Houdini 20.0 Nodes Dynamics nodes

FEM Region Constraint dynamics node

Constrains regions of a solid object or a hybrid object to another solid or hybrid object.

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Since 16.5

This constraint can be used to constrain objects together in a region where one object contains or overlaps the other object. This is a soft constraint, which means that the positions of the two objects don’t match exactly in the region. Instead, the strength and damping of the constraints are used to generate internal energy densities. The Strength parameter under the Soft Controls tab can be used how strong the soft constraint force is that keeps the points together. The corresponding Damping parameter can be fine tuned to avoid oscillations of the soft constraint force due to overshooting.

Parameters

Soft Controls

Strength

If Type is Soft, then this controls the strength of the soft constraint force that pushes the pairs of points together.

Damping

If Type is Soft, then this controls how the strength of the soft constraint force that matches the velocities of the constrained point pairs.

Container Object

Object

This is the container object in which regions will be registered.

Registration Attribute

This attribute defines the position that is used to register regions within the container object.

Enable Multipliers

When this is turned on, multiplier attributes for the Strength and Damping will be applied within the container object.

Allow Partial Overlap

Allow the constraint to take effect in places where the region object primitives overlap the container object but are not fully contained in it.

Strength

A multiplier attribute for the Strength within the container object.

Damping

A multiplier attribute for the Damping within the container object.

Region Object

Object: #channels: /goalobject

Registration Attribute

This attribute defines the position that is used to register regions within the container object

Enable Multipliers

When this is turned on, multiplier attributes for the Strength and Damping will be applied within the container object.

Allow Partial Overlap

Allow the goal to take effect in places where the region object primitives overlap the container object but are not fully contained in it.

Strength

A multiplier attribute for the Strength within the container object.

Damping

A multiplier attribute for the Damping within the container object.

Matching Attributes

Enable Matching

Enable the use of the Part Identifier Attribute to restrict registration to matching identifiers.

Part Identifier Attribute

If this attribute is present on both the container object and the region object, then regions are only registered against parts of the container object that have the same identifier.

Guide Options

Show Guide Geometry

Turning on this option causes guide geometry to be displayed in the viewport representing this constraint.

Radius

Controls the radius of the spheres drawn in the viewport as guide geometry for this constraint.

Color

Controls the color of the guide geometry.

Activation

Determines if this node should do anything on a given timestep and for a particular object. If this parameter is an expression, it is evaluated for each object (even if data sharing is turned on).

If it evaluates to a non-zero value, then the data is attached to that object. If it evaluates to zero, no data is attached, and data previously attached by this node is removed.

Inputs

First Input

This optional input can be used to control which simulation objects are modified by this node. Any objects connected through this input and which match the Group parameter field will be modified.

If this input is not connected, this node can be used in conjunction with an Apply Data node, or can be used as an input to another data node.

All Other Inputs

If this node has more input connectors, other data nodes can be attached to act as modifiers for the data created by this node.

The specific types of subdata that are meaningful vary from node to node. Click MMB an input connector to see a list of available data nodes that can be meaningfully attached.

Outputs

First Output

The operation of this output depends on what inputs are connected to this node. If an object stream is input to this node, the output is also an object stream containing the same objects as the input (but with the data from this node attached).

If no object stream is connected to this node, the output is a data output. This data output can be connected to an Apply Data DOP, or connected directly to a data input of another data node, to attach the data from this node to an object or another piece of data.

Locals

ST

The simulation time for which the node is being evaluated.

Depending on the settings of the DOP Network Offset Time and Scale Time parameters, this value may not be equal to the current Houdini time represented by the variable T.

ST is guaranteed to have a value of zero at the start of a simulation, so when testing for the first timestep of a simulation, it is best to use a test like $ST == 0, rather than $T == 0 or $FF == 1.

SF

The simulation frame (or more accurately, the simulation time step number) for which the node is being evaluated.

Depending on the settings of the DOP Network parameters, this value may not be equal to the current Houdini frame number represented by the variable F. Instead, it is equal to the simulation time (ST) divided by the simulation timestep size (TIMESTEP).

TIMESTEP

The size of a simulation timestep. This value is useful for scaling values that are expressed in units per second, but are applied on each timestep.

SFPS

The inverse of the TIMESTEP value. It is the number of timesteps per second of simulation time.

SNOBJ

The number of objects in the simulation. For nodes that create objects such as the Empty Object DOP, SNOBJ increases for each object that is evaluated.

A good way to guarantee unique object names is to use an expression like object_$SNOBJ.

NOBJ

The number of objects that are evaluated by the current node during this timestep. This value is often different from SNOBJ, as many nodes do not process all the objects in a simulation.

NOBJ may return 0 if the node does not process each object sequentially (such as the Group DOP).

OBJ

The index of the specific object being processed by the node. This value always runs from zero to NOBJ-1 in a given timestep. It does not identify the current object within the simulation like OBJID or OBJNAME; it only identifies the object’s position in the current order of processing.

This value is useful for generating a random number for each object, or simply splitting the objects into two or more groups to be processed in different ways. This value is -1 if the node does not process objects sequentially (such as the Group DOP).

OBJID

The unique identifier for the object being processed. Every object is assigned an integer value that is unique among all objects in the simulation for all time. Even if an object is deleted, its identifier is never reused. This is very useful in situations where each object needs to be treated differently, for example, to produce a unique random number for each object.

This value is also the best way to look up information on an object using the dopfield expression function.

OBJID is -1 if the node does not process objects sequentially (such as the Group DOP).

ALLOBJIDS

This string contains a space-separated list of the unique object identifiers for every object being processed by the current node.

ALLOBJNAMES

This string contains a space-separated list of the names of every object being processed by the current node.

OBJCT

The simulation time (see variable ST) at which the current object was created.

To check if an object was created on the current timestep, the expression $ST == $OBJCT should always be used.

This value is zero if the node does not process objects sequentially (such as the Group DOP).

OBJCF

The simulation frame (see variable SF) at which the current object was created. It is equivalent to using the dopsttoframe expression on the OBJCT variable.

This value is zero if the node does not process objects sequentially (such as the Group DOP).

OBJNAME

A string value containing the name of the object being processed.

Object names are not guaranteed to be unique within a simulation. However, if you name your objects carefully so that they are unique, the object name can be a much easier way to identify an object than the unique object identifier, OBJID.

The object name can also be used to treat a number of similar objects (with the same name) as a virtual group. If there are 20 objects named “myobject”, specifying strcmp($OBJNAME, "myobject") == 0 in the activation field of a DOP will cause that DOP to operate on only those 20 objects.

This value is the empty string if the node does not process objects sequentially (such as the Group DOP).

DOPNET

A string value containing the full path of the current DOP network. This value is most useful in DOP subnet digital assets where you want to know the path to the DOP network that contains the node.

Note

Most dynamics nodes have local variables with the same names as the node’s parameters. For example, in a Position DOP, you could write the expression:

$tx + 0.1

…to make the object move 0.1 units along the X axis at each timestep.

See also

Dynamics nodes