extension (when the language is set to Python). Additional arguments to the
script can also be supplied. They will be parsed in a shell-like manner.
Pre-Render Script
Run this script before any rendering.
Pre-Frame Script
Run this script before each frame.
Post-Frame Script
Run this script after each frame.
Post-Render Script
Run this script after all rendering.
Examples ¶
AlembicLayer Example for Alembic render node
In this example, we demonstrate how a Alembic ROP node can be used to create Alembic layers.
