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

Sorry to ask a question that I may find the answer in the doc but before diving I would like to know if it’s possible :

Can I add into those node graph a model of my own? It may not be parametric but could I add stuff to it or around that are actually parametric?

Thanks in advance

 

Yes, there is a Prefab Node that allows placement and replication of any Unity prefab. It can be any 3D object, or scripts on a GO, or an NPC….

 

Hi @blitzvb - for more information about the PrefabInstancer node, check out the manual page here.

Here Robot Kyle and his friends are enjoying an arctic beach vacation compliments of the PrefabInstancer and GridRepeater with Jitter and Terrain placement:



This statues atop the building cornice are from the asset store and attached to a PrefabInstancer on a PlanRepeater:

 

Wow! Ok this is legit.

 

Question about the Extrude node. What's the minimum height value for this node? (it appears to be 1 cm). We were thinking that this might be different if the Model Defaults/Precision Level was changed to millimeter, however it doesn't seem so.

thanks

 

Hi @drsmetamoto - you can change the minimum yourself, but it should remain a positive number. Though it would be nice to have the minimum default setting to be aware of the precision setting.

For now, to change the minimum and maximum settings for a parameter, you can open the parameter foldout to reveal there relevant fields.

 

Here is another example of PrefabInstancer: This Prefab with Robot Kyle in it has a behavior attached to set each instance in walking to a random target. The Prefab is distributed by a GridRepeater on an Archimatix level model.

 

Cool!

Two last questions:

- Can you decimate (I use simpligon) à parametric model without loosing the paremetric runtime parameter ?

- it doesn’t seems to use its own shader so I guess I can set an AT2 shader and use megatexture for a paremetric model

Thanks for all your answers. I appreciate it.

 

Great tool! Thanks! Encountered a null reference exception when trying to add a TerrainDeformer node:

NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
AX.Generators.Generator3D.getLocalAlignShifter () (at Assets/Archimatix/Scripts/Core/Generators/Generators.cs:2154)
AX.Generators.Generator.getLocalAlignMatrix () (at Assets/Archimatix/Scripts/Core/Generators/Generators.cs:1169)
AX.Generators.Generator3D.pollControlValuesFromParmeters () (at Assets/Archimatix/Scripts/Core/Generators/Generators.cs:1975)
AX.AXModel.addParametricObject (System.String type, Boolean panTo, AX.AXParametricObject basedOnPO) (at Assets/Archimatix/Scripts/Core/AXModel.cs:1485)
AX.AXModel.createNode (System.String nodeName, Boolean panTo, AX.AXParametricObject basedOnPO, Single pos_x, Single pos_y) (at Assets/Archimatix/Scripts/Core/AXModel.cs:1521)
AXEditorUtilities.addNodeToCurrentModel (System.String nodeName, Boolean panTo, AX.AXParametricObject basedOnPO) (at Assets/Archimatix/Scripts/Editor/AXEditorUtilities.cs:990)
NodeMenu.display (Single imagesize, .AXNodeGraphEditorWindow editor) (at Assets/Archimatix/Scripts/Editor/NodeGraph/NodeMenu.cs:135)
AXNodeGraphEditorWindow.OnGUI () (at Assets/Archimatix/Scripts/Editor/NodeGraph/AXNodeGraphEditorWindow.cs:2066)
System.Reflection.MonoMethod.Invoke (System.Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, System.Reflection.Binder binder, System.Object[] parameters, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MonoMethod.cs:222)
Rethrow as TargetInvocationException: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.
System.Reflection.MonoMethod.Invoke (System.Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, System.Reflection.Binder binder, System.Object[] parameters, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MonoMethod.cs:232)
System.Reflection.MethodBase.Invoke (System.Object obj, System.Object[] parameters) (at /Users/builduser/buildslave/mono/build/mcs/class/corlib/System.Reflection/MethodBase.cs:115)
UnityEditor.HostView.Invoke (System.String methodName, System.Object obj) (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/Editor/Mono/HostView.cs:285)
UnityEditor.HostView.Invoke (System.String methodName) (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/Editor/Mono/HostView.cs:278)
UnityEditor.HostView.InvokeOnGUI (Rect onGUIPosition) (at C:/buildslave/unity/build/Editor/Mono/HostView.cs:245)

P.S. I was actually looking into Houdini, when I stumbled into Archimatix. Currently AX is quite enough for my needs. Though it would be great to be able to import the meshes to Blender or some other modeling software for details and manual fixing/cleaning (fbx/obj?). Seems not to be possible, is it? I've tried ProBuilder when it had a free test period, but don't see much need for it, if I can use a dedicated modeling software.

 

Hi, just thought it would be useful to post, I am getting the following error:

I am using Unity 2017.2.0f3. The model becomes visible only if it is selected in the Graph Editor. Also, when this happens the mouse/view functions i.e. pan, orbit, get stuck. All mouse buttons perform only one function, just pan or just orbit. It can switch between pan,orbit and zoom if I change the display from 2D to 3D or vice versa or if I press 'STAMP' at the bottom of the window. Trying to zoom in the graph editor and the zoom works on the scene.
I have copied the gameobject with AX Model script to a new scene, the same happens. If you would like to receive any files from my project, please let me know.

It looks like a great tool, I am a grasshopper user for 8 years.

Best,

G.

 

If you are looking to make openings in a curved wall, one way to do this is to make flat piece of wall with openings and the PlanRepeat it. The exterior wall of this Roman Theater is just the Arch_02 library item PlanReepeated and then that FloorRepeated.


If the curve in the wall is tighter and you want the actual wall surface to be curved, you can create a fenestration pattern from 2D mergers, subtract that from a large wall rectangle, extrude and then feed into a PlanDeformer:





Once the graph is set up, you can select the circle and arch shapes and manipulate them:

 

I had some stumbles understanding the PlanDeformer… I see it starts at the shape's turtle origin; is there any way to flip that direction? Or otherwise offset the start point a little further down the path of the shape?

 

Great question, @wetcircuit - If you align the object, the alignment will be honored by the PlanDeformer. To align an object, open the Transforms foldout on the node that is being fed into the deformer (often a Grouper) and choose your alignments. In this case, it would make sense for the Align_Y to be "Bottom" (meaning the whole object will always sit on the X-Z plane) and the Align_X should be "Left." Notice in the image below, the origin is now on the bottom left of the object:





Now when you feed it into the PlanDeformer, the left side of the wall will always be at the beginning of the deformer plan, not matter what changes you make to the wall assembly.


The nice thing is that, as you increase the wall width, the windows stay centered because they are positioned before the node with the align does its transform based on the bounding box. Also, the 2D nodes align is not working yet, so when possible, use the aligns of 3D objects.

 

Since AX controls the generation of its meshes, it does not decimate. per se, but increases or decrease the segmentation of curves and bevels as it is generating.

The quickest way to lower subdivision is to use the Detail Level slider at the lower right of the node graph.





You can also reduce or increase the segs of individual node. For example. in a Cylinder, expand the Circle source shape, open the Circle's Geometry Controls foldout and lower the segs. You will see its triangle and vertex counts drop precipitously!

 

Hi @extraneus - welcome aboard!

This issue has been fixed, but the fix hasn't hit the asset store yet. If you PM me your email and invoice ID, I can send you an invite to the slack.com site for AX, where you can get intermittent builds more frequently than those that are published on the store.

I haven't actually tried Houdini yet, but I should at some point! Houdini is an older product with more features, but it is great to be able rig up the model logic right in the Unity editor with Archimatix.

Yo can export models to Blender white easily if you use the "Stamp" or "Prefab" buttons in the upper right of the node graph editor and then use Unity's new FBX exporter.

You can also take a Stamped model into ProBuilder to make more one-off polygon or vertex edits to an AX model. I started an article about this work flow from procedural to polygonal applications here:
Topics in AX: Creating the Sublime Experience of Order-to-Chaos

 

Hi @Guile_R - Welcome aboard!

Thanks for posting this bug. It has been fixed in the latest version. If you PM me your email and invoice ID, I can send you an invite to the slack.com site for AX, where you can get intermittent builds more frequently than those that are published on the store.

As in the post above, where I confessed that I haven't tried Houdini, I have another confession to make: I haven't tried Grasshopper yet either! I started with parametric modeling in 1988 using a language called GSDL at the Columbia Architecture school and have been hooked on parametrics since.

Archimatix is not as full-featured as Grasshopper (or Houdini), but it is still young. At the same time, I am hoping that veterans of both find the less granular nodal approach of AX to be less intimidating. As far as I understand, in Grasshopper everything is a node (Vector3, float, conditional gate, etc.). As you get to know AX, I would love to hear any feedback on how it compares to working with Grasshopper.

Thanks again for the feedback!

Cheers,
Rory

 

The opposite of decimation is increasing subdivisions. This is something you need to do to make sure an object works well with the Deformer nodes.

For example, if you want to add noise to a Box, you would first subdivide the Box. To do this, in the Extrude node of the Box, open the Geometry Controls foldout and increase the segs parameter. This adds more segments on the sides. Then open the Plan foldout and increase the segmentation parameter. This adds more segments to the Plan as it comes into the node (without changing the source shape).



Now with all those subdivisions, feed the Output of the Box into a NoiseDeformer node. For this sort of deformation, make sure the FromCenter checkbox is On.



You can continue to adjust the subdivision parameters of the extrude until you think the minimum is there for the look you want given the level of noise.

If the FromCenter parameter is Off, the the noise will be closer to the surfaces:



This post is the beginnings of a draft for the Deformer node manual pages.

 

Hi Everyone.

Just bought Arcimatix and been using it for a couple of days.

This is a fantastic tool. I am a mechanical engineer by day and have been using parametric CAD for over 25 years. This is the best poly modelling system I have used (I have used Maya, Modo, Houdini, Zbrush, Blender over the last 10 years), best no destructive workflow.

However, I just have a few questions

I am using Unity 2017.2.0f3 Personal and the latest Archimatix on Windows 10.

1.
I have been using the PlanDeformer to try and get the same effect as the previous posts, however I am seeing something strange with the normal that the extrusion is deformed along. If I deform a rectangular extrusion around any shape path, it looks like the normals for the deformation on each path segment are a segment out. i.e the second segment has the normals for the first segment and so on.

I could not see a pattern for the direction of the first segments normals.

2.
In the node graph, on any node, I can add an empty slot for an expression against parameters, but what ever I type, when I press enter the text disapears and no expression is saved.
I can enter text for a parameter expression in the inspecter view, and the expression does then work correctly. However, If I press the plus button to add a second new expression in the inspector, It creates the expression slot and fills it with the same text as the first expression. If I edit this and press enter, the text changes in both expression slots.
I have watched 3D Lunatics video on this, but cannot enter a single expression on a node, or multiple expressions anywhere.

I am new to Archimatix so I apologise if I am doing something wrong.

Apologies also for not being able to add any screen grabs.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks In advance.

Best Regards
G

 

Took your advice and ticked all the align boxes. Lit some candles and did a ritual with chicken feet. Somewhere between the two I got it all aligned and working… Text on a Curve! W00T!



(Text is via the SVGtoTURTLE importer in AX Pro Tools plugin)

 

Makes Archimatix look like a super hero! Nice work, @wetcircuit!

 

Hi @6510CPU - thanks for that feedback. Really great to hear! I started as a mechanical engineer myself, but in those days, there were no CAD systems yet! I didn't start learning to code until architecture school in the late 80's. I did some generative projects in the M.Arch program, but afterwards got on the Silicon Graphics visualization and special effects band wagon with Softimage, then Maya, then Cinema4D and Modo. Through all those years, and recalling the procedural scripting language from grad school, I wished I had something like Archimatix, so one day I finally set about making it. I thought it would take 6-8 months and that was 4 years ago!

Per your issues: 1. could you post a pic? Or better yet, if you PM me with your asset store invoiceID, I can send you an invite to the slack.com site for AX where you can post the scene file (and get early access to builds with bug fixes and new features). 2. That is a know bug which I hope to have fixed in the next day or so. I'm glad you found the work around in the Inspector.

 

What is the best way to move models from one scene to another? Copy the AX_model in one scene and paste it into the new scene?

 

Is it possible to use archimatrix to create a wall that follows nodes in 3d space? Preferably the nodes would be calculated at runtime, so that you could define the parameters beforehand, and at runtime they would be used to generate the final shape

 

Another way is to group all the nodes in the model and then save that Grouper to the Library. Then you can bring it into any new scene at any time.

 

Hi @trialnterrorgames - AX does not have a 3D spline yet, but there is one coming in the next month or so. Currently, you can create a wall from a 2D shape and then use the TerrainDeformer to move all the y-values of the wall vertices to align with the terrain.

 

Awesome! I'll be looking forward to it!

How about the realtime updates?

 

That GIF above is what you can do now - once the 3D spline is here, the sections of wall between towers could be straight.

As far as runtime goes, yes - for the most part, anything that happens in the editor, can happen in runtime.

 

Hi roryo, thanks for the reply.

I started on Catia V3 moved to V4, V5, also Inventor, Solidworks, and Cadds5.

I will put together some slides showing what I mean today.

I have no idea how to PM you, I looked at the link below (it looks out of date), and did a google search but could not see the right settings.

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/244930-Enable-Private-Messages-(PM)-and-Email

Could you give me instructions to set up PM?

Sorry about this, I'm not well up on forums.

Thanks.

 

Here at the Unity forums, PM means to start a Conversation. When you click on someones name, a popup gives some information on the user and a link to begin a Conversation with them. I will initiate a Conversation with you now. Anything you post in the Conversation is not visible to anyone else.

 

Im fairly certain you can drag your GO with the AXModel script on it in to your project and create a prefab, and then drag the out in to whatever scene you want.

 

That sounds like a good plan. Thanks!

 

Hi roryo , seems found a bug when using Group Relation ( I'm using v1.0.11), see below attachment , when i adding Group_2.delta parameter in the Relation Expression , when chaning Group2's width parameter , Group1's width become 0, vise versa. the Grouper is just a 2d rectangle with extrude node. any idea ? thanks.

 

Hi @xj1982xj - For inter-nodal parameter relations, the expression can only use the parameter from the other end of the relation connector. In this case only the width parameters can be used in the expression. If order to be able to use multiple parameters from a node, it is best to use parameter expressions that can be found in the parameter foldouts. This manual page should help with this topic. This tutorial might help as well.

 

I would like to use MegaSplat as AX Materials. MegaSplat uses vertex colors, does AX already support vertex colors or would i need to get this asset too?: https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/92935

Thanks

 

When you Stamp or Prefab and Archimatix mode, you have standard Unity meshes that include the color array. So MegaSplat should be able to use the Stamped meshes as though they came from any other modeling app.

 

Ok, I'll give it a try - thanks!

 

Improvements to PlanDeformer are underway: now you can slide the source object past the bounds of the plan shape and it continues on in the end directions.


Also fixed a bug where the verts were not totally perpendicular to the plan shape at each point. Now they are!

 

Hi roryo, i try the parameter expressions in version 1.0.12 , seems expression always blank whether i press enter or 'Done' button , i try the parameter expression in version 1.0.10 , it was OK, but seems from 1.0.11 , the expression has this issue , could you please check whether you got this error ?

 

Yes - that is a bug that snuck into 1.0.12. The latest build on the slack has a fix for it. If you would like to get early access to the latest build, please PM me in a Conversation here your asset store ID and email address to send the slack invite to.

Otherwise, the work around is to use the expression field in the Inspector for that parameter. Also, I will be submitting the a build to the assetstore tomorrow.

 

PlanDeformer is all set to go! Will be in the build posted to the asset store tomorrow.



Feeding that into a TaperDeformer....


And then into a NoiseDeformer...

 

Robot Kyle has grave concerns that these new PlanDeformer improvements may hasten the arrival of a post-apocalyptic future!

 

NICE!

 

I try to use PlanDeformer, but it did not work as my expection.

 

Your rectangle needs subdivision. The rectangle is deforming to the circle, but it only has the 2 points (both are on the circle). With more subdivision in that first rectangle shape, you will have more points to conform to the circle.

 

Thanks for help,i change subdivision in ExtrudeNode,it works.But only change subdivision in rectangle shape node seem have no difference.

 

Hi @wanglibin - the subdivision should be set in the foldout for the plan input on the Extrude node. Let us know if that helps.




A new and improved PlanDeformer is in version 1.1.0, currently awaiting approval at the asset store.

 

Alright, I've been playing around with it and it's even easier to get started with this then I imagined.

I wanted to play around with a script to control the curve points in the freecurve, so I've checked the runtime checkbox and clicked on the button "create runtime controller".
The problem is that the region #region AUTO_GENERATED AX BINDINGS is incomplete, and I'm not really sure what it is that the property should be returning...

Code (CSharp):

1.     public  FreeCurve_0_Output_Shape { // error because no returntype. this should be AXParameter? Or maybe float?
2.         get {
3.             if (model != null)
4.                 return P_FreeCurve_0_Output_Shape.; // error because incomplete, perhaps P_FreeCurve_0_Output_Shape.val? or maybe floatval?
5.             return ;
6.         }
7.         set {
8.             if (P_FreeCurve_0_Output_Shape != null)
9.             {
10.                 P_FreeCurve_0_Output_Shape.setValue(value);
11.                 parameterWasAltered = true;
12.             }
13.         }
14.     }

 

Hey @trialnterrorgames
It looks like you have exposed the Shape property, which i think its part of the issue. Im not sure the shape property itself is properly setup to be exposed and used in such a way.

In order to achieve what you want you could try something like this, mind you this is untested code to point you in the right direction.

Code (CSharp):

1. AXPArametricObject nodePO = model.ParametricObjects.FirstOrDefault(p=>p.name=="nameofnode");
2.  
3. AXPArameter nodeParam = nodePO.getParameter("parametername");

Once you have a reference to the parameter, you can do whatever you please. However in order to play with a freeCurve, you would not want to attempt to alter the node its going into, but instead edit the freeCurve node itself. The input parameters do not hold the data you need, they simply reference back to the parameter on the node it came from. If that makes sense.

Hope that helps, if you have any questions feel free to drop by the AX slack chat, always happy to help people.

 

By way of special announcement, we are launching a new community site for Archimatix! Registration is open to all, so please feel free to join in!