ARCHIMATIX PRO Node-based Parametric Modeling for Unity [Unity Awards Finalist]

Archimatix has been selected as a Finalist in the Tools category for the Unity Awards!


You can help push AX over the finish line: cast your votes here!

 

oh sorry I meant breakable!

 

Hi @tom-art - excellent question! The answer is: you need both Archimatix and ProBuilder!

The two modelers are at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to modeling philosophy, but they can work in tandem. Archimatix is a parametric modeler while ProBuilder is a polygonal modeler. With parametrics, you can build very complex models and environments non-destructively and stamp out dozens of variations of a theme. For example, one parametric Viking hut model can let you quickly stamp out a whole village, adjusting parametric handles to changes sizes, rafter counts, etc. so that each hut looks like it was made by the same craftsman, but not two huts are alike. When you make a building longer, the model adds more columns automatically. The downside of parametric modeling is that you can't grab a single vertex or polygon and displace it manually. Everything is "generated" by the logic of the model and its parameter values. With ProBuilder, you create everything manually by selecting, duplicating and transforming polygons. If you are making a single, idiosyncratic building or cave, this would be the way to go. But if you need to make that Viking village, it would take longer to model each one manually. Also, ProBuilder is destructive in that you can't go back and change the basic plan of the building and have changes ripple through it. With ProBuilder, each move is a kind of permanent commitment, while with Archimatix, you can continually edit any parameter in the node graph, changing any move you made at any step in the process.

The good news is that, after playing with an Archimatix model parametrically, you can "Stamp" it out as a standard Unity GameObject hierarchy and then "ProBuilderize" it to start editing the model in ProBuilder at the polygonal level. This workflow is directional, since once you stamp a model, the stamped version is not parametric.

Here is some examples of parametrics at work. While you could model any of these in Probuilder, it would take longer and you would not be a blessing to drag the handles to change the entire model:

 

Not yet, but this will be in the next version!

 

Hi roryo,

thanks for your explanation. I think I got it. It's an interesting type of workflow, to create a model, then a bunch of variation for populating a whole scene/village and after that, individualize some special models for foreground usage in a scene. Hm... really interesting. I hoped long time before for a solution that make a separate 3d software unnecessary. Maybe... in some cases... I finished my search.

 

@tom-art

Hey, I just wanted to touch on one thing rory left out when talking about pro-builder and Archimatix. He covered that you can do Archimatix->Pro Builder, and while it may be obvious, just in case, the inverse is true as well. You can use a model you made in Pro Builder an use it in an AX graph. Sometimes it easier to model something in Pro Builder then create a graph for it, in those instance you can make the item in Pro Builder, then open up a graph an use the Prefab Instancer to pull the item in.

The two tools do a good job of complementing each other and completing a solid modeling workflow. One thing I want to look at in the near future is some integration for AX and Pro Builder as with Pro Builder installed some possibilities open up for some new interesting nodes to be created (For instance if I'm not mistaken you can select an edge loop in ProBuilder, or select a set of Edges. It would be nice to be able to "export" these Edge selections to Archimatix as a new shape.

 

Archimatix is so damn cool and addicting! Congratulations!!!

Is it somehow possible to import curves from other applications(f.e *.eps, *.ai, *.dwg)?

 

My Pro Logic Nodes package includes an SVG path importer.

 

Hey guys,

I came across Archimatix and see that its currently on sale but still quite costly at around $70. My question really is about if i could make use of it or not?

So far all the demos, videos, screenshots ive seen have been specifically themed around Historic, Ancient, Sci-Fi. The issue that i have is my game is mostly in Modern-Current times, either city based or forest based levels i guess with some modern structures.

So what im asking is, can i build modern structures with Archimatix such as a House with windows and a door? or is it not that sort of tool?

Also can i use Archimatix to edit existing models? For example, say if i have a house already, can i use Archimatix to enlarge that house and create extra rooms inside it without actually breaking the exterior of the model?

Thanks for your help.

 

Hey Everyone,

So one of the things that has not been talked about much is interacting between models. Ever wish you could control one AXModel in the scene from within another AXModel's Graph? Now you can!

AXInstanceController Node

The AXInstanceController node allows you to target another AXModel in the scene, and adds that models exposed parameters as inputs. This allows you to have the parameters from one graph drive the exposed parameters of another graph. Currently bool, ints and floats, but im looking in to expanding it to allow to do more like materials and such.

I know I'm horrible at explaining what my cool nodes do, but this open up a lot of possibilities.

• You can have one graph control an entire scene of ax models.
• You can design larger models in smaller parts that are driven by the main model.
• You could target an AXModel in the scene with an AXInstanceController, and then use the PrefabInstancer to repeat it around the scene. You can now dynamically instantiate multiple copies of the original prefab, and use the AXInstanceController to update them all.

Keep in mind this is a Controller. It does not read the properties values out of an AxModel (except when you first target the model). If you wanted a graph to be aware of variables from another graph you could add an AXInstance controller to that other graph, and have it target variables back in the original graph (did that make sense)?


In the screen shot below. There are two models. AXModel1, AXModel2.
They both have a rectangle shape, with a polygon extrusion. On is used as a floor (AXModel1), one is use as a wall(AXModel2). In this example the Width parameter of the rectangle shape in AXModel2 has been exposed and an AXInstanceController has been added to AXModel1 that targets AXModel2 and I have hooked the width of the Rectangle in AXModel1 to the Rectangle_width parameter of the AXInstanceController node.

Now when i change the width of the rectangle in AXModel1, the Width of the rectangle in AXModel2 is changed as well.

 

Hey @KillerNads

Yes you can make modern houses with Archimatix. However, it does take some time to learn all the tools, and creative thinking in how to put them together to achieve what you want.

If you just wanted to make a house, it would be faster to do it in another modeling program. If you wanted to make a dynamic parametric house, then AX is what you want to use.

 

Hi @KillerNads - There was some discussion on the topic of AX modeling a modern suburban house a ways back in the thread. I have spec'ed out a set of nodes that will generate rooms based on centerline splines and door and window objects to connect rooms. This is still a bit in the future, so for now ProBuilder might be best.

In the meantime, you can model something like this relatively easily (once you are comfortable with AX modeling):



AX shines when there is a certain logic at work:

 

Hello, I'm just playing around with this amazing plugin and was looking into deforming some prefabs. However, the prefabs I quickly threw together have very low poly count not showing the full potential of the deformers. Is there some sort of subdivision node?

Also, I was wondering if anyone tried using this plugin on shapes created in Realtime CSG for example (https://forum.unity.com/threads/released-realtime-csg-level-design-for-unity.427601/)?
I'm trying to combine the power of the two but currently my workflow isn't exactly non-destructive. I'm exporting the CSG model as an fbx, making a prefab out of it and importing that into Archimatix. A setup to dream of would be if I could take in realtime csg models directly, allowing me to modify the original model as Archimatix reflects those changes.
@roryo While I do realize that this is a bit far off, I spotted a CSG node (beta) on one of your screenshots a couple of pages back. Could there possibly arise some bridge between the two?

 

Hi @2dgame - I am in contact with the developer of Realtime CSG. It would be interesting to try to establish a workflow! A big help would be a subdivision node. Currently, subdivision happens at the Shape level in the generative flow of Archimatix. When you are generating everything, it is easy to have optimal subdivision logic. Subdividing an arbitrary mesh is a bit more computationally intensive (as general cases always are!). But it should not be too difficult, and certainly easier than polygon reduction of an arbitrary mesh.

Yes, there has been some work on a CSG node, but it has a bit of a ways to go. Realtime CSG has a constraint that helps it optimize - all the source forms must be convex. So a wall with a hole in it is actually a collection of blocks. I am hoping the CSG node will be arbitrary, but we shall see if this is possible.

In the meantime, although it takes a bit of getting used to, 2D booleans are both optimal in terms of computational resources (especially on mobile) and you can do things that are not possible with 3D booleans. For example, in this villa, there is a boolean that resolves into all sorts of architectural details. CSG would not be able to do this. Note in particular, the merging of the cylindrical form in the this model as it slides across the plan (in realtime) with windows, corner columns and parapets resolving, etc.:



With CSG it would be very computationally intensive to cut these window openings in this curved surface, but to do it as a 2D boolean with deformation, the wall shape and the openings can be manipulated in realtime.



This would also be very expensive CSG:



Once you get into the power of 2D shape merging and mesh generation, you may never go back to CSG! LOL

 

Archimatix has been selected as a Finalist in the Tools category for the Unity Awards!


You can help push AX over the finish line: cast your votes here!

 

If you are wondering what fun things you can do with an AX model, you can shoot it up...


We're going to need a bigger cannon!


Or even blow it up!



You can choose whether to combine the the meshes of an AX model, or keep them separate and add Rigidbodies.

 

voted for Archimatix

voted. easy choice

 

funny, I was just asking if there would be another sale a few weeks ago.. the gods answered buying today

 

Okay thank you, still confused with it though, and dont actually know if it would come in use for me and my game

It seems great for creating background environment objects and buildings, but im not so sure if it can be used to create a exterior plus an interior modern structure. Secondly, can it be used on existing modelled objects? For example, if i was to buy a house model from asset store, can i use this to expend the house up giving more space in the rooms, for instance. Or even perhaps duplicating the house to double its size and have twice as many rooms, even if it is a mirror image of the existing house?

Thanks

 

"The beaches in the arctic are cheaper than in the tropics..."

Who writes this stuff? It's hilarious, and adds a touch of personality to the docs

 

AX can repeat, make a mirror image of, and deform a Prefab (any model from the Asset Store), but you can't operate on an individual polygon of the Prefab mesh. For example, you can't cut a hole in the wall of a house you downloaded from the Asset Store. For that, you would want to use ProBuilder. It sounds like your intuition may be right and AX is not the tool you are looking for. If you haven't already, you should give ProBuilder a try. It is a great polygonal modeler that will let you build and modify your house forms in a more hand-crafted way than AX (at least until we get the WinWall node working, which is still a few months away). Also take a look at BuildR and BuildingCrafter.

 

Its actually Robot Kyle's job to write the captions. I can't really get him to do any other work around here!

A good way to view the entirety of the Robot Kyle Chronicles, is to go to images on the store page for AX. There are about 59 images with captions starting about 15 images in. You will know the Chronicles are beginning when you see this image:



Here are some excerpts:

 

Hi, I just bought AX yesterday and I am looking forward to playing with it this weekend. The one thing at the start bugging me is I use Unity personal like many others and but the graph is too light and hurting my eyes. In Bolt I have a darker graph even in personal, so how can I make your graph darker?

Thanks in advance

 

stop blowing my mind!

 

When using Archimatix with .Net 4.6 I get the following error

This is on Unity 2017.1.1p1 and Archimatix 1.0.8 and 1.0.9

 

Since AX release I have asked for the ability to customize the colors as I to find them totally unbearable.

I even wrote an AX Color Config panel, but it got to tedious to make the needed changes to the code every time a new version came out as there was a LOT of places to adjust colors at the time, so i just gave up on it.

 

Thanks @2dgame - it is fixed in 1.0.10b2 - if you would like early access to this fix, post your asset store invoiceID and an email address to me in a private conversation here and I will invite you to the Slack site for AX. This goes for anyone who has an invoiceID and would like to join the slack site.

 

It will be nice to get a color configurator going at some point, as @RuinsOfFeyrin requested, but in the meantime, I think it would be good to match the Personal skin to more closely resemble the Pro skin. I thought I had originally read somewhere mimicking the Pro skin was not allowed by the asset store, but I can't find that anywhere now. And, if its good enough for Bolt, its good enough for us! This color change will be in 1.0.10.

 

So I finally bought this, and I'm very excited to be joining the Archimatix community. I'll post some screenshots once I have something to show, right now what I have is about a million stupid questions. I apologize if many of these have already been answered.

1. How do I give a mesh hard normals?
2. Is the subdivision stuff in yet? If so, where is it?
3. What tools exist in archimatix for dealing with UVs?
   
4. Plan Sweep looks like it should scale a section of the mesh in and out on the icon, but when I use it it's more like a wavy extrude. These are both very useful behaviors, but I can't figure out how to make it happen.
5. Is there any best way to do something like a plan sweep but with seperate curves controlling the width and height of the sweep?
6. Can I make the nodes toolbar on the right more than one column wide?
   
7. Can I close the library toolbar on the left hand side?
8. Can I go back to addpoint mode in the freecurve editor after I exit it?
9. Can I scale a shape with the same widget used to translate and rotate them?
   
10. Is there anything I can do to improve general responsiveness? It's not the worst, but sometimes when I connect a wire the editor hangs for a second.
11. Sometimes when I click on a point in the main unity editor, I accidentally select my main archmatix object, or deselect everything, and have to reselect my freecurves. Maybe I just have fat fingers, but is there any way to avoid this?
    
12. Is there any way to keep free curves visible when their node isn't selected?
13. Is there an existing node for generating Catenary arcs? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catenary If not it won't be hard to do in turtlescript or something, but I'd rather not reinvent it.
14. Is there anything like the terrain deformers that can snap to any mesh? My terrain is mostly modified probuilder planes and stuff like that, because it's easier with my low poly art style.

 

Hi @brisingre - Welcome aboard!

Thanks for these great questions!

The control is in the Plan input foldout. The left button of the slider is the geometry break angle and the button on the right is the normal break angle. This way you can control UV breaks separately from normals (orange arrow).



You can also control the break angles for the Section input separately.

You can control subdivision at the shape input level as well (blue arrow in the above image).

For an Extrude, you add horizontal subdivisions to the sides with the Extrude's segs parameter.
For a PlanSweep, you would set the subdivision of the Plan and Section inputs separately.

I need to do a tutorial for this asap, but for now, this forum post may help: #2066

In the future, I'd like to create a UV map window so you can graphically rearrange the surfaces over an atlas image. For now, it is the shifting and scaling parameters in the MaterialTool.

PlanSweep is essentially a spline sweep node. The Section input gets swept over the Plan shape. If you use an open shape for the section, and add topCaps, then it will look like a an Extrude with custom sides. If the Section is closed, it will look like a pipe, of sorts. Once you have the Plan and Section connected, its fun to rotate the Section. See the PlanSweepTube library item to give this a quick try.

This is will be added soon. In the meantime, and to the PlanDeformer as well.

Not yet. I believe @RuinsOfFeyrin has a feature in one of his packs that lets you create custom library shelves.

You can click and drag on the white point handles in-between any two established control points to create a new point.

No, currently you can only scale a shape in the parameter fields. Also, scaling is tricky with parametrics. Where possible, you should alter the parameters to change the size of a shape.

AX goes through cycles of feature additions and optimizations. I think it is time to take another optimization pass on the node graph editor window.

I should add a control to let you adjust the radius of the point handles.

I had originally had it that unselected curves were still visible, but when there are a lot of shapes in the scene, it was slowing things down. What I could do is keep shapes that are not yet fed into a downstream node visible (or fed into a ShapeMerger).

There is not currently, but that would be a great library item!

Not yet...

 

Thanks for the quick response!

I got hard normals working, although they get wonky if I set both ends of the slider to 0, so I have to set the geometry side to 0 and the normal's side to the smallest non-zero number I can manage on the slider.

I can see the Subdivision control but I can't tell if changing it (on a plansweep) is doing anything at all. Are there other options that have to be set in order for it to work?

I'll have to check out RuinsOfFerin's packages. It'd be so nice to be able to see all my nodes at once.

As far as keeping freecurves visible goes, the way I'd want that to work is just a checkbox, or perhaps a little dropdown menu, on the freecurve node that I can use to make the freecurve editable even when the node isn't selected. I wouldn't want to see all my curves and shapes all the time, but I'd like to be able to select a few important ones to see all the time.

I just multi-selected and ctrl-x'd a bunch of nodes and went to paste them in another canvas and it only pasted one of them. I don't know if this happens every time. ctrl-z seems pretty inconsistent as well.

 

For the PlanSweep, you can subdivide by increasing the subdivisions of the Plan input shape. If you have bezier points in the Plan shape, then you can also increase the segs in the FreeCurve controls.

You can see all the Library items at once if you open the Library window. It would be nice to have a similar window for nodes

 

Any news on the ability to stamp out/create LOD groups? I'd mentioned it a while back and it sounded like something you'd be able to do without too much work, but at the time you were in the middle of getting all the runtime stuff going.

 

Thanks for the reminder, @trilobyteme - I will try to take a look at it this weekend. Would certainly be a useful feature.

 

I think I missed your post, @matteumayo, but thanks for your input! This is pushing me over the edge on an LOD generator!

 

Hi roryo.

I've been sculpting caves with your asset...it's taken me a few days of mucking things up before I stumbled upon the technique I'm now using. It's unbelievable to think that my limitations inside Blender no longer limit my own vision. You've made a lot of things possible. I suspect that in a while, when I've stumbled upon a few more things, my own vision will seem merely a pale imitation of that which Archimatix has allowed me to accomplish.

In short, I'm exceeding my modelling expectations. By a lot. I wanted to (publicly) acknowledge how much that means to me.

 

Thanks for these kind words, @tomraegan! They gladden a weary developer's heart!

 

"Friends, Romans, countrymen... Alas," cries Robot Kyle in his most overwrought thespian voice, "...today is the last day of the Back to School sale!" Kyle pantomimes his woe for those souls who might miss the 50% off sale. He is playing to what in his own mind is a packed house, but in the end he is jazzed about the new Roman theater model that will soon be sold separately as a parametric prop!

You can help push AX over the finish line for a Unity Award: cast your votes here!

 

Looks impressive. Something odd happening with the UVs on the canvas material though on the far side

 

and... purchased.

So, the AX nodes are represented as JSON? Can I instantiate AX objects at any point during runtime by streaming in their JSON representation yet? If so, where do I begin?

 

Good catch, @smada-luap! I had too few triangles in the canopy to pull off such a fine-grained radial texture on a PlanSweep. Adding some more segmentation fixes it:



In order to do a low-poly canopy and still have the radial texture look good, it would be better to do a Plan of a thickened arc with a radial topCap texture rather than a PlanSwept section.

 

Welcome aboard, @logixworx!

You can certainly add library items to your graphic the editor and make them inactive and then in runtime set their active parameter to on.

To truly stream objects, say from a server, you need to make an API call from your game scripts to instantiate them using the static function:

Code (CSharp):

1. public static AXParametricObject pasteParametricObjectFromString(String json_string)

Once this is called, the library item will be in your graph. Then you just need to regenerate the model by calling

Code (CSharp):

1.  
2. AXParametricObject.pasteParametricObjectFromString(jsonStringDownloadedFromServer);
3. model.autobulid();
4.  

By the way, there is a bug in the runtimeController script generator that has been fixed in the soon to be released version 1.0.10. If you need to get this before it hits the asset store this week, post your asset store invoiceID and an email address to me in a private conversation here and I can invite you to the slack.com site for AX. There is a channel there where I post intermittent builds.

 

Damn - just saw this today and it went off sale. Damn Damn Damn!

Mike

 

Got my vote

 

thanks. I'm loving Archimatix - I feel like it was created specifically for my game!

I'm still getting the hang of how I would model the levels in my game & for the most part I've got it down pat.

There is one thing I'm not sure that I can model in Archimatix - I want to extend a model, or specifically a hexahedron along a freeform spline. exactly like Vadim's Mesh Deformer plugin. I want to create loops, corkscrews, winding paths etc from a hexahedron &adjust /twist the spline at nodes along the path at runtime like Vadim's plugin. Can it be done in Archimatix?

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/41155

 

Holidays are right around the corner - it may come back for a Black Friday or Christmas sale

 

vote AX+1

 

Could PlanDeformer help with this?

 

I voted and bought this while it was on sale. Sadly I've not gotten a chance to use it yet. HOpefully today after work.
I'll just say from the features what I like so far (without even having used it) is that I can convert the meshes to normal GameObjects. That'll be useful since my main project is far too large to include any extra tools and these objects I'm making are static anyway. xD