AttributeDisplay Property Editor
 
 
 

Allows you to display attributes in the 3D views. This includes intrinsic attributes like area, volume, and point positions, as well as attributes controlled by ICE trees.

On an object

To apply: See Displaying Attribute Values [Viewing and Playback].

To re-display: Click the AttributeDisplay icon under an object in an explorer.

In an ICE tree

To apply: Right-click on a connection and choose Show Values.

To re-display: Right-click on a connection and choose Show Values Properties.

Name

The name of the property. If you have multiple AttributeDisplay properties, you can give them meaningful names to help distinguish them in explorer views.

Attribute

Show Values

Toggles the display of attribute values on and off for this property. This allows you to hide values without removing the property.

Attribute

Select the attribute to display. The attributes that are available to display depend on the object and the data it has.

Type

Shows the data type (scalar, vector, Boolean, etc.) and context (per object, per point, etc.) of the selected Attribute. These values are for information only and cannot be changed.

General

Display As

Select the format to display. The formats that are available depend on the data type. For example, you can display some data types such as 3D vectors representing [X, Y, Z] data in a variety of ways.

It's important to remember that Softimage does not understand what the data means. It's up to you to determine what format makes the most sense for a particular attribute. For example:

  • If a 3D vector represents a position, you can choose Points or Nulls. If you want to clearly see the association between a component and its data value, for example, between a point and its goal or previous position, you can choose Point Trails.

  • If a 3D vector represents direction and length such as normal vectors or velocity, you can choose Vector Trails, Vectors, or Vectors + Length. The difference betweeen Vector Trails and Vectors is whether the tip or the base of the vector is drawn at an element's location.

  • If you need to see the exact values of a 3D vector, you can choose Numeric.

In addition, if a 3D vector, matrix, or rotation represents a value in global coordinates, you can activate Use Global Coordinates for Display below.

Scale Factor

Scales the attribute display by the specified factor. This option works only with some display formats (Points, Nulls, Vectors, etc.) and not others (Numeric, etc.).

Display %

Displays only the specified percentage of attribute values. This can be useful for uncluttering the display on dense geometry.

Label

Enter a label to be displayed at the location of each attribute value's owner.

When attributes are displayed as numeric, this label appears in front of the attribute values. Add a final space to prevent the label from running in to the values.

On point clouds, the character # is replaced by the particle ID if it exists, otherwise by the index. On other geometry types, # is replaced by the component index.

[Position Selector]

Select the position of the label with respect to the attribute value's owner: Above, Below, Left, or Right.

Offset

Set the horizontal and vertical offsets of the label from the attribute value owner. This is useful if you have multiple attributes displayed and you want to read all the labels.

Range

Use Range

Displays attribute values for only the specified range of components. This can be useful, for example, if you are debugging the behavior of specific particles.

Note that this uses the component index, not the point ID.

Range

The start and end indices of the desired range.

Step

The increment between components in the range to display. For example, a Step of 2 displays attributes for every other component.

Use Array Range

Allows you to display the specified range of an array. This option appears only when Attribute is set to an array data type.

Array Range

Specifies the minimum and the maximum entries of the array range to display.

Color

Use Custom Color

Display the attribute value and label in the color set below. If this option is off and there is a Color attribute on the components, the attribute value is used instead.

Color

Specifies the color for displaying the attribute and label.

Type

Shows the data type (scalar, vector, Boolean, etc.) and context (per object, per point, etc.) of the selected Attribute. These values are for information only and cannot be changed.

Use Global Coordinates for Display

Interprets displayed values in terms of global coordinates instead of local coordinates. This option affects only certain data types (3D vectors, matrices, rotations, etc.) and display types (points, nulls, etc.).

For example, you can use this option if a 3D vector represents a global position rather than a local position.

Note that if Display As is set to Numeric, then the raw data values are always displayed. No conversion between coordinate systems is performed.

Show Values for Tagged Components Only

Shows values only for selected points, edges, polygons, etc.

Skip Default Values During Display

Omits the display of attributes with default values: zero for most data types, false for Booleans, identity for matrices, black for color, etc.

Show Values computed at Current Frame Only

Shows only the values calculated for the current frame. This option is available only when showing values on connections in the ICE tree.

Draw Values on Top of Shaded Objects

Prevents the attribute display from being occluded by objects in non-wireframe viewing modes.