Finding Particle-based System Elements
There are many pieces to a particle-based system, so to help you find them and see their relationships, you can use the explorer or the schematic view. As well, there are special commands to make it easy to open the property editors relating to each particle system element.
In the explorer, you can see the relationship of all the pieces in a particle system. This example shows the Particle simulator’s setup, but the same relationship concepts apply to the Fluid and Explosion simulators as well.
• The cloud is the root for all the particle pieces: the particles operator, clusters of particles, and references to the emitter and particle types used in the particle cloud’s simulation. The cloud node represents the cloud’s geometry (point cloud). The particles are points saved per particle type in the cloud’s Cluster folder. If you create more clusters of particles, they are saved here.
• ParticlesOp is the particle simulator operator (FluidOp is the fluid operator and ExplosionOp is the explosion operator). Click its icon to open the ParticlesOp property editor that also contains the associated Emission and Particle Type property editors.
• PEmitter is the particle emitter object (FluidEmitter is the fluid emitter and ExplosionEmitter is the explosion emitter). The Emission node and a referenced to the particle types it uses are found here.
Click its icon to open the Emission property editor, as well as the associated Particle Type property editor. The emission node is also connected under the ParticlesOp node.
• PType is the particle type, which defines the look of the particles. Click its icon to open the Particle Type property editor. The original particle types are saved in the scene in the Particle Type folder, but are referenced under the ParticlesOp and PEmitter’s nodes. They can be easily found under the ParticlesOp node in the Particle type list folder.
Events are also created per particle type, so you’ll find them wherever a particle type is listed.
• The Particle_Renderer shader is a child of the cloud’s Material nodes. This shader controls the output of all shaders used to render particles.
As well, you can define different shaders for each particle type to define their individual look. For example, the Billboard and Shape shaders are attached to the particle types for the Particle simulator by default. You can find these shaders under each Particle Type’s Renderer node.
The schematic view gives you an overlook of how all the particle system elements are related. As with the explorer, you can also open individual property editors by double-clicking each of their nodes.
You can view links between
• Clouds and their particle types
• Clouds and their emitting objects
• Particle types and their events
• Particle events and their obstacle objects (if collision is the event type).
To toggle the display of the particle type and event nodes
• Choose Show > Simulation.
To toggle the display of links with emitter and obstacle objects
• Choose Show > Simulation Links.
To refresh the schematic view
• Select the nodes you want to refresh and press F5.
• To refresh the Scene Root, select nothing and press F5.
Opening Particle-based Property Editors
There are many different ways to open property editors for particle elements.
• By clicking on specific element icons in the explorer.
• By double-clicking specific nodes in the schematic view.
• By selecting a particle element in the viewport and pressing Enter.
• By selecting a particle element and choosing Explore > Particles in the main command panel.
• To open only the ParticlesOp property editor, select the particle cloud and choose Modify > Particles > Edit Simulation.
• By selecting a particle cloud and choosing one of the Inspect menu buttons on the Simulate toolbar, as shown below.
This is one of the easiest and most direct ways to open just the right property editor. Clicking a button displays all the elements of that type available for the cloud, such as all particle types that are associated with the cloud’s emitters. When you select an element, its property editor is displayed.
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