Custom Node Icons?

[rgkovach]

i've been digging through the maya docs, searching the forums, checking other maya sites, but i can't find any leads on how to author my own vector art to use as icons for a custom node in the hypergraph.

any leads would be appreciated, thanks!

[hansesurfer]

you have to create a .fti file.
afaik the only way to do that is to use the fti exporter in the bonus tools. With that you can create a snapshot of your object in the viewport.

QUOTE
ftiExport: This commands generates FTI images for hyperShade icons.

The icon should be created in the front window from a single polygon mesh. Every edge on the mesh will
be a line in the final icon. Coloring for the icon is taken from the color attribute of the shader on each face in the mesh.

Output Directory: The directory to write the image to.
File Name: The name of the image.
Extra Space: Amount of boder space to put around the image.

To use, Bonus Game->FTI Export.
Note: The easiest way to view the image is to give it the name of an existing icon, restart
Maya and then create the node associated with the icon.

if you have to much time you can create such a file manually, but thats no fun I guess

[joojaa]

QUOTE(hansesurfer @ 01/06/09, 07:12 PM) [snapback]298270[/snapback]
afaik the only way to do that is to use the fti exporter in the bonus tools.

Its not fti is a format used by sgi in the past theres a few (read a dozen or so) programs out there that can do things with it. Ive even found a svg to fti converter. Even the format istelf is quite well documented.

[hansesurfer]

...I cannot find any info.
so, please share your converter ressources

[joojaa]

the link in my library is dead. So id have to do deep google/web histry hunt. Not worth much time to do so. It probably takes me less time to make a converter than trying to find it.

[rgkovach]

thanks for the quick reply!
just one more question however....i do not see a FTI exporter for bonus tools 2008...
is this feature only in 2009?

nevermind, i found it under plugins.

[hansesurfer]

no, it has been in the bonus tools for a long time.
check in the bonus tools plugIn folder for "ftiExport.mll"

[dieselich]

Load up ftiExport.mll

FTI Export
This commands generates FTI images for hyperShade icons.

The icon should be created in the front window from a single polygon mesh. Every edge on the mesh will be a line in the final icon. Coloring for the icon is taken from the color attribute of the shader on each face in the mesh.

Output Directory: The directory to write the image to.
File Name: The name of the image.
Extra Space: Amount of boder space to put around the image.

CODE
Synopsis: ftiExport [flags] [String...]
Flags:
  -es -extraSpace  Float
   -o -output      String

[dieselich]

I've been wondering, is there a way to tie these new fti files to custom node types? So I can custom types with custom icons.

Thanks!

[joojaa]

Just name them the same way as you name the nodes and drop the files in the maya lookup path. Maya recognizes this.