SjPdcImport, sjPdcExport

This plugin allows to import and export pdc sequences with custom attributes to and from Softimage.

For information about how to manage the pdc files in maya, see Mark's video.

To install it, just copy the dll/so file for your os and the js file to your favourite Application/Plugin folder.

Importing: select File->Import->SjPdcImport. A pdc browser window pops up. Just select an existing pdc file, and set the Step. Step is the divider of the pdc padding number to get the Softimage frame. For instance, is the pdc files are names xxx.250.pdc, xxx.500.pdc, etc., set Step to 250 to have them mapped to frames 1,2,etc.

After accepting, an ice tree is creating looking like this one

By default, a series of attributes are read from the file and made available into the tree. If you open the SjPdcSetData, under the SjPdcImportOperator tab you can access further attributes, change the pdc path etc. In the pdc, you can have any sort of float, long, integer and vector attributes. For instance, the color is written there as a vector for rgb and a scalar for opacity. So, we combine back the rgb and the opacity through a rgba2Color node.
Say for instance you have an attribute called orientation in the pdc and you want to use it in the ice tree. To do so, just set the Vector 2 string parameter to orientation, and from now on the SjPdcSetData Vector2 output is your orientation vector. So you can import any attribute, as long as you know his name and type.

A similar mechanism applies for exporting .

First, select the icetree you want to export (not the pointcloud), then select File->Export->SjPdcExport

Your ice tree is modified as shown below. Note that the Set Particle Position is not connected, you have to do it by hand to have the sequence written.

Set the output pdc path (a file ending with .#.pdc) and the multiplying Step factor (see above). Connect the last node to the execution stack and play the animation. Whatever you connect to the input slots of SjPdcExport is exported, named according to the corresponding string parameter. Again, say you have a per-particle orientation vector node in the ice tree you want to export in the pdc, named orientation. Connect the node to one of the vector slots (say Vector2) and set orientation as the string for Vector 2.
You then should be able to retrieve it as a maya attribute.
If an input node is constant, it is exported as a single attribute, instead than as a per-particle one.

In this example, I export a emFluid cloud to maya, with all the basic attributes