The agent layout tool is your best companion for populating your scene. Your agent group must have one of the following modules applied to use this tool: pointsLayout, cacheReader or any other layout + agentFilter (for deleting agents) + offset (for offsetting agents).
When the tool is active you can access the tool attributes from the "Agent Layout Tool" widget or pressing the right mouse button inside the viewport.
Layout tool and Points layout module
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Please make sure to be on the first frame of your simulation when adding or editing agents. |
You have several modes for editing your agents: add, selection, move and rotate.
You can set their parameters through the GUI or via the menu (right click on the viewport).
Add mode
Left Click to add agents in the viewport.
Ctrl+Left click and drag to edit the direction for the agents.
Shift+Left click and drag to rotate the layout (grid and poisson)
There are different layout type for placing your agents: point, grid and poisson.
Both grid and poisson have some options you can tweak through the GUI.
In the ground mesh list, you can add reference meshes that the tool will use when placing your agents.
Make sure add the same ground mesh as an height field to your agent group, otherwise your agents will intersect with the ground.
In the Agent Types list, you can select the agent types you will be adding to your agent group. If the "Random" checkbox is ticked, Atoms will pick an agent from list randomly. In Houdini, it automatically randomly pick one of the agent type form the agent types field.
In Maya you can also provide a percentage distribution for your agents types with the given sliders. The percentage only works when the "Random" option is on.
Area placement (Maya Only). Use the left mouse button to draw the polygon point in the viewport and to close the polygon add a point on the same position of the first point. To move the polygon points use the middle mouse button. You can control all the parameters from the layout tool UI, click the "Create Agents" button when you are happy with the samples to create the agents.
Selection mode
Left click and drag to select agents with the marquee tool or middle click to use the lasso tool.
Shift+Left click and drag to add agents to the selection.
Ctrl+Left click and drag to toggle agents.
You can erase agents by pressing the "delete selected agents" button in the GUI or via menu.
You can also change their agent types by pressing the "Change Agent Type" button.
Used with a cacheReader module you can duplicate agents by pressing the "Duplicate Agents" button.
Move
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Use the manipulator to move the selected agents.
Rotate mode
Click and drag to rotate the selected agents on the up vector.
Shift+Left Click and drag to rotate the selected agents around their average point.
Layout tool and other layouts
You can still use the layout tool with other layouts (gridLayout, meshScatterLayout, etc):
- If you care about moving and rotating your agents, please add an "offset" module to your agent group.
- If you care about deleting agents, please add an "agentFilter" module to your agent group.
- you CAN NOT add new agents.
Then with your agent group selected, activate the tool from the Atoms menu: Atoms > Tools > Agents Layout Tool
Layout tool and cacheReader module
You can use the layout with the cache reader module:
- you can offset and rotate agents
- you can delete agents
- you can duplicate agents (you will find this option in select mode)
- you CANNOT create new agents
You can activate the tool from the Atoms menu: Atoms > Tools > Agents Layout Tool
