Publishing attributes

Now that the fire truck is encapsulated, you can publish attributes from the individual pieces to make them available at the asset level.

A published attribute on an asset is bound to an attribute of the object inside. When a user changes the published attribute’s value, the value of the corresponding internal attribute is changed as well. You can choose to publish all or only a subset of the available internal attributes, allowing you to limit how much access a user has to the encapsulated object.

The published attributes of an asset are often referred to as the asset’s interface, and is useful because it allows you access to every important control for your asset in a single place.

To publish the right cab door

In the Outliner, expand Fire_truck_AST by clicking next to it’s name.
Expand Doors_GRP.
Select Cab_door_f_r_GRP and open the Channel Box by clicking .
In the Channel Box, under the Cab_door_f_r_GRP heading, select the label Door Open.
+ -click the label and select Publish to Asset > from the marking-menu.

The Publish Attribute Options window appears.
In the Publish Attribute Options window, select Edit > Reset Settings.
In the Attribute name section, select Custom name and then type Front_Right_Door in the Custom string field.
The name Front Right Door represents the published name for this attribute and represents the door’s rotation in the fire truck asset’s interface.
Click Apply.
The Front Right Door attribute now appears in the Fire_truck_AST section of the Channel Box.

Now, in the Attribute Editor or Channel Box you can input values into the Front Right Door field to open and close the door. Notice that as you change the value, the value of door_open under Cab_door_f_r_GRP changes to match. This is because your published name (Front_Right_door) is bound to the Rotate Y attribute of Cab_door_f_r_GRP. When one changes, both are updated.

Repeat steps 3 - 7 to publish the following:

Node Name	Published name
Cab_door_f_l_GRP	Front_Left_Door
Cab_door_r_r_GRP	Rear_Right_Door
Cab_door_r_l_GRP	Rear_Left_Door

Select Edit > Reset Settings.
Click Close.

Note

The Door Open attribute for each door is a custom attribute that controls the Y rotation of each door. Although you could publish the rotate Y attribute of each door directly, these custom attributes are provided so that each door opens as the value increases from 0 to 1. Without these attributes, some doors would open as their rotation increases and others would open as their rotation decreases.

You will learn how to create a custom attribute in the next section.