Runtime vs. Self-Installed Custom Operators

Although Self-Installed Custom Operators (SICOs) are the preferred way to implement custom operators in Softimage, legacy operators continue to be supported and you can also build operators on-the-fly, which are known as runtime operators.

Runtime operators are embedded directly within the scene. They are similar in implementation from SICOs but differ in a few key ways:

Area	Description	Runtime	SICO
Applying operators	To apply runtime operators, use either one of the AddScriptedOp methods or the AddScriptedOp command. For SICOs, you use the AddCustomOp versions.	AddScriptedOp Parameter.AddScriptedOp or Parameter::AddScriptedOp ProjectItem.AddScriptedOp or ProjectItem::AddScriptedOp	AddCustomOp Parameter.AddCustomOp or Parameter::AddCustomOp ProjectItem.AddCustomOp or ProjectItem::AddCustomOp
Update signature	Runtime operators include all output and input ports in the Update signature in addition to the context. SICOs only include the context in its Update signature.	Update( ctxt, outport, inport1, inport2, ... )	Update( ctxt )
Context available	The UpdateContext object is available for runtime operators. SICOs take the OperatorContext object instead.	UpdateContext or UpdateContext	OperatorContext or OperatorContext