General constraint node attributes

The node behavior attributes include Caching and Node State.

Pivots

Selections for displaying the point constraint’s local rotate and scale pivots in local or world space.

Limit Information

For Maya internal use only: attributes inherited from transform node.

Display

Selections for selection handle display attributes, including handle display, local axis display, selection handle position (relative to current Translate X, Y, and Z attribute values), default manipulator display selections, visibility, and template. Bounding Box Information and Drawing Overrides not applicable.

Node Behavior

Caching

Specifies that Maya store the results of input evaluations, and then provide those results to the node. This saves Maya from having to re-evaluate the input nodes every time the node needs the results. If there are no changes to the input nodes, then this setting can improve display performance with no loss of results. However, note that caching uses more memory than would otherwise be used, which could adversely affect performance. Also, if there are changes to input nodes, more memory is allocated and then freed, which could also adversely affect display performance.

Node State

Set Node State to Normal, HasNoEffect, Blocking, Waiting-Normal, Waiting-HasNoEffect, or Waiting-Blocking. (Note that for constraints the Node State attribute is available as a channel in the Channel Box.)

Normal

Specifies that Maya evaluate and display the constraint. Maya will evaluate the node as usual. This is the default.

HasNoEffect

Specifies that Maya prevent the constraint, but display the object. Maya will evaluate the nodes in the node’s history, but not the node itself.

Blocking

Specifies that Maya prevent the constraint, and not display the object. Maya will not report the results of any evaluations of input nodes to this node.

Waiting-Normal

(For Maya internal use only.) Specifies that if the dependency graph evaluation refresh performance setting (Window > Settings/Preferences > Performance Settings) is set to Demand or Release, the node will take the Normal state when you click Update or release the mouse button.

Waiting-HasNoEffect

(For Maya internal use only.) Specifies that if the dependency graph evaluation refresh performance setting is set to Demand or Release, the node will take the HasNoEffect state when you click Update or release the mouse button.

Waiting-Blocking

(For Maya internal use only.) Specifies that if the dependency graph evaluation refresh performance setting is set to Demand or Release, the node will take the Blocking state when you click Update or release the mouse button.

Extra Attributes

If a constraint includes multiple target objects, additional attributes for each object can appear in the Extra Attributes section of the Attribute Editor, or below the other constraint attributes in the Channel Box.

The most common extra attribute is a weight value for each target object. These weight attributes display with the following naming convention: <objectname> W <n>.

For example, the weight attributes for two polygon spheres can appear as P Sphere 1W0 and P Sphere 2W1. The initial value for these weights is set in the constraint creation options.

The Point on Poly constraint also includes extra attributes for the UV coordinates of each constrained object. These UV attributes display with the following naming convention: <objectName> U <n> and <objectName> V <n>. These attributes let you define where each target object is constrained to the mesh. See Edit point on poly constraint attributes.