Houdini 21.0 Nodes Geometry nodes

APEX Configure Controls geometry node

Configures the look and behavior of controls on APEX rigs.

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Since 20.0

This node allows you to configure the look and behavior of the controls on an APEX rig. The look can be influenced by pre-shipped control shapes or an external source of shapes.

See rigging a character for an example of configuring the look of controls using this node.

Parameters

Rig Source

The path to the rig graph in the packed character input (Character Stream input).

Skin Shape Source

The path to the skin shape in the packed character input (Character Stream input).

Guide Source

The path to the guide skeleton in the packed character input (Character Stream input). The guide skeleton can be used as a source of information to aid in building the rig.

Advanced Shape Settings

Create Missing Shape Names by Connectivity

When turned on, unnamed control shapes in your shape library are automatically assigned proper primitive names based on shape connectivity.

Settings

Control Configs

Control Group

The control(s) that are affected by the configurations in this section. The group pattern is based on the APEX path pattern syntax.

Use Shape Override

When turned on, sets the control shape. This parameter is not available when Use Skin Control is turned on.

Shape Override

The control shape to use for the controls in Control Group. The drop-down menu provides a list of pre-shipped control shapes. If a shape library is provided as the second input to this node, Shape Override can refer to one of the shapes in the shape library.

3dcross
ball
ball_wires
ballline_wires
blob
box
box_wires
boxcross_wires
boxplanes_wires
circle_plane
circle_wires
circleplanes_wires
cogwheel
cone
cross
cross_wires
crossplanes_wires
fk
ik
lineb
lineblob
loop
plane_wires
planecross_wires
planes_wires
rigvisualizer
rubber
sphere
sphere_m
star
torus
torusb
Use Shapeoffset

When turned on, sets the transformation of the control shapes.

Mode

Defines if the transformation is applied as a pre- or post-multiplication of the current transformation.

Translate

The local translate offset applied to the control shapes.

Rotate

The local rotate offset applied to the control shapes.

Scale

The local scale offset applied to the control shapes.

Use Color

When turned on, sets the color for the controls.

Color

The color for the controls.

Use Visibility

When turned on, sets the visibility of the controls.

Is Visible

When turned on, the controls are visible.

Use Skin Control

When turned on, adds a skin control for the character.

Prims

The primitives to use as the skin control.

Use Limits

When turned on, allows limits, such as transform limits, to be set on control parameters. These limits are enforced by the animate state in the viewport. See transform limits in the animate state for more information.

Parameter Limits

Limits a set of control parameters to a specified range. This can be helpful for ensuring that the anatomy or behavior of a character is not broken by its animation. The limits are stored on the TransformObject properties dictionary inside the rig.

There are two kinds of limits:

  • Locked limits are always enforced in the animate state. The only way to override locked limits is to modify the rig.

  • Soft limits can be suppressed via the Enforce Transform Limits option in the animate state settings HUD.

Parm Name

The name of the control parameter to set limits on. Select the parameter value type from the drop-down menu. The available options are Float and Vector3.

Min

When turned on, sets the minimum soft limit value.

Max

When turned on, sets the maximum soft limit value.

Min Lock

When turned on, sets the minimum locked limit value.

Max Lock

When turned on, sets the maximum locked limit value.

Use Promote

When turned on, promotes the specified components of the controls.

Promote T

When turned on, promotes the translate component of the controls.

Promote R

When turned on, promotes the rotate component of the controls.

Promote S

When turned on, promotes the scale component of the controls.

Post Process

Rename

These parameters allow you to rename the controls on the rig.

Rename Guides

When turned on, renames the joints on the guide skeleton, Guide Source. This can be used to correct an incoming skeleton to match the new node name.

Rename Promoted Ports

When turned on, updates the promoted port names in the rig graph to match the new control names.

Renames

The number of groups of controls to rename. Renames are performed from top to bottom. Renames further down the list will overwrite the entries before it. Renames further down the list will also use any updated names, not the original names.

Group

The controls to rename. This parameter accepts APEX path patterns, so you can specify tags in this field, for example, #L_arm.

Use Pattern

When turned on, uses a pattern to rename the nodes. For example:

  • To rename hand_l to L_hand, set Find to *_l, and Replace to L_*.

  • To rename arm_l_ik to L_arm_ik, set Find to *_l_*, and Replace to L_*_*.

  • When using more than one *, the values are stored in an ordered list and can be recovered using an index, for example, *(0), *(1), etc. For example, to rename arm_l_ik to L_ik_arm, set Find to *_l_*, and Replace to L_*(1)_*(0).

Rename

When Use Pattern is turned off, this is the new name for the controls.

Find

When Use Pattern is turned on, this is the pattern to replace.

Replace

When Use Pattern is turned on, this pattern replaces the pattern in Find.

Prefix

The prefix to add to the new name.

Suffix

The suffix to add to the new name.

Joints With

The string used to join the Prefix and Suffix with the new name.

Padding

For non-zero values, appends a number with this many digits to the new name. For example, to rename pelvis, spine*, neck, and head to spine<number>:

  • Set Group to “pelvis spine* neck head”.

  • Set Rename to spine.

  • Setting Padding to 1 renames the controls to spine1, spine2, etc. Setting Padding to 3 renames the controls to spine001, spine002, etc.

Inputs

CharacterStream

The APEX character geometry to modify.

Shape Library

Packed or unpacked geometry primitives to use as control shapes for the rig graph. These primitives have name attributes, and are added as packed geometry to the character stream. The animate state can fetch these shapes from the character.

Outputs

CharacterStream

The modified APEX character geometry.

See also

Geometry nodes