Main Menu - Edit

Owned by
thomas (Unlicensed)
Last updated: 23 Apr, 2014
6 min read

This menu provides functions for your work with RealFlow nodes.

 

Remove the selected node(s) from the scene. The shortcut is the Del key.

This action can be repeated to go back several steps, but can also allocate a lot of memory, especially when you undo/redo emitter-based actions with large particle amounts. If the “Undo” option needs too much memory, you should consider freeing it up with the “Clear Undo Stack” function from the "Tools" menu.

Redo the previous action.

Switches to "Move" mode. When this mode is active, the selected node shows a cross with arrowheads.

Switches to "Rotation" mode. In "Rotation" mode, the active node shows surrounding circle-shaped handles for adjusting the desired transformation quickly by dragging the mouse.

Switches to scale mode and adds cubic handles to the node. By dragging them you can easily adjust an object’s size with the mouse.

This feature can only be used with polygon objects and sets all transformations (position, rotation, scale, shear etc.) to 0 without moving the node back to its original position. In other words: with this function it is possible to set/reset the origin of an object. With “Freeze transformation”, the object itself is neither moved, scaled or rotated and remains exactly at its position, but RealFlow will only set/reset the transformation matrix to 0. An example:

Create a basic rigid body dynamics scene with a plane, acting as a floor, and a falling object, e.g. a “Torus” node. Move the torus to an arbitrary position, scale and rotate it. Then, simulate and stop the simulation a few frames after the collision with the ground node. In the “Torus” object's “Node” panel under “Node Params” you can see different values for “Position”, “Rotation” and “Scale”. Now, choose “Freeze Transformations” and look at the “Nodes” panel again: all values have been reset to 0.0, while the object did not change its position or rotation. When you reset the scene, the “Torus” node remains exactly at its last position.

“Freeze Transformations” works with imported objects, but there the transformations will not be kept or stored with the object in the project or cache files. This is only the case with RealFlow's native, built-in objects.

This function can be seen as a fast method to set all object transformations back to their initial values. No matter which transformation you might have performed: “Reset Transformations” restores the original position, rotation, scale and – if available – shear values and you do not have to write down or memorize these values.

A clone object is a copy of the current object which gets its default values from the original. This function exclusively works with standard emitters, daemons and objects. Imported objects from SD files cannot be cloned, too.

In several cases it is required to select polygons or vertices from an objects, for example for emitting particles. Normally, RealFlow does not differentiate whether the polygons are visible to the user or not. With this option enabled, you can only select polygons which are really visible to you and hidden faces will not be considered.

 

 

This entry provides several submenus containing all kinds of RealFlow nodes. For faster access, the nodes are grouped and can be added directly to scene. 

When this option is active, new nodes will always be attached to the "Hub" node in the “Relationship Editor” that has been created with the first node of your scene.

Here you can apply a local coordinate system to new nodes.

 

 

With these tools you can easily copy and transfer different transformation data from one node to another. You need two nodes for this operation – the order of selection determines, which item will be the source object. You can either copy and transfer data individually for “Position”, “Rotation”, “Scale” or “Shear”. The selection does not require nodes of the same type! Please keep in mind that the use of Ctrl/Cmd + C and Ctrl/Cmd + V is not always supported in RealFlow. To check whether these commands are available or not, right-click on a node, a value or a text. If a menu with these commands appears you can use copy/paste, e.g. in the "Messages" window.

The mode of operation is exactly the same as above, but all changes will be performed at once.

 

 

This function depends on the order of selection and requires two nodes. The first object is used as reference. “Nearest side” will bring the two nodes as close as possible together.

This tool also depends on the order of selection and requires two nodes. It stretches the target object until it touches the reference node.


 

Instead of selecting and keying the appropriate parameter under Node Params > Node, you can also use one of these entries. It automatically writes keys for the item’s X, Y and Z values. “Rotation Key” works exactly like “Position Key”, but is responsible for recording rotation values. The workflow with “Scale Key” is the same as with “Position Key”.

If you want to write animation keys for position, rotation and scale, then you do not have to do this for each attribute. Choose “Transformation Key” to add keys for all parameters.

 

 

An active object can contribute to a scene without limitation and its simulation data will be cached to disk.

Cached objects have already been simulated and the data exists in form of different files, for example BIN files for particles or SD files for body dynamics. When a node is in cache mode it can be used in a simulation and influence other objects, but its own data will not be changed, because it has been written from the already saved (=cached) data.

Inactive objects do not contribute to a simulation.

You can activate the default resources with a single click here.

This entry deactivates the default export resources of the current node selection. When an object's export resources have been disabled, RealFlow will not write any simulation data to your hard disk. This means that it will not be possible to replay the simulation or create a preview. If you want to store the data anyway, it is necessary to re-simulate.

 

 

These commands help you to change a node selection's visibility and shading modes with a single click. You can show and hide nodes in the viewport with “Set Selected Visible” (shortcut: Ctrl/Cmd + H) and “Set Selected Hidden” (shortcut Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + H) and you do not have to use the corresponding “Display” parameter anymore.

With these commands you can include or exclude each node individually from a preview with the Maxwell Render engine.

A bounding box is just a box-shaped representation of a node's maximum dimensions. You will not see any particles, vertices, polygons or other structures.

In wireframe mode, all polygonal objects are displayed as a transparent grid.

In flat shaded mode you can see the individual polygons of an object – the surface looks jagged.

With RealFlow's smooth shaded option, objects are evenly lit and the shapes appear smooth without visible polygons. Fluids are always represented as particles, except in bounding box mode.