Polygonizer Property Editor

Generates a mesh that surrounds one or more point clouds and other objects.

To apply: See Meshing Point Clouds (and Other Things) [Polygon Modeling].

To redisplay: Select the generated mesh, click Selection on the Select panel, and then click the Polygonizer icon in the construction stack.

Mute	Temporarily freezes the mesh so that it does not get regenerated.
Refresh	Updates the mesh when it is muted.

Main

Surface

Isolevel

The density value at which you want to generate the mesh. Higher values wrap more tightly around the inputs.

Detail

Controls the size of the polygons that are generated. If this value too small then the mesh will miss detail and will not follow the isosurface well. However, values that are too high can produce very dense meshes.

Under the hood, this setting controls the size of the voxels used in the marching cubes algorithm.

Blur Isofield

Blurring the isofield produces a smoother mesh. Alternatively or in addition to using these options, you can use the Fill Isofield Valleys options on the Advanced tab, as well as smooth the mesh after it is generated using Smooth Mesh - Strength below.

Strength	The amount of blur applied to the isofield on each iteration. A value of 0 results in no blurring.
Iterations	The number of times to blur the isofield.

Smooth Mesh

Applies a simple Laplacian smoothing to the resulting mesh.

Strength

The amount of smoothing.

Inputs

Add	Adds the currently selected objects as inputs for the generated mesh. You can add point clouds, curves, nulls, and polygon meshes.
Remove	Removes the selected objects from the inputs for the generated mesh.

Connected Objects

Select All

Selects all inputs for the generated mesh.

Caching

Action

Controls how the generated mesh is cached:

No Caching: The mesh is always generated from its inputs.
Simulate and Write: The mesh is generated from its inputs, and the geometry is cached to disk. Existing cache files are overwritten.
Read Only: Always read the geometry from the cache files and never re-generates the mesh from its inputs. If no cache files are found for the current frame, an error is logged.
Read or Simulate: Reads the cache files if available for the current frame, otherwise regenerates the mesh from its inputs.
Read or Simulate and Write: Reads the cache files if available for the current frame, otherwise regenerates the mesh from its inputs and caches the geometry to disk.

Range/Extrapolation

Use Range	Uses the specified Start Frame and End Frame for caching instead of the scene's timeline. If this option is on: Simulate and Write always simulates but saves the geometry to disk only for the specified frame range. Read or Simulate behaves like Read Only, that is, the mesh is neither generated nor saved to disk. Read or Simulate and Write also behaves like Read Only.
Copy from Timeline	Copies the start and end frames from the scene's timeline to the parameters below.
Start Frame	The start of the range of frames to use for caching, inclusive.
End Frame	The end of the range of frames to use for caching, inclusive.
Extrapolation	Controls the behavior outside of the specified range of frames.

File Input/Output

<path>	The directory in which to store the cache files. You can use some of the tokens, such as [Project Path] and [Scene], described in Tokens and Templates [Data Management].
File Name	The name to use for the cache files. Again, you can use some of the tokens. Note that frame numbers are appended automatically.
File Format	The format to use for the cache files: Proprietary, binary (.emp2) is a compact format that supports point velocity and vertex colors. Wavefront (.obj) is an ASCII format that is understood by many 3D applications.
Delete Cached Files	Deletes the cache files.

Frame Offsets

Frame Offset (Read Only)

The frame offset to use when reading cache files.

Advanced

Memory Limit

Use Memory Limit	Sets a memory limit that prevents the creation of huge meshes by mistake, for example, if you accidentally use settings that would consume too much memory and cause a crash.
Memory Limit (MB)	The memory limit to use.

Motion Vectors

Calculate 3D Motion Vectors

Calculates the motion vectors for rendering with motion blur, based on the point velocities of the nearest particles used to build the mesh.

Scale

A multiplier for the calculated motion vectors.

Scale When Reading Cache Files

Applies the scale factor to the motion vectors when reading from the cache files. This allows you to easily adjust the amount of motion blur without re-simulating or re-building the mesh.

For example, you can leave Scale at 1 when writing the cache files, and then activate this option and adjust scale when reading.

Geometry Cleanup

Filter Points

Simplifies the resulting mesh by merging points based on distance. Values are relative to Detail. A value of 0.0 yields disconnected polygons.

Isofield Cleanup/Correction

Fill Isofield Valleys (by Isolevel)	Reduces holes and indentations in the mesh by increasing isofield values in a cell when its isofield value is less than Isolevel and neighboring cells' values are higher.
Fill Isofield Valleys (by Cell)	Reduces holes and indentations in the mesh by increasing isofield values in a cell when all its neighboring cells' values are higher.
Fill Isofield Valleys (Iterations)	The number of times to repeat filling isofield valleys. Higher values produce smoother results with fewer and smaller holes and indentations.
Recycle Isofield (0=Off)	Keeps a portion of the previously calculated isofield each time it updates. This allows you to create drop-shapes or trails behind moving inputs. The values specifies the proportion of the isofield to keep, between 0.0 and 1.0. For best results, animate the value so that it is 0.0 at frame 1 (so that the effect starts from scratch) and the value that you want at frame 2 and later. Note that the isofield may get reset automatically when you change certain other settings, like Detail.

Bounding Box

Consider Blur Iterations (recommended)

Enlarges the bounding box used to create the mesh in order to take into account the spread of the isofield caused by blurring.

Manual Bounding Box

Use Bounding Box Defined by 2 Points	Allows you to specify a bounding box explicitly. Activate this option if the mesh generated with the automatic bounding box appears clipped, and then use the numeric options below to specify two points that define the bounding box.
bb.p1.x, bb.p1.y, bb.p1.z, bb.p2.x, bb.p2.y, bb.p2.z	The global X, Y, and Z coordinates of the two points p1 and p2 that define the diagonal of the user-specified bounding box.

Miscellaneous

Re-Connect Weight Maps of Input Polygon Meshes

Use this button to force parameters that are driven by weight maps on polygon meshes (e.g., Isofactor, Radius, and Falloff) to refresh, for example if they don't update properly after painting on the weight maps.