Operator

Object Hierarchy | Related C++ Class: Operator

Inheritance

    SIObject
       ProjectItem
           Operator

Introduced

1.5

Description

The Operator object represents an operator in the scene graph. Objects or Parameters are connected to the operator via InputPorts or OutputPorts, which may be organized into PortGroups. SDK users can create their own operators, which are represented in the Object Model as CustomOperators.

The responsibility of an operator is to change the output object (or objects) with the result of some algorithm. The only data the operator can read from the scene is via its input ports and parameters. For example, a typical operator might change the position of one object (the output) based on the position of several other objects (the inputs). The same object may act as both the input and the output of an operator, for example a typical deformation operator will read a geometry and output a modified version of the point positions of that same geometry. Selecting an operator in the "SDK Explorer" view is a good way to learn more about its ports and parameters.

To access individual ports from within the evaluation of a Self-Installed Custom Operator use the OperatorContext object. From outside the evaluation callback use the Operator.PortAt method.

Almost all Operators expose one or more Parameters which control the behavior of the operator. For example, the "subdivu" and "subdivv" parameters on a polygon mesh geometry operator control the number of polygons that a polygon mesh is generated with.

The most common way to create and connect a built-in operator is by calling the ApplyOp command. However, there are many specialized commands for creating operators, for example ApplyTopoOp, ApplyHairOp and ApplyGenOp. Operators are also often created indirectly, for example calling X3DObject.AddGeometry creates an operator that generates the geometry.

Methods

AddCustomOp | AddScriptedOp | AddScriptedOpFromFile | AnimatedParameters2
BelongsTo | Connect | ConnectToGroup | Copy
Disconnect | DisconnectGroup | EvaluateAt | GetICEAttributeFromName
GetInputValue | GetNumInstancesInGroup | GetNumPortGroups | GetNumPortsInGroup
GetPort2 | IsA | IsAnimated2 | IsClassOf
IsEqualTo | IsKindOf | IsLocked | IsSelected
LockOwners | PortAt | SetAsSelected | SetCapabilityFlag
SetLock | SupportsBranchGroup | TaggedParameters | UnSetLock

Properties

Application | BranchFlag | Capabilities | Categories
Families | FullName | Help | ICEAttributes
InputPorts | IsConnected | LockLevel | LockMasters
LockType | Model | Mute | Name
NestedObjects | ObjectID | Origin | OriginPath
OutputPorts | Owners | Parameters | Parent
Parent3DObject | Port | PortGroups | PPGLayout
Selected | Type |  |

Examples

JScript Example

    /*
       This example illustrates how to generate a mesh by using the loft operator and
       a number of input curves. The code also illustrates how to traverse the operator's
       port group, port group instances and ports and logs the name of the port, its type
       and the full path name of the object connected to the port.
    */
    NewScene( null, false );

    var arc = ActiveSceneRoot.AddGeometry( "Arc", "NurbsCurve" );

    // Duplicate arc 4 times and translate in y
    var args = new Array(19);
    args[0] = arc;                                       // source object
    args[1] = 4;                                         // number of copies
    args[9] = siApplyRepeatXForm;                        // Xform
    args[18] = 1;                                        // Ty

    var objs = Application.ExecuteScriptCommand( "Duplicate", args );

    // Create array containing arc and duplicates
    var aobjs = new Array(5)
    aobjs[0] = arc;
    for ( var i = 0; i < objs.count; i++ ) aobjs[i+1] = objs(i);

    // Apply loft operator
    var op = ApplyOp( "Loft", aobjs )(0);

    // Traverse port group, instances and ports and log port connections

    // For each port group ...
    for ( var idxGroup = 0; idxGroup < op.GetNumPortGroups(); idxGroup++ )
    {
       // For each instance in a port group ...
       for ( var idxInstance = 0; idxInstance < op.GetNumInstancesInGroup( idxGroup ); idxInstance++ )
       {
           // For each port in a  port group instance ...
           for ( var idxPort = 0; idxPort < op.GetNumPortsInGroup( idxGroup ); idxPort++ )
           {
              // Get a specific port
              var port = op.PortAt( idxPort, idxGroup, idxInstance );

              // If the port is an input port ...
              if ( port.PortType == siPortInput )
                  porttypestr = "input"
              else if ( port.PortType == siPortOutput )
                  porttypestr = "output"
              else
                  porttypestr = "error"

              var target = port.Target2;

              // ... and the connected type is an object connection
              if ( typeof(target) == "object" )
              {
                  Application.LogMessage( op.Name + " group:" + port.GroupIndex + " " + " instance:" + port.GroupInstance
                                + " " + porttypestr + "port:" + port.Index + ":" + target.FullName );
              }
           }
       }
    }

    // Expected results:
    //INFO : "Loft group:0  instance:0 inputport:0:arc.crvlist"
    //INFO : "Loft group:0  instance:0 inputport:1:arc.kine.global"
    //INFO : "Loft group:0  instance:1 inputport:0:arc1.crvlist"
    //INFO : "Loft group:0  instance:1 inputport:1:arc1.kine.global"
    //INFO : "Loft group:0  instance:2 inputport:0:arc2.crvlist"
    //INFO : "Loft group:0  instance:2 inputport:1:arc2.kine.global"
    //INFO : "Loft group:0  instance:3 inputport:0:arc3.crvlist"
    //INFO : "Loft group:0  instance:3 inputport:1:arc3.kine.global"
    //INFO : "Loft group:0  instance:4 inputport:0:arc4.crvlist"
    //INFO : "Loft group:0  instance:4 inputport:1:arc4.kine.global"
    //INFO : "Loft group:1  instance:0 inputport:0:surfmsh.kine.global"
    //INFO : "Loft group:1  instance:0 outputport:1:surfmsh.surfmsh"

See Also

ConstructionHistory | CustomOperator | Envelope | ApplyOp
FreezeObj |  |  |

Autodesk Softimage v7.5