Convert Instancer to Geometry #2
Type: Maya Python Script (py) Name: ark_instToGeo Version: 2.0 Released: 2016.12.17 Download (Save as...)
Updated my old utility that converts instancer into geometry – it’s much faster and stable now, works with all rotation types (rotation and aim), has progress bars and prints final statistics into script editor.
Usage:
- put ark_instToGeo.py into any Maya scripts folder (get the list with “getenv PYTHONPATH;” MEL-command);
- execute python-command:
- select instancer(s) and press Convert button to make conversion (static channels will be deleted and euler filter applied to the result).
from ark_instToGeo import *; ark_instToGeo()Options:
Conversion Type:
- Duplicate – objects will be created as independent duplicates;
- Hybrid – objects will be created as duplicates, but with their shape driven by the original object (outMesh->inMesh connection, can be broken manually to make the duplicate independent from the original object);
- Instance – objects will be created as instances (slower than other methods);
Start from Current Frame – if enabled, no matter what playback range is set to and whether custom range is enabled or not, conversion will start from the current frame;
Playback/Custom Range – in the first case conversion framerange will be taken from playback range, in the second one – you can enter custom start/end frames;
Convert – runs the conversion;
Help – link to this page.
Posted on December 18, 2016 at 17:22 by · Permalink
In: FX · Tagged with: ark_instToGeo, instancer, maya, particles, python, sag_instancerToGeometry, script, tool, utility
In: FX · Tagged with: ark_instToGeo, instancer, maya, particles, python, sag_instancerToGeometry, script, tool, utility
on 9 January 2017 at 2:08
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Hi! Thank you very much for your utility. But it does seem to work only with the first (the 0) item on the instancer’ list. Is this limitation normal, by design, it’s a bug, it’s me?
Here’s the example file that does this (maya 2016 sp2):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rbpq3oeybrzuj5h/instancer_example.mb?dl=0
on 9 January 2017 at 14:41
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Hi. You’re using ‘cycle’ option to randomize objects – I’ve never used it this way and haven’t accounted for that, so, yep, that’s a limitation and I will add it in the next version. But you can always use the ‘usual’ method – set ‘cycle’ to ‘none’ in instancer, create per-particle attribute with random number and plug it into ‘Object Index’. Check this scene: http://www.sigillarium.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/FILES/instToGeo_example01.zip
on 9 January 2017 at 14:51
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Thank you very much for your great, fast answer and suggestion!
on 10 January 2017 at 17:44
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Awesome! Thanks 🙂
Might help if it was possible to stop the conversion with ESC
on 13 January 2017 at 1:56
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Yep, I’m looking into that 🙂
on 9 May 2017 at 6:04
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Hello Ark! just a quick question, does this works with maya 2017? Im trying to use it and my viewport freeze when I click on convert
on 12 May 2017 at 13:17
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Hi Daniel. It works in 2017. In this version I’ve disabled viewport update, since it’s much-much faster this way – you should see progress bars moving though, that means everything is working. If not – send me your scene and I’ll check what is going on.
on 15 May 2017 at 1:47
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Hi Ark, I created a lot of meshes using the duplicate option and it works great but all the objects are hidden within its own group, is this working correctly?…I mean, do I have to unhide them all manuallly?
Whats the purpose of the groups and the meshes to be hidden by default?
I´m using Maya 2017 Update 3.
Thank You very much 🙂
on 15 May 2017 at 1:51
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Don´t worry, I ungrouped everything, my fault…thank you so much for your good work 🙂
on 5 June 2017 at 14:11
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Arkady, thank you, works better than on the Sawa.
on 8 June 2017 at 14:49
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This script is amazing! Thank you!
on 13 June 2017 at 5:26
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thanks for this script, the script its so cool 😀
on 14 July 2017 at 8:12
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I can’tt convert instancer to geometry by using the rotate expression.
it said the problem is from line 397. (list index out of range)
Other thing else is fine.
Please help!
on 14 July 2017 at 13:50
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Rotation expressions should work. Please, drop me a simplified scene with this problem and I’ll take a look.
on 14 July 2017 at 18:28
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Getting an error on convert, is there something I am missing or need to try?
C:/Users/name/Documents/maya/2016/scripts\ark_instToGeo.py line 198: No object matches name: Dressing01ModelGeoPublish_v004:forest_2:rotation.instanceAttributeMapping #
on 14 July 2017 at 19:09
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Please, check if the sample scene works for you:
http://www.sigillarium.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/FILES/instToGeo_example01.zip
And email me your scene with the problem.
on 14 July 2017 at 20:25
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Ark, example scene works great!
Emailing scene in the next 10 mins.
on 14 July 2017 at 20:39
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Email sent, subject line
“No object matches name: Dressing01ModelGeoPublish_v004:forest_2:rotation.instanceAttributeMapping #”
on 27 July 2017 at 3:49
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this is awesome, just what I needed great script.
on 8 August 2017 at 5:08
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Hi Ark, Congrats for developing a wonderful script.
I created a lot of meshes using the instance option and it works great but all the objects are hidden within its own group. Do I have to unhide them all manuallly? Whats the purpose of the groups and the meshes to be hidden by default?
How to unhide all the meshes without manually unhiding one by one? Is there any possibility to do that. It’s urgent requirement for me.
Ungrouping all the meshes looses animation keys as keys are applied to group nodes. How to solve this?
Any help would be highly appreciated.
Thanks a lot for a great script.
on 8 August 2017 at 5:47
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Got the solution unhiding all the meshes in groups.
Used Select > Hierarchy option to select all the meshes inside the group nodes and visibility turned on for all the meshes in a single click.
Wonderful script & working great.
Thanks a lot again.
on 8 August 2017 at 10:23
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Hi Srinivas. Yes, the script just takes whatever settings you have on your original objects, including animations and so on. So, to make duplicates/instances visible, you need to have original objects visible.
on 18 August 2017 at 14:17
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Just used your script, worked a treat.
Thank you very much
Brilliant Stuff !!!
on 16 September 2017 at 7:28
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Started a conversion on a scene with about 500,000 particles instanced by a small 4 poly pyramid, set the range to be one frame – its been running for the past 2 hours – pretty fast system. Think that’s normal to take so long? I can’t see the status bar as I opened a window over Maya and if I try to bring Maya back to the front it never refreshes the window to see if its processing.
on 16 September 2017 at 9:01
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The problem is in the task you’re trying to accomplish – 500,000 separate objects in maya scene is a heavy thing, 4-poly or even empty groups. Instances are even slower. I haven’t done more than 100,000 (duplicates), it took about 10min to convert. Working with such a scene was very problematic though. So, try smaller particle count and duplicates mode, if it’s fast enough for you, switch to instances (if you need them, of course), then increase particle count.
on 17 November 2017 at 14:34
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It would be great if the script duplicate the objects with their input graph.
on 19 November 2017 at 21:26
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If you want to change the history of the original object and have those changes affect the duplicates – use ‘hybrid’ mode. If you want each duplicate to have it’s own copy of the history – that seems like a very special case to me, I’ll send you a modified script to email that works like this.
on 8 December 2017 at 16:05
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It is working perfectly! Thank a lot!
on 11 April 2018 at 12:59
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i have a bee animation instanced onto particle and used object index expression to cycle through objects, so it looks like animated,
But when i try and bake it, maya freezes, Any solution.
on 11 April 2018 at 16:12
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Instead of cycling different meshes with index, plug the animated/rigged geometry into instancer (if you absolutely need to use separate meshes – use them as blendshape targets for a single final geometry – and plug this single final geometry into the instancer). This way my tool will work nicely and you will have a proper motion blur as well.
on 30 April 2018 at 7:40
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You are a life saver. Thanks!
on 17 October 2018 at 9:09
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god bless you sir
on 13 January 2019 at 20:10
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thanks a lot
on 22 March 2019 at 21:15
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This doesn’t seem to work with nParticles. Is there a line of code that can be changed or is it a whole re-work? Thanks!
on 23 March 2019 at 18:15
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hi. many thanks for making this available. does it work on a Mac Maya 2019 as I run the script and nothing happens bo ho. really need to convert my instances to mesh !!!
on 23 March 2019 at 20:29
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It should work fine with nParticles, but it has a ton of additional options that can be not supported – check what you use for instancer channels mapping (position, scale, rotation, etc.), you’re probably using it’s built-in ramp or something like that – disable it or recreate with custom per-particle attribute instead.
on 23 March 2019 at 20:32
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I don’t have mac and can’t check it. Works fine in 2019 Win though – have you tried the example scene?
on 26 September 2019 at 9:22
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Thanks, man, this works and helped a lot.
on 24 October 2019 at 13:59
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Hello again ArkGenius!
So I looked through your documentation and found the geo shapes to be instanced had to live at the origin. I moved the geo and your script worked perfectly!
Thanks again for your great work!
on 27 March 2020 at 3:21
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# Error: IndexError: file line 407: list index out of range
on 14 April 2020 at 16:08
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What a great script! This should be implemented in Maya. I was looking for this kind of solution for days.
Keep it up.
Congrets for the great work.
on 14 April 2020 at 16:28
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It’s hard to tell without looking at your scene… Something unexpected in the way you use your particles/objects. Try example scene, try default particle system to see what exactly is different in yours.
on 25 August 2020 at 10:15
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Thank you so much! Works great in Maya 2016 (High Sierra).
Kind regards,
– ER
on 26 August 2022 at 1:07
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Worked like a charm, saved one of my projects
Great work, thanks!!
on 29 December 2022 at 18:16
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Hello, I’m trying to install the script in Maya 2022, I’m doing everything as instructed and I’m getting this error:
# Error: ModuleNotFoundError: file line 1: No module named ‘ark_instToGeo’
What is the problem? I am completely zero in scripts and do not understand what I’m doing wrong. I will be glad to feedback.
on 1 October 2023 at 21:42
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When I tried to run the python script I got this error message:
# Error: Missing parentheses in call to ‘print’. Did you mean print(…)?
on 2 October 2023 at 7:45
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Latest Maya (2024, at least) has switched to another version of Python that has some new strict rules… My tool needs an update. I’ll try to make it soon, but for now you can try to use it in older Maya (2020) and import the results to your latest scene.
on 2 October 2023 at 7:56
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You’re putting the script into wrong folder, so, Maya doesn’t see it. You need to put it in your default ‘scripts’ folder in your user preferences.