Export Geometry Nodes scatter as an instancer via Alembic or USD?

[bvz2000]

I have a scatter created using Distribute points on faces and instance on points. It creates a scatter with over 30,000 instances. I need to get this into Maya, but Maya keeps locking up trying to process that many outliner objects. Is it possible to export this as a point instancer in USD or Alembic format so that Maya can open it up as such?

[AlphaChannel (Dr Salty Lout)]

Something like this should do it?

Hope that helps.

[AlphaChannel (Dr Salty Lout)]

Actually It seems that both exporters dont export any attributes.

I can only test by re-importing to blender as meshlab doesn’t handle usd or alembic. So I dont even know if they are being written or the importers are ignoring the data.

Maybe it will work with maya?

[bvz2000]

Thanks! I am going to give this a go shortly. I will report back as to whether it works. My fear is that the attributes will be stripped on export. But I will find out shortly.

[AlphaChannel (Dr Salty Lout)]

It should in theory export these!

[bvz2000]

I tested a basic version and it does not appear to export it as a point instancer. The problem is that geometry nodes create (wait for it ) geometry.

To see if I could use vertices instead (and attach attributes like you suggested) I tried attaching attributes to points and to vertices without much luck.

Opening up the USDA file in a text editor shows that it did not attach the custom attributes. Same with alembic (though I just used abcecho to list the properties, so that may be less reliable). I am unable to open either in Maya and get anything other than an empty shape node. Re-importing to Blender also comes up with all custom properties seemingly stripped from the geometry.

I may try playing with this a bit more later in the day (maybe fbx stores custom attributes?). Thanks for your help so far.

[AlphaChannel (Dr Salty Lout)]

I think this is a bug.

I dont think blender is exporting any attributes, custom or vertex with alembic.

I know I have imported a coronavirus .abc before and it came through with protien attributes color etc.

Might be worth a bug report as it not a plugin, its part of blender afaiks.

edit>>

https://developer.blender.org/T50725

[AlphaChannel (Dr Salty Lout)]

I may have a workaround with python and attributes though.

[bvz2000]

Thanks!

Would you be able to post your python code? I am comfortable in the language and might be able to adapt it.

[AlphaChannel (Dr Salty Lout)]

How do I Export an Object's Vertex Positions?

This is because you’ve chosen vertex as your requested data type… if you want a different type you need to state that by changing your data type when you create your mesh attribute. Note: You can also click on the arrow icon below the plus & minus attribute icons to convert existing attributes to other data types. [image] If you choose a different data type, type Vector for instance you’ll need to change d.value to d.vector.

Somewhere in here.

If you reply to me, try to use @AlphaChannel , then I get a notification.

I only stumbled on yr reply today for other reasons