mesh

Go to: Related nodes. Attributes.

Manage the grouping : components group.

Manage the tweak, used for moving points (translate, rotate, scale), the tweak attributes can be animated.

Manage all display options (normal, center, border, edge style, ...).

Manage partial attributes used for ascii I/O : aPoints aVertex aEdges aUvpoints aFaces.

Manage the tessellation's criterions for the polygonal's displacement : aUseMaxEdgeLength aUseMinEdgeLength aUseMaxSubd aUseMaxUv aUseMinScreen aUseNumTriangles aNumTriangles aMaxEdgeLength aMinEdgeLength aMaxSubd aMaxUvaMinScreen.

Related nodes

polyCreator, polyCreateFace, polyPrimitive, polyTorus, polyPlane, polyCube, polyCone, polySphere, polyCylinder, polyUnite, polyBoolOp, polyBlindData

Attributes (131)

Attribute quick index omitted (too many attributes to show them all).

Long name (short name)	Type	Default	Flags
allowTopologyMod (atm)	bool	true
Allow commands to modify the surface topology
backfaceCulling (bck)	enum	0
Controls explicit backculling.
borderWidth (bw)	double	2.0
Controls explicit border width .
boundaryRule (bnr)	enum	1
Controls how boundary edges and vertices are creased. By default, creases are automatically applied to all boundary edges and all vertices that have only 2 incident edges prior to converted to a smooth mesh. Users can control this behavior by modifying this enum. The options are 0 - use the original legacy algorithm which did not automatically crease boundary edges and vertices. 1 - default setting, apply creasing 2 - apply creasing to edges only
cachedInMesh (ci)	mesh	NULL
Internal cached input mesh used only for file I/O. This attribute is for internal use and should never be directly manipulated by the user. If it is modified the results will be unpredictable.
cachedSmoothMesh (cs)	mesh	NULL
The cached smoothed mesh, that holds all the meshes from different levels of subdivision
colorPerVertex (cpvx)	compound	n/a
Attribute to specify the color of a vertex, either on the entire vertex or on a per face basis.
vertexColor (vclr) compound n/a A compound attribute that corresponds to the color of the vertex. The attribute is a multi with the index of the multi identifying the vertex that the color applies to. vertexColorRGB (vrgb) float3 Vertex color. RGB channels. vertexColorR (vxcr) float 0 Vertex color - R channel. vertexColorG (vxcg) float 0 Vertex color - G channel. vertexColorB (vxcb) float 0 Vertex color - B channel. vertexAlpha (vxal) float 1 Vertex color - Alpha channel. vertexFaceColor (vfcl) compound n/a A compound attribute that corresponds to the color of the vertex attached to a particular face. It is a multi attribute and the index of the multi identifies the face that the color applies to. The index of the parent attribute (aVertexColor) already identifies the vertex that color is being attached to. vertexFaceColorRGB (frgb) float3 RGB channel of Color of a vertex attached to a particular face. vertexFaceColorR (vfcr) float 0 R channel of Color of a vertex attached to a particular face. vertexFaceColorG (vfcg) float 0 G channel of Color of a vertex attached to a particular face. vertexFaceColorB (vfcb) float 0 B channel of Color of a vertex attached to a particular face. vertexFaceAlpha (vfal) float 1 Alpha channel of Color of a vertex attached to a particular face.
colors (clr)	compound	n/a
Special Attribute to specify the color - For file I/O only.
colorR (clrr) float 0.0 Special Attribute to specify color - Red channel - For file I/O only.
colorG (clrg) float 0.0 Special Attribute to specify color - Green channel - For file I/O only.
colorB (clrb) float 0.0 Special Attribute to specify color - Blue channel - For file I/O only.
colorA (clra) float 0.0 Special Attribute to specify color - Alpha channel - For file I/O only.
continuity (co)	float	1
The smoothness parameter. Range is [0,1]. Default value of 1 smooths the faces as much as possible. Value of 0 subdivides faces only.
creaseData (cd)	polyComponent	NULL
Polygon Edge Crease Data
creaseVertexData (cvd)	polyComponent	NULL
Polygon Vertex Crease Data
displayBorders (db)	bool	false
Controls explicit edge border display.
displayCenter (dc)	bool	false
Controls explicit face center display.
displayEdges (de)	enum	0
Controls explicit edge style display.
displayFacesWithGroupId (dfgi)	integer	-2
Overrides which faces are drawn on the UV Texture Editor. Has no effect on the 3d modeling view
displayInvisibleFaces (difs)	bool	false
Controls explicit hole face display.
displayNormal (dn)	bool	false
Controls explicit normal display.
displayItemNumbers (din)	integer	0
Controls explicit item numbers display.
dispResolution (dr)	enum	0
Controls resolution at which surface is displayed
displayTangent (dtn)	bool	false
Controls explicit tangents display.
displayTriangles (dt)	bool	false
Controls explicit face triangles display.
displayUVs (duv)	bool	false
Controls explicit uvs display.
displayVertices (dv)	bool	false
Controls explicit vertices display.
displayNonPlanar (dnp)	bool	false
Controls explicit warped (non-planar) faces display
displayAlphaAsGreyScale (dags)	bool	false
Display alpha as grey scale If color set only contains alpha.
displaySmoothMesh (dsm)	enum	0
Display mode for the smooth mesh
displaySubdComps (dsc)	bool	false
Controls if the subdivided components should be displayed or not.
edgeIdMap (emap)	bool	false
Should the API watch for the edge ID modification?
edge (ed)	long3
Polygon Edges.
edg1 (e1) integer 0 Polygon first point of edge.
edg2 (e2) integer 0 Polygon second point of edge.
edgh (eh) integer 0 Polygon the hard or smooth information of edge.
faceIdMap (fmap)	bool	false
Should the API watch for the face ID modification?
face (fc)	polyFaces	NULL
Polygon Faces.
holeFaceData (hfd)	polyComponent	NULL
Polygon Face Hole Data
inForceNodeUVUpdate (ifuv)	bool	false
Dirty this attribute to trigger a UV update to the shape.
inMesh (i)	mesh	NULL
The input (creation) mesh.
keepBorder (kb)	bool	false
If true: border edges will not be smoothed.
keepHardEdge (khe)	bool	false
If true: hard edges will not be smoothed.
keepMapBorders (kmb)	enum	1
Treatment of UV map borders 0 - all map border edges will be smoothed 1 - map borders that are also geometry borders will be smoothed 2 - no map borders will be smoothed
materialBlend (matb)	enum	0
Determines how to blend any stored color per vertex values with the current material, when in color display mode when blending is enabled. The default is to overwrite the material color.
maxEdgeLength (mxe)	float	0.1
Specifies the maximum length of a triangle edge for the tessellation.
maxSubd (mxs)	integer	5
Specifies the maximum subdivision level for the tessellation.
maxTriangles (tsl)	integer	60000
Maximum numbers of triangles generated from an initial triangle.
maxUv (xuv)	float	0.5
Specifies the maximum UV rectangle size in parametric space for the tessellation.
minEdgeLength (mne)	float	0.01
Specifies the minimum length of a triangle edge for the tessellation.
minScreen (mns)	float	14
Specifies the maximum screen size (in pixels) a triangle can be for tessellation.
motionVectorColorSet (mvcs)	string	NULL
This is a string which identifies a color set to use for motion blur vectors. Normally motion blur vectors are computed by evaluating the mesh at different points in time then taking the difference of the positions. However for meshes that change topology over time this method will not work. Some nodes, such as the nParticle node, can create a color set that contains the motion vectors which are computed at the same time the mesh is constructed. The particle velocities are used to generate the list of motion vectors rather than the difference of meshes. If the motionVectorColorSet is not specified then the default method of generating motion blur from multiple mesh evaluations will be used.
normalPerVertex (npvx)	compound	n/a
Attribute to specify the normal of a vertex, either on the entire vertex or on a per face basis.
vertexNormal (vn) compound n/a A compound attribute that corresponds to the normal of the vertex. It is a multi attribute with the index of the multi identifying the vertex that the normal value applies to. vertexNormalXYZ (nxyz) float3 Vertex normal - XYZ values. vertexNormalX (vxnx) float 1e20 Vertex normal x value vertexNormalY (vxny) float 1e20 Vertex normal y value vertexNormalZ (vxnz) float 1e20 Vertex normal z value vertexFaceNormal (vfnl) compound n/a A compound attribute that represents the normal of the vertex attached to a particular face. It is a multi attribute and the index of the multi identifies the face that the normal applies to. The index of the parent attribute (aVertexNormal) already identifies the vertex that normal value applies to. vertexFaceNormalXYZ (fnxy) float3 VertexFace normal - XYZ. vertexFaceNormalX (vfnx) float 1e20 Vertex face normal x value vertexFaceNormalY (vfny) float 1e20 Vertex face normal y value vertexFaceNormalZ (vfnz) float 1e20 Vertex face normal z value
normalSize (ns)	double	0.4
Controls explicit normal size.
normalType (ndt)	enum	0
Controls explicit normal type.
normals (n)	float3
Special Attribute for file i/o of user specified normals. Gets written if there are any user specified normals on the object. If the default value which is 1e+20 is written out, then it means that system defined normal values are used.
normalx (nx) float 1e20 Special Attribute for file i/o of user specified normals - value in x.
normaly (ny) float 1e20 Special Attribute for file i/o of user specified normals - value in y.
normalz (nz) float 1e20 Special Attribute for file i/o of user specified normals - value in z.
numTriangles (nt)	integer	100
Specifies the maximum number of triangles for the entire tessellation.
outForceNodeUVUpdate (ofuv)	bool	false
Output attribute that will force a compute to update the shape UVs when dirtied.
outGeometryClean (ogc)	Message	n/a
Tells if aOutMesh is only dirty due to tweak change.
outMesh (o)	mesh	NULL
The output (local space) mesh.
outSmoothMesh (os)	mesh	NULL
The smoothed output (local space) mesh.
perInstanceIndex (pii)	integer	-1
When the mesh has per-instance data, this attribute can be used to determine the unique tag value for a given dagPath. The array index of this attribute corresponds to the dagPath instance number.
perInstanceTag (pit)	integer	-1
When the mesh has per-instance data, this attribute is used in conjunction with the perInstanceIndex to maintain a unique per-instance tag for a given dagPath.
pinData (pd)	polyComponent	NULL
Polygon UV Pin Data
pnts (pt)	float3
This attribute is the array of vertex tweaks (relative movements). The attribute values are always significant regardless of whether the object has history or not.
pntx (px) distance (float) 0.0cm Vertex position tweak in x.
pnty (py) distance (float) 0.0cm Vertex position tweak in y.
pntz (pz) distance (float) 0.0cm Vertex position tweak in z.
propagateEdgeHardness (peh)	bool	false
If true: The smooth mesh preview edges which are a result of edges from the base cage will share the same hardness value.
quadSplit (qsp)	enum	2
This determines how quads (four sided faces) are split into two triangles. If "Left" is selected then the new edge will be between vertex 1 and 3, while "Right" splits between vertex 2 and 4. "Best Shape" attempts to pick the best split based on the shape of the quad. Note that this can cause flickering during animation of a deforming surface due to the split switching between the two modes. If one wishes to have best shape on a deforming surface then selecting reuse triangles will lock the triangulation so that the tessellation is constant across the animation.
renderSmoothLevel (rsl)	short	2
The level of smoothing to perform when rendering the mesh.
reuseTriangles (rtri)	bool	false
Should the triangles be reused. If set to ON, the triangulation that existed before the tweaking, or deformation will be re-used. Setting this to true helps interactive tweaking and deforming of objects. This setting helps objects with N-sided faces. This setting is meant for display modes that require triangles, as in the case of shaded mode display, or when the displayTriangles attribute is turned on. Note that the displayed triangles may not be accurate, since the pre-deformed, pre-tweaked triangles are re-used.
smoothLevel (lev)	short	2
The level of smoothing to perform on the mesh.
smoothMeshSelectionMode (ssm)	enum	0
When in the Smooth Mesh Preview display mode where you can see both the base cage as well as the smooth preview, this will set which components you want to select from.
smoothOffset (so)	float3
The offset that will be added to the smoothed mesh. By default, no offset will be added. Leaving this to default will improve performance.
sofx (sx) float 0 Offset in x.
sofy (sy) float 0 Offset in y.
sofz (sz) float 0 Offset in z.
smoothUVs (suv)	bool	true
If true: UVs as well as geometry will be smoothed
smoothWarn (sw)	bool	true
Check for reasonable face count before smoothing.
tangentNormalThreshold (tnt)	angle (double)	0.0deg
Angle below which normals are considered equal when calculating tangent space. A value of 0 ensures that all hard edges create tangents space seams. Increase this value to remove undesired tangent space seams caused by hard edges.
tangentSmoothingAngle (tsa)	angle (double)	0.0deg
Angle below which tangents will be smoothed. A value of 0 ensures that all UV seams (both UV borders and mirrored edges) create tangents space seams. Increase this value to remove undesired tangent space seams caused by UV borders or UV mirroring.
tangentSpace (tgsp)	enum	0
"Right Handed" tangent spaces are calculated so that the normal, the tangent, and the binormal always form a right handed coordinate system. In cases where the UV winding order has been reversed (either manually or as part of a mirroring workflow) this will cause the binormal components of normal and bump maps to be inverted (matching the behaviour of shaders which manually calculate the binormal from the tangent and normal). This is the default behaviour for pre-8.0 files. "Detect Winding Right Handed" tangent spaces calculate binormal values in a right handed coordinate system taking into account the UV winding order of the face. This ensures the binormal aligns with the V direction of the texture, and so enables the correct display of normal and bump maps on faces with reverse wound or mirrored UV mappings. This is the default value newly created meshes. "Left Handed" tangent spaces are calculated so that the normal, the tangent, and the binormal always form a left handed coordinate system. In cases where the UV winding order has been reversed (either manually or as part of a mirroring workflow) this will cause the binormal components of normal and bump maps to be inverted (matching the behaviour of shaders which manually calculate the binormal from the tangent and normal). "Detect Winding Left Handed" tangent spaces calculate binormal values in a left handed coordinate system taking into account the UV winding order of the face. This ensures the binormal aligns with the -V direction of the texture, and so enables the correct display of left handed normal maps on faces with reverse wound or mirrored UV mappings.
uvSize (usz)	double	4.0
Controls explicit UV display size.
uvTweakLocation (uvtl)	generic typed data	NULL
While there is an input connection to this attribute, uv tweaks on this shape are placed on the node connected to this attribute rather than in the standard uv tweak (aUVPoints) attribute.
useMaxEdgeLength (uxe)	bool	false
Specifies if the decision to continue tessellation should be based on the maximum triangle edge length value.
useMaxSubdivisions (uxs)	bool	false
Specifies if the decision to continue tessellation should be based on the maximum subdivision level value.
useMaxUV (uxu)	bool	false
Specifies if the decision to continue tessellation should be based on the maximum UV quad size value.
useMinEdgeLength (uie)	bool	false
Specifies if the decision to continue tessellation should be based on the minimum triangle edge length value.
useMinScreen (uns)	bool	true
Specifies if the decision to continue tessellation should be based on the minimum triangle screen size.
useNumTriangles (unp)	bool	false
Specifies if the decision to continue tessellation should be based on the number of triangles to produce.
useSmoothPreviewForRender (uspr)	bool	true
If true: use the preview smooth level for rendering. smooth render level
userTrg (utrg)	string	NULL
The name of the user defined face triangulation function. By defualt, it is an empty string, which means Maya face triangulation will be used. Users can override the default triangulation by setting this attribute to the name of their own function registered with Maya through the API.
uvpt (uv)	float2
Polygon uvPoints.
uvpx (ux) float 0.0 Polygon uvPointX.
uvpy (uy) float 0.0 Polygon uvPointY.
vertexBackfaceCulling (vbc)	bool	true
Controls explicit vertices backculling.
vrts (vt)	float3
This is an internal attribute representing local space vertex position, used for file I/O. It should never be directly manipulated by the user. If it is modified, the results will be unpredictable.
vrtx (vx) float 0.0 Vertex position in x.
vrty (vy) float 0.0 Vertex position in y.
vrtz (vz) float 0.0 Vertex position in z.
vertexColorSource (vcs)	enum	0
Display mode for the color of vertices
vertexIdMap (vmap)	bool	false
Should the API watch for the vertex ID modification?
vertexNormalMethod (vnm)	enum	3
This determines how vertex normals are calculated. In all cases, the vertex normals are calculated by combining the face normals of the adjacent faces. "Unweighted" simply averages the normals of the adjacent faces. "Angle Weighted" uses a weighted sum, using the angle subtended by the edges of the face that meet at the vertex. "Area Weighted" similarly uses a weighted sum, using the areas of the adjacent faces. "Angle And Area Weighted" (the default) uses both angle and area, as defined above, in the weighted sum.
vertexSize (vs)	double	3.0
Controls explicit vertex display size.
worldMesh (w)	mesh	NULL
The world space meshes.