Shatter surface node

Shatters the input geometry by inducing multiple fracture lines in it.

This operator is used to quickly break an object along randomly generated fracture lines.

The Shatter operator is a specific application of the Break and Assemble operators. For additional details on shattering objects, see the help for these two other operators.

Note

Unlike the Break operator, Shatter does not require an Assemble operator following it. The finalization occurs within the Shatter operator itself.

Using Shatter

Select the object you want to shatter.
Click the Shatter tool on the Model tab.
Set the Number of Cuts in the parameter editor.

Tips

This tool puts each piece into its own group, which is necessary for the RBD Fractured Object and RBD Glue Object tools. The Output Prefix parameter controls the group names the tool creates. If you have more than one shatter in a network, change this parameter to avoid conflicts.

Turn off the Create Inside Surfaces checkbox to create hollow pieces.

Change the Seed parameter to change the break pattern. Once you have a pattern you like, use Roughness, Frequency, and Jitter to tweak the breaks.

Parameters

Group to Shatter	The geometry to be shattered. If no group is specified, the full input geometry will be shattered.
Output Prefix	The group name prefix applied to each piece created by the shatter. See the Assemble operator for more details.
Number of Cuts	The number of fracture lines that will be used to shatter the input geometry.
Create Inside Surfaces	Whether inside faces are created. If this checkbox is turned off, the geometry will remain hollow. If this checkbox is turned on, inside surfaces will be created and the geometry will appear as if it is solid as it breaks apart.
Connect Inside Edges	Whether the inside faces of the shattered geometry will be connected to the corresponding outside faces. See the Assemble operator for more details.
Cups Edges	Whether the edges of the output geometry will be cusped. See the Assemble operator for more details.
Visualize Breaks	Visualize cut geometry by applying a random color to each piece.
Offset Cut Center	Randomly offset the cutting plane from the centroid of the geometry.

Cutter Settings

Grid Rows

The number of rows in each cutting plane grid.

Grid Columns

The number of columns in each cutting plane grid.

Roughness

How rough the deformities in each cutting plane will be.

Height

The maximum height of the deformities in the cutting planes.

Height Scaling

Scale the height of the deformities in the cutting plane based on the number of cuts.

Frequency

The frequency of the deformities of the cutting planes along each major axis.

Seed Type

How the seed value reacts based on the number of cuts.

Constant	The seed value is the same for each cut.
Incrementing	The seed value increments each cut.

Seed

The base randomization seed for deforming the cutting planes.

Seed Increment

The amount to increment the random seed each cutting iteration.

Boolean Settings

3D Tolerance	This value is used to suppress potentially incorrect geometry. See the Break operator for more details.
Check for Full Enclosure	Enables a specific test to determine whether disconnected polygons are inside or outside the cutting planes. See the Break operator for more details.
Assume Input is Closed	Enables an additional test of the inside/outside boundaries of the the cutting planes. See the Break operator for more details.
Do Jitter	Enables jitter on the cutting surface. See the Break operator for more details.
Jitter Seed	Random number seed for jitter.
Amount of jitter	Scale of the jitter.

Usages in other examples

Example name	Example for
PointBasedRBD	Dop Import surface node	Load \| Launch
BlendSolverWithRBDGlue	RBD Glue Object dynamics node	Load \| Launch