Houdini 21.0 Nodes Geometry nodes

APEX Autorig Component 3.0 geometry node

Procedurally adds a rig component to an APEX rig.

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Since 21.0

This node procedurally augments an APEX character, most commonly an APEX rig, using rig components. Rig components are either pre-built components shipped with Houdini, or you can create your own components to be reused in different rigs.

Parameters

Component Source

The source of the component. The options are:

  • Choose from the list of available rig components in your components library, including pre-built components and your custom components.

  • If set to Use Second Input, the rig component script from the second input is used.

  • If set to Snippet, you can write APEX Script code in the Snippet text block to create your own custom component.

  • If set to File, uses the component in the Component File.

  • If set to Fuse Graph, you can merge the graph from the second input into the existing rig on this node.

  • If set to Deprecated, choose from the list of deprecated components in the drop-down menu that appears beside the Component Source drop-down.

Component Source Reload

Reloads/updates your library of components.

Edit Source

Allows you to edit a component’s source code. Clicking sets the Component Source to Snippet, fetches the source code of the component, and inserts it into the Snippet parameter as APEX Script code. This is useful if you want to use a component’s code as a starting point for creating a custom component.

Component File

When Component Source is set to File, this is the file path of the rig component to use.

Rig

Rig Source

The operation to perform if the character’s rig is added or modified.

Add or Update

Adds/updates the rig (specified by Name) in the CharacterStream input. If no rig exists, one is created if possible.

Add or Replace

Adds/replaces the rig (specified by Name) in the CharacterStream input.

Name

The name of the rig in the CharacterStream input.

Build Rigscript

When turned on, creates a rig component script with the specified name in the character folder structure. If you daisy-chain multiple APEX Autorig Component SOPs, it will build up the rig script node by node.

Guide Skeleton

Guide Source

The operation to perform if the character’s skeleton is added or modified.

Add or Update

Adds/updates the skeleton (specified by Name) in the CharacterStream input. If no skeleton exists, one is created if possible.

Add or Replace

Adds/replaces the skeleton (specified by Name) in the CharacterStream input.

Name

The name of the skeleton in the CharacterStream input.

Shape

Shape Source

The operation to perform if the character’s shape is added or modified.

Add or Update

Adds/updates the specified shape in the CharacterStream input. If no skeleton exists, one is created if possible.

Add or Replace

Adds/replaces the specified shape in the CharacterStream input.

Show Graph

Show

Specifies the graph to show in the APEX network view.

Rig

The resulting rig graph extracted from the character.

Component Script

The current component script that modifies the character.

Highlight Added Nodes

When turned on, highlights the newly added nodes in green and greys out the other nodes. This makes it easier to see the graph changes made by this component.

Highlight Reconnected Nodes

When turned on, highlights the nodes that had connections added, modified, or removed in the rig graph.

Layout Graph

When turned on, applies an automatic layout to the rig graph.

Component

This section contains parameters specific to the current operation or rig component, and will look different depending on the selected Component Source option.

For rig components, the parameters are derived from the parameter inputs of the component script graph. In this way, the APEX Autorig Component SOP serves as an interface for configuring component script inputs.

View Log

Opens the log viewer.

Reset Animation Parms

Removes all the spare parameters that are used as inputs for the component script.

Reload Setup Parms

Updates the parameters in this section to those of the current component. This is useful if the input component script parameters have changed.

Component Snippet

This section is available when Component Source is set to Snippet.

Snippet

The APEX Script snippet to execute.

Settings

Inspect Line

When turned on, the specified line of code in the Snippet is colored red. This helps with debugging.

Show Traceback

When turned on, shows all the error messages with a full traceback.

Decompile

Convert To Snippet

Converts the pre-shipped component script or graph input (in the second input of this node) to an APEX Script snippet. The functionality of the APEX Script snippet and the input graph are exactly the same.

Keep Node Positions

When turned on, adds the position metadata of all the nodes from the input graph to the decompiled APEX Script snippet. This generates considerably more lines of code.

Keep Node Color

When turned on, adds the color metadata of all the nodes from the input graph to the decompiled APEX Script snippet. This generates considerably more lines of code.

Keep Node Names

When turned on, keeps the special function argument __name in the decompiled code.

Header

When turned on, a header and footer is added to the snippet. Headers and footers are predefined code snippets that are inserted before and after the current snippet, and are executed together with the snippet. The header and footer help to standardize common operations such as converting a geometry input to a graph and then back into a geometry, and fetching a rig graph from a character folder structure.

Template

The header template to use for the current snippet.

Basic

Adds an empty template.

Graph

Converts a geometry that is bound to one of the graph inputs to a graph (in the header), and rewrites the graph back to geometry (in the footer).

Component

Fetches the rig graph from a packed character geometry (in the header), and updates the packed character geometry with the graph at the footer.

Custom

Allows the user to edit the header and footer.

Add Version

When turned on, adds the Houdini version to the header, which sets the version of APEX functions to use. This allows for backward compatibility in case new versions of functions with different arguments are added. See special functions for more information.

Show

When turned on, shows the header and footer.

Edit

When turned on, allows the header and footer to be manually edited.

Fuse Graph

These parameter are available when Component Source is set to Fuse Graph.

Fuse Graph Tag

The tag to add to the nodes merged in from the second input’s graph.

Mirror

When turned on, mirrors the graph functionality on both sides of the rig.

From

The side of the body to mirror from. This pattern refers to the name of the TransformObject nodes in the rig graph, which represent the skeleton joints.

To

The side of the body to mirror to. This pattern refers to the name of the TransformObject nodes in the rig graph, which represent the skeleton joints.

Mapping

The number of mappings to create between the skeleton joints.

From

The joint that has the existing functionality.

To

The joint to put the functionality on.

Advanced

Enable Partial Evaluation

When turned on, provides partial evaluation optimizations on the component script graph by only executing the portions of the graph that:

  • Depend on input parameters that have changed.

    and

  • Contribute to the outputs requested by this node.

Color New Nodes

Colors all the nodes added with the current component script in the specified color. This color is added to the output graph. It can be used for debugging to easily associate each node with a source component script.

Save

This section is available when Component Source is set to Use Second Input, Snippet, or Fuse Graph.

Component Name

The name of the component. For example, if you set the namespace field to test, the name field to hello, and version to 2.0, your component will be named test::hello::2.0.

Component Label

A user-friendly label for the component.

Component Icon

The path to a .png file to use as an icon in the component catalog.

Component Categories

Category names that can be used as filters in the component catalog.

Deprecated

When turned on, marks the component as deprecated. After saving the component, it appears in a drop-down menu of deprecated components when Component Source is set to Deprecated.

Save as Config of

When turned on, saves the current configuration for the specified component.

Config Parms

When Save as Config of is turned on, these are the configuration parameters to save.

Component Output File

The file path to save the component to.

Save to Disk

Saves the component to the file in Component Output File.

Note

If you store the component script under $HIP/apexcomponents/ or $HOME/apexcomponents/, it is automatically picked up by Component Source.

Inputs

CharacterStream

The APEX character geometry in a character folder structure.

Input2

The geometry containing an APEX graph to invoke for the component.

Outputs

CharacterStream

The modified APEX character geometry in a character folder structure.

Output2

The geometry in a packed character folder structure.

See also

Geometry nodes