RW - Right-Click Menu Nodes
A RealWave node has its own right-click menu to perform some basic operations and add modifiers.
Entries without Submenus
Rename
A click on this entry makes the node's name editable and you will be able to enter a new name. Please note that a name must not contain any special characters ($, &, ö, å etc.) and has to be unique. When a node is in renaming mode, a different right-click menu is shown (see below).
Remove
With this function you can remove a node from the scene. Alternatively it can be deleted with the Del key.
Open Curves
Sometimes, a node carries more than one animation curve, for example when you have created animations with the “Transformation Key” button in the “Animation Control” section of the GUI. When you click on this entry, the “Curve Editor” will be opened listing all of the node's animation curves.
Group
In many cases it is necessary to group nodes to keep the “Relationship Editor” or “Nodes” panel clear or to bundle nodes of the same type. Simply select the desired nodes, right-click on one of them and choose “Group”. Of course, the group can be renamed with another right-click on the group node. Nested groups can be created with several clicks on “Group”.
Expand/Collapse
The RealWave container can be expanded and collapsed with these entires. Both entries are also available for particles meshes, but located under the "Tree" submenu.
Tree
This submenu can be seen as a filter. You can choose which node types you want to show in the “Nodes” window. Please bear in mind that the viewports and the “Relationship Editor” are not affected. It is also possible to show/hide all elements or expand/collapse all existing groups.
Copy name
For renaming tasks, a node's name can be copied to the clipboard and transferred to another one. The copied name or part of the name can only be used a prefix or suffix, because each name has to be unique.
"Add Wave" Submenu
The associated menu contains a list of all available wave types, also called modifiers. When you choose one of them, a new node will be attached to the RealWave mesh container – similar to RealFlow's mesh nodes. The modifier's properties and parameters can be edited when you select the desired wave type in the “Nodes” window. As always, the settings appear under “Node Params”.
"Simulation" Submenu
Active
This and the following two icons influence the node selection's "Simulation" parameter in the "Node Params" "Node" panel. This is the first button and activates the node selection.
Cache
This button sets the node selection to "Cache" mode. When a node is in cache mode, RealFlow reads the previously simulated and stored data from disk and displays them in the viewport. The distinctive feature is that cached elements can still influence fluid, objects and RealWave nodes which are not cached, but they cannot be influenced themselves. Cached elements are very often used with RealFlow's grid fluid technology (“Hybrido”), because there the common workflow is subdivided into passes and each new simulation requires the cached data from the previous calculation cycle.
Inactive
This button sets the node selection to "Inactive". From this moment, the node no longer contributes to the simulation.
"Visibility" Submenu
Visible/Hidden
Change a node's or node group's visibility.
Set Selected Render with Maxwell Render
Each node can be made visible to Maxwell Render individually with this button. Please bear in mind that the “Set Selected Visible” and “Set Selected Invisible” settings have no influence on whether a node is rendered or not. If you want to consider the node's viewport visibility, please change its state to “Same as viewport” in the “Renderable” option of the “Maxwell” panel. For a large amount of nodes we recommend using the "Layers" tool.
Set Selected Hidden from Maxwell Render
This is the counterpart to the option above is used to hide a node from the Maxwell Render engine.
"Shading" Submenu
RealFlow provides four different shading modes and you can toggle between them easily.
"Export" Submenu
The entries of this submenu provide a very fast and convenient method to manage a node's export resources. It also gives you an overview of which resources are currently enabled or disabled. This compilation is dynamically created and different for each node, because it depends on the available file formats. In the image below you can see the export resources of a SPH particle emitter.
Enable data export
With this function, all standard export resources will be activated
Disable data export
When this option is used, none of the available data resource will be enabled. Please bear in mind that this will also disable playback and rendering, because RealFlow does not write any cache files.
Reload data
When you choose this option, only the cache data for the currently selected node will be updated.
Export now
You can write a cache file at the current frame with this menu entry. Before the node's resources are exported you are asked for confirmation, because with this option you might overwrite important simulation data by accident.
Available Export Formats
This menu is different for each node and dynamically created. Active resources are checked. Instead of using “Export Central”, the node's export formats can be changed here as well.
"Tree" Submenu
Expand All / Collapse All
If you want to display/hide the entries of a group you can use these entires.
Show All / Hide all
Both functions are used to manage the visibility of all entries in the "Nodes" window.
Show ...
You can hide or show a complete node class by unchecking/checking the appropriate entry.