Or how to mimic the Houdini copy SOP using a custom c++ operator and ICE.
Since ICE, Softimage users can easily build some procedural copy system using particles to set the transformation on each object copy.
But those copies are ICE instances. We can’t really modify their geometry based on the copy ID. As they are instances we can’t do some “get data” on their PointPosition for example. And it is not so usable as a modeling tool to quickly create structures with repetitions as there is not easy ways to edit the UVs on the resulting object.
This custom operator/ICE tree is an attempt to find a solution. It gives the possibility to duplicate a polymesh and to modify geometry components of each copies using ICE. As ICE can’t deal with generator operators, we can only control PointPosition, UVs, Weight Maps and any custom attributes with this tool. The polygons generation is done below the ICEtree in a custom operator. This way, it keeps the link between the source and the copies and it is very simple to get any properties (UV,s, CAV etc…) from the source on each copies.
Here is a video showing the setup to copy an element along one axis.
And an other one showing how to get a copy on each particles.
I hope it will give you some ideas on how to build such system in Softimage !
Cheers !
Guillaume Laforge
