Dynamics nodes

Dynamics nodes set up the conditions and rules for dynamics simulations.

Node flags

Inputs and outputs

A dynamics node may have an object input (gray), data inputs (green), or both (see objects and data ). You should connect like to like (gray to gray and green to green).

A dynamics node can have an object output, or a data output. Some nodes will switch their output type based on what inputs are connected. This allows the more convenient method of connecting nodes “inline” instead of using Apply Data nodes (see objects and data).

Display flag

When Houdini runs the simulation, it cooks the network up from the node with the display flag to establish relationships between objects and data. So, nodes connected after the node with the display flag have no effect on the simulation.

Bypass flag

When the bypass flag is on, this node has no effect.

Nodes

	Active Value	Marks a simulation object as active or passive.
	Affector	Creates affector relationships between groups of objects.
	Anchor: Align Axis	Defines an orientation that aligns an axis in object space with a second axis defined by the relative locations of two positional anchors.
	Anchor: Object Point Group Position
	Anchor: Object Point Group Rotation
	Anchor: Object Point Id Position
	Anchor: Object Point Id Rotation
	Anchor: Object Point Number Position
	Anchor: Object Point Number Rotation
	Anchor: Object Primitive Position
	Anchor: Object Space Position
	Anchor: Object Space Rotation
	Anchor: Object Surface Position
	Anchor: World Space Position
	Anchor: World Space Rotation
	Apply Data	Attaches data to simulation objects or other data.
	Apply Relationship	Creates relationships between simulation objects.
	Blend Factor
	Blend Solver
	Bullet Data	Attaches the appropriate data for Bullet Objects to an object.
	Bullet Solver	Sets and configures an Bullet Dynamics solver.
	Buoyancy Force	Applies a uniform force to objects submerged in a fluid.
	Cloth Animation Properties	Defines how cloth uses animation.
	Cloth Attach Constraint	Constrains a set of points on a cloth object to the surface of a Static Object.
	Cloth Collision Properties	Defines how a cloth object responds to collisions.
	Cloth Configure Object	Attaches the appropriate data for Cloth Objects to an object.
	Cloth Drag Properties	Defines how the surrounding medium affects a cloth object.
	Cloth Mass Properties	Defines the mass properties.
	Cloth Material	Defines the physical material for a deformable surface.
	Cloth Material Behavior	Defines the internal cloth forces.
	Cloth Object	Creates a Cloth Object from SOP Geometry.
	Cloth Physical Parameters	Defines the physical parameters of a cloth object.
	Cloth Plasticity Properties	Defines the plasticity properties.
	Cloth Solver	Sets and configures a Cloth solver.
	Cloth Tearing Properties	Defines the internal cloth forces.
	Cloth Visualization
	Cloth/Volume Collider	Defines a way of resolving collisions involving a cloth object and DOPs objects with volumetric representations (RBD Objects, ground planes, etc.)
	Collide Relationship
	Collider Label
	Cone Twist Constraint	Constrains an object to remain a certain distance from the constraint, and limits the object’s rotation.
	Cone Twist Constraint Relationship
	Constraint
	Constraint Relationship
	Container
	Copy Data	Creates multiple copies of the input data.
	Copy Data Solver	Sets and configures a Copy Data Solver.
	Copy Object Information	Mimics the information set by the Copy Object DOP.
	Copy Objects
	Delete	Deletes both objects and data according to patterns.
	Drag Force	Applies force and torque to objects that resists their current direction of motion.
	Empty Data	Creates an Empty Data for holding custom information.
	Empty Object	Creates an Empty Object.
	Empty Relationship
	Enable Solver
	FLIP Configure Object	Attaches the appropriate data for Particle Fluid Objects to become a FLIP based fluid.
	FLIP Solver	Evolves an object as a FLIP fluid object.
	FLIP fluid object
	Fan Force	Applies forces on the objects as if a cone-shaped fan were acting on them.
	Fetch Data	Fetches a piece of data from a simulation object.
	Field Force	Applies forces to an object using some piece of geometry as a vector field.
	File	Saves and loads simulation objects to external files.
	File Data
	Fluid Configure Object	Attaches the appropriate data for Fluid Objects to an object.
	Fluid Force	Applies forces to resist the current motion of soft body objects relative to a fluid.
	Fluid Object	Attaches the appropriate data for Fluid Objects to an object.
	Fluid Solver	A solver for Sign Distance Field (SDF) liquid simulations.
	Gas Adjust Coordinate System	A microsolver that adjusts an internal coordinate system attached to fluid particles in a particle fluid simulation.
	Gas Adjust Elasticity	A microsolver that adjusts the strength of elastic bonds between pairs of particles in a fluid simulation.
	Gas Advect	A microsolver that advects fields and geometry by a velocity field.
	Gas Advect CL	A microsolver that advects fields and geometry by a velocity field using OpenCL acceleration.
	Gas Advect Field	A microsolver that advects fields and geometry by a velocity field.
	Gas Analysis	A microsolver that computes analytic property of fields.
	Gas Blend Density	A microsolver that blends the density of two fields.
	Gas Blur	A microsolver that blurs fields.
	Gas Build Collision Mask	A microsolver that determines the collision field between the fluid field and any affector objects.
	Gas Build Relationship Mask	A microsolver that builds a mask for each voxel to show the presence or absence of relationships between objects.
	Gas Buoyancy	A microsolver that calculates an adhoc buoyancy force and updates a velocity field.
	Gas Burn Geometry	Sets the object to use the Gas Burn solver.
	Gas Burn Geometry Object	Creates an object with appropriate data to use as a fire source.
	Gas Calculate	A microsolver that performs general calculations on a pair of fields.
	Gas Combustion	A microsolver that applies a combustion model to the simulation.
	Gas Compute Particle Attributes	A microsolver that calculates particle fluid attribute values for each particle in a particle fluid field.
	Gas Correct By Markers	A microsolver that adjusts an SDF according to surface markers.
	Gas Cross	A microsolver that computes the cross product of two vector fields.
	Gas DSD	A microsolver that applies one round detontation shock dyanamics.
	Gas DSD Configure Object	Attaches the appropriate data for Smoke Objects to become a flame front based fire.
	Gas DSD Solver	A microsolver that applies the flamefront-based fire simulation.
	Gas Damp	A microsolver that scales down velocity, damping motion.
	Gas Diffuse	A microsolver that diffuses a field or point attribute.
	Gas Dissipate	A microsolver that dissipates a field.
	Gas Disturbance	Adds detail at a certain scale by applying “disturbance” forces to a scalar or vector field.
	Gas Each Data Solver	A microsolver that runs once for each matching data.
	Gas Elasticity	A microsolver that computes pairwise elastic forces between particles in a fluid simulation.
	Gas Embed Fluid	A microsolver that embeds one fluid inside another.
	Gas Enforce Boundary	A microsolver that enforces boundary conditions on a field.
	Gas Equalize Density	A microsolver that equalizes the density of two fields.
	Gas Equalize Volume	A microsolver that equalizes the volume of two fields.
	Gas External Forces	A microsolver that evaluates the external DOPs forces for each point in a velocity field and updates the velocity field accordingly.
	Gas Extrapolate	A microsolver that extrapolates a field’s value along an SDF.
	Gas Feather Field	A microsolver that creates a feathered mask out of a field.
	Gas Feedback	A microsolver that calculates and applies feedback forces to collision geometry.
	Gas Fetch Fields to Embed	A data node that fetches the fields needed to embed one fluid in another.
	Gas Field Vop	Runs CVEX on a set of fields.
	Gas Field to Particle	A microsolver that copies the values of a field into a point attribute on geometry.
	Gas Geometry To SDF	A microsolver that creates a signed distance field out of geometry.
	Gas Integrator	A microsolver that applies forces to a particle fluid system.
	Gas Intermittent Solve	A microsolver that solves its subsolvers at a regular interval.
	Gas Limit	A microsolver that clamps a field within certain values.
	Gas Limit Particles	A microsolver that keeps particles within a box.
	Gas Linear Combination	A microsolver that combines multiple fields or attributes together.
	Gas Local Sharpen	A microsolver that adaptively sharpens a field.
	Gas Lookup	A microsolver that looksup field values according to a position field.
	Gas Match Field	A microsolver that rebuilds fields to match in size and resolution to a reference field.
	Gas Net Fetch Data	A microsolver that arbitrary simulation data between multiple machines.
	Gas Net Field Border Exchange	A microsolver that exchanges boundary data between multiple machines.
	Gas Net Slice Balance	A microsolver that balances slices data between multiple machines.
	Gas Net Slice Exchange	A microsolver that exchanges boundary data between multiple machines.
	Gas Particle Count	A microsolver that counts the number of particles in each voxel of a field.
	Gas Particle Forces	A microsolver that computes pairwise collision forces between particles that represent instanced spheres.
	Gas Particle Move To Iso	A microsolver that moves particles to lie along a certain isosurface of an SDF.
	Gas Particle Neighbour Update	Updates a neighbourhood list for Geometry to match moved points.
	Gas Particle Pressure	A microsolver that computes pairwise fluid pressure forces between particles in a fluid simulation.
	Gas Particle Separate	A microsolver that separates adjacent particles by adjusting their point positions..
	Gas Particle To Field	A microsolver that copies a particle system’s point attribute into a field.
	Gas Particle To SDF	A microsolver that converts a particle system into a signed distance field.
	Gas Project Non Divergent	A microsolver that removes the divergent components of a velocity field.
	Gas Project Non Divergent Multigrid	A microsolver that removes the divergent components of a velocity field using a multi-grid method.
	Gas Project Non Divergent Variational	A microsolver that removes the divergent components of a velocity field.
	Gas Reduce	A microsolver that reduces a field to a single constant field .
	Gas Reduce Local	A microsolver that reduces surrounding voxels to a single value.
	Gas Reinitialize SDF	A microsolver that reinitializes a signed distance field while preserving the zero isocontour.
	Gas Repeat Solver	A microsolver that repeatedly solves its input.
	Gas Resize Field	A microsolver that changes the size of fields.
	Gas Resize Fluid	A microsolver that resizes a fluid to match another object.
	Gas Resize Fluid Dynamic	A microsolver that resizes a fluid to match simulating fluid bounds
	Gas Rest	A microsolver that initializes a rest field.
	Gas SDF To Fog	A microsolver that converts an SDF field to a Fog field.
	Gas SPH Density	A microsolver that calculates the density at particle positions in a particle field using techniques from Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics.
	Gas SPH Forces	A microsolver that uses techniques from Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics to compute pressure, viscosity and surface tension forces acting between particles in a fluid simulation.
	Gas Sand Forces	A microsolver that computes the forces to treat the fluid simulation as sand rather than fluid.
	Gas Seed Markers	A microsolver that seeds marker particles around the boundary of a surface.
	Gas Seed Particles	A microsolver that seeds particles uniformly inside a surface.
	Gas Shred	Applies a Shredding Force to the velocity field specified.
	Gas Strain Forces	A microsolver that calculates the forces imparted by a strain field.
	Gas Strain Integrate	A microsolver that updates the strain field according to the current velocity field.
	Gas SubStep	A microsolver that substeps input microsolvers.
	Gas Surface Snap	A microsolver that snaps a surface onto a collision surface.
	Gas Surface Tension	A microsolver that calculates a surface tension force proportional to the curvature of the surface field.
	Gas Target Force	A microsolver that applies a force towards a target object.
	Gas Turbulence	Applies Turbulence to the specified velocity field.
	Gas Up Res	Up-scales and/or modifies a smoke, fire, or liquid simulations.
	Gas Upres Object	Creates an Gas Upres Object from a low resolution fluid sim.
	Gas Velocity Stretch	A microsolver that reorients geometry according to motion of a velocity field.
	Gas Viscosity	A microsolver that applies viscosity to a velocity field.
	Gas Volume Ramp	Remaps a field according to a ramp.
	Gas Vortex Boost	Applies a confinement force on specific bands of sampled energy.
	Gas Vortex Confinement	Applies a vortex confinement force to a velocity field.
	Gas Vortex Equalizer	Applies a confinement force on specific bands of sampled energy.
	Gas Vorticle Forces	A microsolver that applies forces to a velocity field or geometry according to vorticle geometry.
	Gas Vorticle Geometry	A DOP node that adds the appropriately formatted data to represent vorticles.
	Gas Vorticle Recycle	A DOP node that recycles vorticles by moving them to the opposite side of the fluid box when they leave.
	Gas Wavelets	A microsolver that performs a wavelet decomposition of a field.
	Gas Wind	A microsolver that applies a wind force.
	Geometry Copy
	Glue Network Constraint	Glues pairs of RBD objects together according to a polygon network.
	Glue Network Relationship	Defines a glue relationship based on geometry.
	Gravity Force	Applies a gravity-like force to objects.
	Ground Plane	Creates a ground plane suitable for RBD or cloth simulations.
	Group	Creates simulation object groups.
	Group Relationship
	Hard Constraint Relationship	Defines a constraint relationship that must always be satisfied.
	Impact Analysis	Stores filtered information about impacts on an RBD object.
	Impulse Force	Applies an impulse to an object.
	Index Field	Creates an index field.
	Index Field Visualization	Visualizes an index field.
	Instanced Object	Creates DOP Objects according to instance attributes
	Intangible Value	Marks a simulation object as intangible or tangible.
	Link to Source Object	Stores the name of the scene level object source for this DOP object.
	Magnet Force	Apply forces on objects using a force field defined by metaballs.
	Mask Field
	Matrix Field	Creates a matrix field.
	Matrix Field Visualization	Visualizes a matrix field.
	Merge	Merges multiple streams of objects or data into a single stream.
	Modify Data	Modifies or creates options on arbitrary data.
	Motion	Defines an object’s position, orientation, linear velocity, and angular velocity.
	Multi Field Visualization	Unified visualization of multiple fields.
	Multiple Solver
	Net Fetch Data	A DOP that transfers arbitrary simulation data between multiple machines.
	No Collider
	No Constraint Relationship
	Noise Field
	Null	Does nothing.
	OBJ Position	Creates position information from an object’s transform.
	ODE Configure Object	Attaches the appropriate data for ODE Objects to an object.
	ODE Solver	Sets and configures an ODE Dynamics solver.
	POP Object	Converts a regular particle system into a dynamic object capable of interacting correctly with other objects in the DOP environment.
	POP Shape Match	Defines the parameters to be used to match a particle system with a target shape.
	POP Solver
	Particle Fluid Configure Object	Attaches the appropriate data for Particle Fluid Objects to an object.
	Particle Fluid Emitter	Emits particles into a particle fluid simulation.
	Particle Fluid Object	Creates a Particle Fluid Object from SOP Geometry.
	Particle Fluid Sink	Removes fluid particles that flow inside of a specified boundary from a simulation.
	Particle Fluid Solver	Evolves an object as a particle fluid object.
	Particle Fluid Visualization	Visualizes particles.
	Partition	Creates simulation object groups based on an expression.
	Physical Parameters	Defines the base physical parameters of DOP objects.
	Point Collider
	Point Force	Applies a force to an object from a particular location in space.
	Position	Associates a position and orientation to an object.
	Position From Point	Creates position information from a point on some SOP geometry.
	Pump Relationship
	Pyro Solver	Sets and configures a Pyro solver. This solver can be used to create both fire and smoke.
	RBD Angular Constraint	Constrains an RBD object to a certain orientation.
	RBD Angular Spring Constraint	Constrains an RBD object to have a certain orientation, but with a set amount of springiness.
	RBD Auto Freeze	Automatically freezes RBD Objects that have come to rest
	RBD Configure Object	Attaches the appropriate data for RBD Objects to an object.
	RBD Fractured Object	Creates a number of RBD Objects from SOP Geometry. These individual RBD Objects are created from the geometry primitive groups.
	RBD Glue Object	Creates a number of RBD Objects from SOP Geometry. These individual RBD Objects are created from the geometry primitive groups, and are glued to each other.
	RBD Hinge Constraint	Constrains an object to two constraints, creating a rotation similar to a hinge or a trapeze bar.
	RBD Keyframe Active
	RBD Object	Creates an RBD Object from SOP Geometry.
	RBD Pin Constraint	Constrains an RBD object a certain distance from the constraint.
	RBD Point Object	Creates a simulation object at each point of some source geometry, similarly to how the Copy surface node copies geometry onto points.
	RBD Solver	Sets and configures a Rigid Body Dynamics solver.
	RBD Spring Constraint	Constrains an object to remain a certain distance from the constraint, with a set amount of springiness.
	RBD State	Alters the state information for an RBD Object.
	RBD Visualization
	ROP Output Driver	Saves the state of a DOP network simulation into files.
	Reference Frame Force	Applies forces to an object according to the difference between two reference frames.
	Rendering Parameters
	Rendering Parameters Volatile
	Rigid Body Solver	Sets and configures a Rigid Body Dynamics solver.
	Ripple Configure Object	Attaches the appropriate data for Ripple Objects to an object.
	Ripple Object	Creates an object from existing geometry that will be deformed with the ripple solver.
	Ripple Solver	Animates wave propagation across Ripple Objects.
	SDF Representation	Creates a signed distance field representation of a piece of geometry that can be used for collision detection.
	SOP Geometry
	SOP Scalar Field	Creates a scalar field from a SOP Volume.
	SOP Solver
	SOP Vector Field	Creates a vector field from a SOP Volume Primitive.
	Sand Configure Object	Attaches the appropriate data for Sand Objects to an object.
	Sand Object	Attaches the appropriate data for Sand Objects to an object.
	Sand Solver	Sets and configures a Sand solver.
	Scalar Field	Creates a scalar field.
	Scalar Field Visualization	Visualizes a scalar field.
	Script Solver
	Sink Relationship
	Slice Along Line	Divides a particle system uniformly into multiple slices along a line.
	Slice by Plane	Specifies a cutting plane to divide a particle system into two slices for distributed simulations.
	Smoke Configure Object	Attaches the appropriate data for Smoke Objects to an object.
	Smoke Object	Creates an Smoke Object from SOP Geometry.
	Smoke Solver	Sets and configures a Smoke solver. This is a slightly lower-level solver that is the basis for the Pyro solver.
	Soft Attach Constraint Relationship
	Soft Body (SBD) Constraint	Constrains a set of points on a soft body object to a certain position using a hard constraint or soft constraint.
	Soft Body (SBD) Pin Constraint	Constrains a point on a soft body object to a certain position.
	Soft Body (SBD) Spring Constraint	Constrains a point on a soft body to a certain position, with a set amount of springiness.
	Soft Body Collision Properties	Defines how a cloth object responds to collisions.
	Source Apply	Turns objects into a source for a fluid sim.
	Source Relationship
	Source Volume	A microsolver that imports and directly applies SOP volume data.
	Sphere Edge Tree	This builds a tree of spheres producing bounding information for an edge cloud.
	Sphere Point Tree	This builds a tree of spheres producing bounding information for a point cloud.
	Split Object	Splits an incoming object stream into as many as four output streams.
	Spring Constraint Relationship
	Squishy Object	The Squishy Object DOP converts a geometry object into a dynamic object that behaves like a soft body in the DOP environment.
	Static Object	Creates a Static Object from SOP Geometry.
	Static Solver
	Subnetwork
	Surface Collision Parameters	Control the thickness of the object that collides with cloth.
	Switch	Passes one of the input object or data streams to the output.
	Switch Solver
	Switch Value
	Target Relationship
	Terrain Object	Creates a Terrain Object from SOP Geometry.
	Thin Plate/Thin Plate Collider	Defines a way of resolving collisions between two rigid bodies.
	Two State Constraint Relationship
	Uniform Force	Applies a uniform force and torque to objects.
	VOP Force	Applies forces on the objects according to a VOP network.
	Vector Field	Creates a vector field.
	Vector Field Visualization	Visualizes a vector field.
	Velocity Impulse Force	Applies an impulse to an object.
	Volume/Volume Collider	Defines a way of resolving collisions involving two rigid bodies with volume.
	Voronoi Fracture Configure Object	Attaches the appropriate data to make an object fractureable by the Voronoi Fracture Solver
	Voronoi Fracture Parameters	Defines the parameters for dynamic fracturing using the Voronoi Fracture Solver
	Voronoi Fracture Solver	Dynamically fractures objects based on data from the Voronoi Fracture Configure Object DOP
	Vortex Force	Applies a vortex-like force on objects, causing them to orbit about an axis along a circular path.
	Wind Force	Applies forces to resist the current motion of objects relative to a turbulent wind.
	Wire Angular Constraint	Constrains a wire point’s orientation to a certain direction.
	Wire Angular Spring Constraint	Constrains a wire point’s orientation to a certain direction, with a set amount of springiness.
	Wire Configure Object	Attaches the appropriate data for Wire Objects to an object.
	Wire Elasticity	Defines the elasticity of a wire object.
	Wire Glue Constraint	Constraints a wire point to a certain position and direction.
	Wire Object	Creates a Wire Object from SOP Geometry.
	Wire Physical Parameters	Defines the physical parameters of a wire object.
	Wire Plasticity	Defines the plasticity of a wire object.
	Wire Solver	Sets and configures a Wire solver.
	Wire Visualization
	Wire/Volume Collider	Defines a way of resolving collisions involving a wire object and DOPs objects with volumetric representations.
	Wire/Wire Collider	Defines a way of resolving collisions between two wires.
	clothgeometry

Nodes Dynamics nodes

Node flags

Nodes

Related topics