Instance object

Instance Objects acts as proxy to other geometry objects.

All

Parameters

Local variables

Instance Objects acts as proxy to other geometry objects.

Parameters

Transform

Keep Position When Parenting

When the object is re-parented, maintain its current world position by changing the object’s transform parameters.

Pre-transform menu

This menu contains options for manipulating the pre-transform values. The pre-transform is an internal transform that is applied prior to the regular transform parameters. This allows you to change the frame of reference for the translate, rotate, scale parameter values below without changing the overall transform.

Clean Transform	This reverts the translate, rotate, scale parameters to their default values while maintaining the same overall transform.
Clean Translates	This sets the translate parameter to (0, 0, 0) while maintaining the same overall transform.
Clean Rotates	This sets the rotate parameter to (0, 0, 0) while maintaining the same overall transform.
Clean Scales	This sets the scale parameter to (1, 1, 1) while maintaining the same overall transform.
Extract Pre-transform	This removes the pre-transform by setting the translate, rotate, and scale parameters in order to maintain the same overall transform. Note that if there were shears in the pre-transform, it can not be completely removed.
Reset Pre-transform	This completely removes the pre-transform without changing any parameters. This will change the overall transform of the object if there are any non-default values in the translate, rotate, and scale parameters.

Transform Order

The left menu chooses the order in which transforms are applied (for example, scale, then rotate, then translate). This can change the position and orientation of the object, in the same way that going a block and turning east takes you to a different place than turning east and then going a block.

The right menu chooses the order in which to rotate around the X, Y, and Z axes. Certain orders can make character joint transforms easier to use, depending on the character.

Translate

Translation along XYZ axes.

Rotation

Degrees rotation about XYZ axes.

Scale

Non-uniform scaling about XYZ axes.

Pivot

Local origin of the object. See also setting the pivot point .

Uniform Scale

Scale the object uniformly along all three axes.

Viewing Options

Set Wireframe Color	Use the specified wireframe color
Wireframe Color	The display color of the object
Viewport Selecting Enabled	Object is capable of being picked in viewport.
Select Script	Script to run when the object is picked in the viewport. See select scripts .
Cache Object Transform	Caches object transforms once Houdini calculates them. This is especially useful for objects whose world space position is expensive to calculate (such as Sticky objects), and objects at the end of long parenting chains (such as Bones). This option is turned on by default for Sticky and Bone objects. See OBJ cache preferences for how to control the size of the object transform cache.
Shade Open Curves In Viewport	Any open curves contained in this object will be lit when the viewport is set to do so.

Lookat Options

Look At

Object to point to. Constrains an object so its -Z axis always points at another object’s origin.

Look At Up Vector

When specifying a look at, it is possible to specify an up vector for the look at. This controls the roll of this object when looking at the look at object.

Don’t Use Up Vector	Use this option if the look at object does not pass through the Y axis of this object.
Use Up Vector	This precisely defines the direction of the Y axis of this object while looking. The up vector specified should not be parallel to the look at direction. The value used is specified by the Orient Up Vector parameter below.
Use Quaternions	Quaternions are a mathematical representation of a 3D rotation. This method finds the most efficient means of moving from one point to another on a sphere.

Path Options

Path Object	A reference to the curve node or object you want this object to follow.
Roll	The orientation of the object around the path.
Position	The position of the object along the path. `0.0` means at the beginning of the path, and `1.0` means the end. The integer portion of the position is used as the primitive number inside the geometry while the fractional part indicates the u value on the primitive. If the primitive number does not exist, then it is wrapped back to the beginning. So for numbers greater than `1.0` in a path object that only have a single primitive, it wraps around to the beginning again. You can easily animate something moving around a circular track simply by continuously increasing the position value. Keyframe this value to animate the object moving along the path. Note The Follow Path tool on the shelf automatically sets keyframes on this parameter that you may want to edit or replace. The Parameterization option controls how position values between 0 and 1 correspond to knots on the path curve.
Parameterization	Controls how the Position parameter is translated into a point on the path curve. Use Arc-length (the default) to interpolate the position values evenly along the physical length of the curve. Use Uniform to distribute the position values between the knots of the curve. This lets you slow down the object at certain points by bunching up knots in the path curve. However, it is much more convenient to simply edit the animation curve to control the speed of the object along the path.
Orient Along Path	Orient the object according to the path’s curvature.
Orient Up Vector	The direction vector of the object’s Y axis to orient with.
Auto-Bank factor	Controls automatic banking of the object as it turns corners. Set this to `0` to turn automatic banking off.

Instance

Display

Whether or not this object is displayed. Turn on the checkbox to have Houdini use this parameter, then set the value to 0 to hide the object, or 1 to show the object. If the checkbox is off, Houdini ignores the value.

Instance Object

Instance the given object’s geometry.

Point Instancing

Instance another object at each point/particle on the contained geometry (the SOP with the render flag)

Point Motion Blur

If point instancing, this parameter specifies the motion blur behavior when rendering. Each point will have an instance of geometry. The transform of this instance is determined by the point’s position. Transformation motion blur on the instance is determined by the motion of the point. The motion of the points is controlled by this parameter.

No Motion Blur	Do not perform motion blur.
Compute sub-frame geometry (deformation)	Compute the point’s position by evaluating the geometry at sub-frame intervals. This can be problematic if the point count is changing frame to frame.
Use point velocity attribute	The point’s vector attribute “v” is used to extrapolate the motion of the point.

Subnetwork Filtering

This option specifies how instancing is performed when a Subnet Object is specified as the Instance Object.

All Objects	Instance all objects within the subnet.
Displayed Objects	Only instance the displayed objects from the subnet.
Specify by a pattern	Use the pattern mask specified by the Subnetwork Pattern parameter.

Subnetwork Pattern

When Subnetwork Filtering is set to “Specify by a pattern”, this parameter gives the pattern mask for determining which objects are rendered from the instanced Subnet object.

Override Properties

Specifies a Property SHOP that is used to resolve rendering parameter values. At render time, this SHOP (if given) is used to resolve rendering parameter values first, before looking for them on the objects being instanced.

Note

It is also possible to attach a material to each point using the Material SOP.

Local variables

IPT

This is typically -1. However, if the object is performing point instancing, then this variable will be set to the point number of the template geometry. For the IPT variable to be active, the Point Instancing parameter must be turned on in this object.

Note

This variable is deprecated. Use the instancepoint expression function instead.

Usages in other examples

Example name	Example for
InstanceRandomGeo	Instance particle node	Load \| Launch