Runtime vs. Self-Installed Custom Operators

Although Self-Installed Custom Operators (SICOs) are the preferred way to implement custom operators in Softimage, legacy operators continue to be supported and you can also build operators on-the-fly, which are known as runtime operators.

Runtime operators are embedded directly within the scene. They are similar in implementation from SICOs but differ in a few key ways:

Area

Description

Runtime

SICO

Applying operators

To apply runtime operators, use either one of the AddScriptedOp methods or the AddScriptedOp command. For SICOs, you use the AddCustomOp versions.

• AddScriptedOp

• Parameter.AddScriptedOp

• ProjectItem.AddScriptedOp

• AddCustomOp

• Parameter.AddCustomOp

• ProjectItem.AddCustomOp

Update signature

Runtime operators include all output and input ports in the Update signature in addition to the context. SICOs only include the context in its Update signature.

 
Update( 
       ctxt, 
       outport, 
       inport1, 
       inport2, 
       ... 
       )

Update( ctxt )

Context available

The UpdateContext object is available for runtime operators. SICOs take the OperatorContext object instead.

• UpdateContext

• OperatorContext

Autodesk Softimage v7.5