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Overview
Groups are named collections of points or faces.
The Group surface node lets you sort points or faces in its input geometry into groups based on an various criteria. Other operators may also create groups as a side effect.
Most nodes that operate on points or primitives give you the option to apply the node’s effects only to one or more groups in the input stream, instead of every point/primitive. So, you can identify groups of points based on certain properties, and then only apply some nodes to those groups, and not other points.
When a point is deleted, Houdini automatically removes the point from all the point groups it belongs to.
Ordered and unordered groups
A point group can be ordered or unordered. Unordered groups store their points in creation order; ordered groups store points in selection order.
When you select points in the viewer pane, a single click performs an ordered selection, while a marquee box generates an unordered group. (The only time bulk selections generate or maintain an ordered selection is when only one point is caught in the marquee box.)
To... | Do this |
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Create a point or primitive group |
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Use existing groups when selecting points/primitives for a new group |
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Combine and filter groups
The controls on the Group node's Combine tab let you create a group that is a combination of existing groups.
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Create a Group node and connect the geometry containing the groups to it.
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In the parameter editor, click the Combine tab.
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Enter the name of the new group to create in the left-hand field on the first row.
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Enter the name of the group from which to take particles in the right-hand field (or click the box beside the equal sign so the exclamation point is visible if you want to start with particles not in the right-hand group).
Once you set up the top row, additional rows become available to further combine and/or filter the contents of the new group.
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For the additional rows, on the right-hand side, enter the name of another group of particles you want to combine with or filter from the new group.
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Use the menu on the left side to choose how to combine/filter the groups.
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Use the menu to choose how to combine this group with the new group.
Click the box beside the equal sign so the exclamation point is visible if you want to do the logical opposite of the operation in the menu.
Group syntax
Many geometry operators (SOPs) work on a specific subset of points or primitives. When you use the operator in the viewer, you select the points/primitives you want to use. In the parameter editor, this list of points/primitives is specified in the Group parameter using the following patterns.
You can use multiple patterns separated by spaces. The matches for each pattern are combined to form the group.
Pattern |
Meaning |
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In the Group SOP: all points/primitives. In other SOPs: every named group. |
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Component number n. |
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In SOPs other than the Group SOP, you can specify a named group of points/primitives (created with the Group SOP). You can use pattern matching ( |
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Components numbered from n to m (inclusive). |
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Components numbered from n to m (inclusive)
skipping every step. For example, |
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Components numbered from n to m (inclusive). Use the first keep numbers and then skip every step after that. |
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Every component except the ones matching the pattern.
For example, pattern may be a numeric pattern, attribute pattern, or group name pattern. |
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Remove components matching the pattern from the
results of the preceding pattern. For example, pattern may be a numeric pattern, attribute pattern, or group name pattern. |
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Components where attribute matches
value, based on the op, which can be one of
For example, You can specify components using As a convenience, you can also use (If you don’t specify a component for a multi-component attribute type, the comparison will use the first component.) For example, For string attributes you must put quotation marks around the
value if it contains spaces, for example
You can use wildcards ( You can combine the attribute syntax and the range syntax: @id=5-10 You can also use the attribute syntax with a space separated list of integer values, but you need to enclose the list in quotes: @id="5 8 10 15" You can use this to compare against intrinsic attributes as well: @intrinsic:indexorder<100 |
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Components with the given attribute containing one of the listed values. For example: @id=1,2,90,120 For string attributes, you must enclose values containing spaces in double quotes, for example: @path=/foo/*,/bar,"some string" |