Softimage SDK Programmer's Guide > Customizing Softimage using the SDK > Custom ICENodes > Custom ICENode Categories >

# Multi-Phase/Element Generator Custom ICENode

Like Single-Threading nodes, Multi-Phase nodes can be mixed with the Element Generator category. Multi-Phase/Element Generator nodes allow you to generate new particle elements and, unlike with Single-Threading nodes, they can be processed in multi-threaded passes.

There are no special rules to follow for defining the input and output ports of a Multi-Phase/Element Generator node. However, the rules for specifying the phase input ports are the same as a regular Multi-Phase node:

- Ports to pull must share the same context type; otherwise an error is raised. You can, however, mix singleton contexts with the phase context.

- Ports to pull in the last phase must match the context type of the output port, otherwise an error is raised.