A diagnostics compound for visualizing and analyzing point geometry and per-point properties.

Outputs an array of objects representing geometry that can be output to visualize most data connected to point geometry and per-point properties.

The core function of this compound extracts any point geometry passed to the point_geo port and displays it, using diagnostic coloring, vector display of vector properties and more. The compound will work on anything with points in it, such as point clouds, particles, meshes (where the vertices are points), strands and curves (where the CVs are points), etc.

There are four parameter sections that allows the user to configure the analysis: "Point Shape", "Color", "Arrows", and "Culling". Each parameter section will be explained below:

The point_geo port accepts the actual point geometry being analyzed.

Point Shape Section

This parameter section controls the shape and size of the point display.

• The Shape parameter controls which shape the points will be visualized as.
• The Default Size parameter controls the size of each visualized point.

Color Section

This parameter section controls how each point is colored.

• The Color parameter defines the default color of the points.

• The Coloring Mode parameter determines which rules are used to color the points. It is an ENUM with the following options:

  • "Color" - This mode simply uses whatever the Color parameter is set to
  • "ColoredProperty" - This mode colors the points by multiplying the Coloring Property with the Color parameter. If the Coloring Property is a scalar, then this option becomes a uniform scaling of Color. Negative values are not clamped or modified. If the Coloring Property is a vector, per-component multiplication with Color is performed; e.g. the x-component scales red, the y-component scales blue, and so on.
  • "ColoredPropertyInvertNeg" - This mode is identical to "ColoredProperty" with the following caveats: If the Coloring Property is a scalar value, and it is negative, the resulting color will be the result of scaling 1-Color by the absolute value of the Coloring Property. Also note that vector-valued properties will be converted to scalars by taking their magnitude.
  • "ColoredPropertyMagnitude" - This option takes the magnitude of the Coloring Property and uses that to scale the Color. If the Coloring Property is already a scalar, then the absolute value is used.
  • "Property" - This mode simply colors the points by directly mapping the contents of Coloring Property to RGB. If the Coloring Property is not a vector, then a greyscale mapping is done.
  • "NormalVector" - This mode uses the data mapped to RGB, but the vectors are normalized and remapped to a 0-1 range.
  • "Heatmap" - This mode takes the magnitude of the Coloring Property and uses three fcurves to map the result into R, G and B.
  • "Palette" - This mode is designed for integer and bool properties. It uses the Coloring Property to map into a fixed palette of colors.

• The Coloring Property parameter allows control over which per-point property you want to drive the point coloring (see options above).

• The Heatmap R - parameter drives the red component when using the "Heatmap" coloring mode (see above)

• The Heatmap G - parameter drives the green component when using the "Heatmap" coloring mode (see above)

• The Heatmap B - parameter drives the blue component when using the "Heatmap" coloring mode (see above)

Arrows Section

This parameter section provides controls for displaying per-point properties as arrows.

• The Enable Arrows parameter toggles the arrow display on/off
• The Arrow Property parameter allows control over which per-point property is used to drive the arrow display. Vector properties will naturally be mapped to arrows, whereas scalar properties will be expanded into an arrow pointing in the (+X, +Y, +Z) direction, where each component of the vector is the scalar value. 2d vectors simply map to (x,y,0) arrows and for 4d vectors, the w-component is dropped.
• The Normalize Arrow parameter, as its name implies, normalizes the arrow regardless of the magnitude of the Arrow Property value.
• The Length Scale parameter scales the length of the arrow, and is applied post-normalization (if the Normalize Arrow parameter is checked).

Culling Section

The parameters in this section control the point culling function. You can cull away points based on scalar property values or using external geometry.

• The Cull By Scalar Property toggle turns culling on/off
• The Cull Property controls which per-point property will be used to cull by property. Vector properties will be turned into scalars by taking their magnitude.
• The Keep Min Value defines the lower bound of non-culled/displayed points. The value refers to the per-point value found in the Cull Property.
• The Keep Max Value defines the upper bound of non-culled/displayed points. The value refers to the per-point value found in the Cull Property.
• The Invert Range inverts the set of points being culled vs displayed
• The Bounds Geo allows an external geometry mesh to define a spatial culling region. Spatial culling is complementary to the culling by property.