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

Hi @ibyte - thanks for posting the detailed description here. If you move the stamped version away, try clicking on the chair seat of the original AX model in the Scene View and then keep clicking until the overall handles appear. Multiple clicks on any object in an AXModel will cycle-select through the node ancestry.

 

Hi @AVOlight - very cool extension! Could you PM me your code? Maybe I could see where the scale is being lost.

 

Hi roryo, i'm using older version (1.1.0) , i will update to the latest version.
many thanks for your kindly help.

 

roryo, got an example of a grouper node that dynamically generates and removes encapsulated nodes and proxy parameters?

 

Hi @roryo, I'm getting this error "IndexOutofRangeException: Array index is out of range." whenever i try to connect a mesh into the Shear Deformer or the Inflate Deformer.

 

Hi @puzzlekings and @EvilFox - I just added the ability to set the MeshRenderer preferences in the Inspector for a node in version 1.1.6b2 (posted to the slack). Will submit to the asset store in the day or so.

 

Not sure what you mean, @logixworx.

 

Egads - I can reproduce this error. Thanks for reporting it. Will be fixed in a jiffy!

 

roryo - i need to dynamically/programmatically instantiate and delete encapsuated nodes with proxy parameters inside a grouper node. I need to dynamically generate a graph at runtime.

 

roryo - i'm trying to programmatically construct an AX graph that reflects the current state of height map data that the user is modifying at runtime

 

@logixworx - it sounds like you are taking AX to a place I have never been! LOL. Do you have a more specifics you could share? Perhaps in a PM if your project is not for general knowledge yet.

 

Is there a way to hide the kind of aqua colored lines that appear when i select the Archimatix object? My viewport is so slow, but if i deselect it it goes very fast, although then i cant edit it so catch 22. Im looking in the gizmos dropdown but havent found it yet.

 

Sorry - one more question - sometimes when i use combine mesh on a grouper that is not at 0,0,0, it generates the mesh collider for the group in the correct position, but it moves the combined visual meshes to 0,0,0, so it doesnt align with the mesh collider, which is in the correct position. I can manually apply the grouper xyz to the combined meshes to move them back to their place, but if i can save this step it would be ideal.

 

Hi @protopop - I just added a checkbox to the menu at the bottom of the SceneView to hide the cyan lines, which for the most part show the outlines of unselected shapes of the selected model and bounding boxes. This will be in 1.1.6, which I just submitted to the asset store.

 

I can't seem to reproduce this. What version of AX are you using, @protopop?

 

roryo - is there a runtime example of drawing and manipulating a FreeCurve?

 

That's great - you move so fast. Im also looking forward to setting the mesh properties in AX - i see that's coming too. Thank you.

 

Im using 1.1.5 in untiy 5.6.4p1 - i attached a screenshot of the issue

I can work around it if i export the groupers not combined, copy the transform of the grouper, then export it combined, and paste the transform of the grouper onto the contents of the combined grouper.

Im sure its something in the way im building it, because one of the groupers that isnt at 0,0,0 doesnt have this issue. i just havent been able to figure out what the issue is. Please don't stress about it. Ill keep looking and i was just asking incase you or anyone had seen this before and had some advice

 

Is there a place we can see all the release notes? I want to see what's new since the last time to make sure im not missing anything big (like i see the noise deformer is now in!)

 

@roryo I found some bugs in v1.1.6b2 , which are not present in v1.1.5. By adding a top/bottom/end cap material to the extrude, lathe, and plansweep node you can trigger these bugs. Also, make sure to have the caps enabled in the node and select a new material from "none" to some other material.

 

Thanks for reporting this, @JLO - its fixed in the final version of 1.1.6 submitted to the asset store.

 

If you open the About window (Windows->Archimatix->About), you can see the change log for the past 15 or so versions.

 

cool, that's perfect - thank you

 

What is the new MeshRenderer node, and is there a runtime FreeCurve manipulation example?

 

HI there,

First I want to say Archimatix is an awesome tool. And have a question about subtraction from cube that have backface enabled to make a door, the top cap of the cube flip outside and can’t be visable from inside of the cube. Am using Unity 2017.4.5 and the latest version of Archimatix. Any idea what causes this, and is there batter way to manage the highest of the subtraction to not cut out all the wall.
Best,

 

I saw that github recently released an asset for Unity, when I imported it I got a hard stop error in the console that won't clear, conflicting with Archimatix...

error CS1703: An assembly `ICSharpCode.SharpZipLib' with the same identity has already been imported. Consider removing one of the references
Assets/Archimatix/Scripts/Core/plugins/ICSharpCode.SharpZipLib.dll (Location of the symbol related to previous error)
Assets/Plugins/GitHub/Editor/ICSharpCode.SharpZipLib.dll (Location of the symbol related to previous error)
​

I'll ping them too, I'm not sure if that'd be a pain to give a unique name to for a future update, but if possible I'd like to be able to use them both in the same project.

 

To be honest, I am not sure how that got it the AX plugins folder, since AX doesn't use it. I will continue to investigate. In the meantime, you should be able to delete it with no consequence.

 

Thanks - I'd removed the github asset (something I'm excited about for the future but not really essential yet) and filed the BR on their tracker, they've said they'll get it sorted in an upcoming update.

 

Hi roryo, there is a feature i hope for a long time .
The Feature is : "The Grouper can set its pivot from its bounding box"
Just like the video :

However i search for solution , no lucky, hope you can give me some ideas and adding this feature in further version.
Currently Archimatrix can't set pivot of Grouper , it only rotate from Grouper's original as in attchment.

seems the video just implement using GameObject to attach for later pivot change, (there is also a free plugin to achiveve this : https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/utilities/adjust-pivot-112883) . But for Archimatrix , the special case is when we drag Grouper's Properties ( such as Rot Y) , the whole changed Grouper obj is deleted , No GameObject can be rely . so how should we rotate the Groupees inside Grouper using Pivot= center of Grouper's BoundingBox or like the video show that can rotate Groupee from percentage of the Grouper's bounding box.

Hope you can give some idea/solution or further version can support this.

 

Found another bug to squish this time in the floor repeater. Plugin a mesh in the inputs mess with it a bit and the bug should appear.

 

@roryo Caught some more bugs . If you use the output mesh of either the Taper, Twist, Domical, or Terrain deformer and plug it into any 3DRepeater you encounter multiple warnings.

 

Hi! Really excited to dig into this asset. Wanted to report a few minor errors in Unity 2018.1.7f1 while using Archimatix 1.1.6.

- Slew of Substance-related errors on inport
- A black line that appear on a beveled edge of an extrude mesh, if the mesh is sufficiently tapered in the negative range. To reproduce, I'm following the Gray Ship tutorial on the website. I have an extrude attached to the Cathedral Plan, and the taper is set to -1.22. If increase the extrude's edge parameter, the edge polys are black until I hit a sufficient length, then the texture pops back in full. Image attached below to help illustrate. Let me know how else I can help.

Thanks again for such an incredible toolset. Having a great time acquainting myself with it.

 

Hi @xj1982xj - putting the Grouper inside another Grouper may help. Slide the inner Grouper anywhere you like, but then select the outer Grouper to rotate. You can think of Groupers as null objects in the scene graph. Let me know if this works for you.
Based on the video you posted, a neat feature would be to allow you to move the outer Grouper while the inner Grouper doesn't (say while holding the control key down. This would essentially be a way to move the outer Grouper and reposition in the inner Grouper all at once.

 

Thanks, @JLO - fixed! It was when one had a Top Floor Mesh input but no regular Floor Mesh.

 

Thanks for catching this as well @JLO - will fix soon!

 

Welcome aboard, @ledbetterman! Thank you for taking the time to post the image, especially showing the parameter values - as well as the version numbers of both Unity and AX. The same version of AX does not have the black strip in Unity 5.64, but I can reproduce what you are seeing in Unity 2018.1. Until I get to the bottom of this, the work around is, as you have found, to have a slight Lip Edge value. The slew of Substance errors is due to the fact that Unity stopped including the Substance plugin in the default install, so the sample Substances included with AX require one to download and install the free Substance in Unity plugin from the AssetStore. The only fix for this is if I remove the sample substances from the AX package, which will involve redoing many of the library items. This is something I should get to soon.

Thanks again for your help!

 

Hi roryo, thank you for your idea , i try it , it can works , however it can not fit my situation.
1. the Grouper of Grouper method will move the mesh to let the rotate pivot to take effect , but in my case , my generated meshs in the Grouper is positioned at some location of static 3d obj , that means i can't move the meshes , seems the only thing left is move the pivot to the center of the bounding box of the grouper just like the video to rotate the mesh in the grouper.
2. I have some Grouper depends on some Grouper , if all using this method, maybe the graph seems too complex and not efficient ?

So , from the above 2 point , can there any chance to adding three properties in Grouper to adjust the grouper's pivot just like video ? or some ideas how should achieve for archimatix for this ? thanks.

 

I was working with the Extrude and PlanDeformer nodes, and I noticed that the normal's of my mesh weren't completely smoothed.

I tried to adjust the normal's of my shapes, but that didn't seem to help. I then tested the extrude node on all the deformers and found that the Taper, Shear, and Plan Deformer nodes create hard edges.

This seems to only occur when an extrude node is connected to those specific deformers. Thanks again for the awesome support you provide.

 

Thanks again, @JLO - Fixed!

 

Hi roryo, any idea about the question(#2687) ? looking forward for your answer . BTW , beside the pivot percentage property for grouper , any thought/idea about adding similar properties (X percentage Pivot , Y percentage Pivot , Z percentage Pivot ) for 3d parametric obj ?

 

Would you want scaling to also be around the pivot?

 

Hi roryo , thank you for your quick response ,if could that would be best . waiting for your solution. thanks.

 

@roryo If you try to export a model as a prefab using Archimatix these two warning's occur, and for the most part there doesn't seem to be any other problems with the prefabs themselves or their use in any other asset tools. This bug should occur with any model being exported as a prefab.

Though, what really caught my attention was if I use a prefab made from Archimatix inside Voxeland it causes multiple assertion failed errors (This error belongs to Voxeland and I only included it because I thought it might be helpful in some way). If i were to re-export that same prefab using Unity's new exporter tool and put it back in Voxeland everything works nicely. No more scene view, Archimatix, or Voxeland errors.

I was planning to overlook this because at first it didn't seem to be very invasive, but it appears there's more to it than meets the eye. Thanks again

 

I just saw this:

I know Archimatix can do the same thing better although some parts I'm not sure

 

We need that "lofter" node, @roryo

 

That looks super cool!

I don't know how much of it you could do with AX right now though.

Obviously all the texturing's out, you couldn't even really unwrap something like this in AX.

I also see a some often-requested modeling operations here, like extrusions whose profile changes over the extrusion and booleans. I feel like you'd really struggle with all these sweeping aerofoil-y shapes with the current extrusion options.

 

yep that's the extent of what I thought could be done with Archimatix but we're not far off. I think 3 - 4 new nodes and we're there

 

Phew! -- 3-5 hours per design! -- I dunno if that's a selling point... I think I'd rather go into something like Zbrush or 3DCoat and sculpt it out for that kind of timesink. Even Blender's sculpting/tools would be a better option.

Regarding PBR texturing, 3DCoat has amazing tools for this, but really Substance Painter/Designer would work too. There's a few free/low-cost options out there too. I think the "animation" in the video makes it look "fast" to generate that geometry, but here's what the process really looks like:

As you can see, we definitely needz us thoze "lofting" and "surface-projection" nodez to make ship hulls, etcetera.

Those "paneling" and "bolt" nodes are pretty sweet though, I definitely admit. (The only downside with those is that you can't use them as normal maps without first taking them out to an external package and baking them.)

The rest, AX can actually already do with groupers.

 

Has anyone managed to add a node to the node graph programmatically via an editor script? -- How about programmatically adding a node to an existing grouper node in a graph?

I'd really like a code example of how one might do this. There are no tutorials that address this, and I've not heard anything from @roryo about it in a long time, so I was hoping somebody out there has tried it at some point.

 

Anyone else grab those HR Giger texures while they were $2…?



http://community.archimatix.com/works-in-progress/those-giger-textures-from-the-asset-store/