Patch Formula examples?

[evatucek]

hi!
Where I can find simple patchFormula ex?
Is it easy to make 3d-vizualisation of a math-defined surface?
(I have math knowledge, at least 4 that)

[devdoka]

In the manuals, of course.

Matt

---

Matt Lind
Animator / Technical Director
Softimage certified instructor:
Softimage|3D
Softimage|XSI
speye_21@hotmail.com

[mike-heintzman]

-Cmon mat - we all like you here dude - but what the hell was that?

• Non smokers die every day.

[vanhitchcock]

There is one example in the manuals:

PatchFormula

u = U-5
v = V-5
X = u
Y = (u*u+v*v)/10
Z = v

This system makes a nice parabolic dish shape. Notice that lower-case variables u and v are distinct from the upper-case U and V (u and v should be declared in User Variables).

In reply to:
-Cmon mat - we all like you here dude - but what the hell was that?- Non smokers die every day.

[devdoka]

@@ -Cmon mat - we all like you here dude - but what the hell was that?- Non smokers die every day.

Whattya mean "what was that"? RTFM once in a while. <8^|

BTW - the name's "Matt", not "mat".

Matt

---

Matt Lind
Animator / Technical Director
Softimage certified instructor:
Softimage|3D
Softimage|XSI
speye_21@hotmail.com

[mike-heintzman]

matt - picture someone laughing as they said "what the hell was that" - the only time i reach for the fukking manuels is when i run out of cigarette papers!!!!!!!!

i meant the poor guy obviously doesn't have the manuals - or is running a cracked version - either way i think he's entitled to some help.

honestly :- )

• Non smokers die every day.

[devdoka]

@@matt - picture someone laughing as they said "what the hell was that" - the only time i reach for the fukking manuels is when i run out of cigarette papers!!!!!!!!

This is what separates the real animators from the wannabe's - discipline. That is, putting effort into looking for a solution rather than waiting for it to be handed to you. When you refuse to look in the manuals, you're making the statement that you're not going to try. I don't know about you, but I refuse to work with people who don't give their best effort all the time.

@@i meant the poor guy obviously doesn't have the manuals - or is running a cracked version - either way i think he's entitled to some help

Softimage|3D ships with two versions of the manuals - printed and electronic. If you don't have the printed, then should certainly have the electronic form as their on the same discs as the software. If you don't have electronic manuals, you're definitely using pirated software.

My position is and always will be that crack users do NOT deserve help. I paid for my license as have most other users, why should we dish out free help to those competing with us for the same work when they don't have the overhead? It only undercuts the bottom line and is a dis-service to all.

Regardless of what you may or may not know - whenever a question arises related to usage of software, the very first place you should look for answers is the manuals as that's the official word on how things are supposed to work. If that doesn't answer your question, THEN you ask around. It's a good habit to practice, makes you more independent, and saves the patience of your co-workers.

Matt

---

Matt LInd
Animator / Technical Director
Softimage certified instructor:
Softimage|3D
Softimage|XSI
speye_21@hotmail.com

[vanhitchcock]

Kind of makes me feel guilty about posting the example! While I agree with your 'RTFM' attitude Matt, the reason I decided to post the example is because if you only have the electronic version of the manual, it is actually quite difficult to find it.

If you look in the index for PatchFormula Custom Effect you get to the description of the effect but no example. It states in the description 'There is an example of PatchFormula's use in Appendix C'. This is fine if you have the printed doc (as I do) but in the electronic version there is no 'Appendix C' listed in the index. The example is actually found under 'Reference/Softimage Custom Effects Formulae/Forumla Custom Effects'. While I agree that the poster of the original question could probably have found this himself after some searching, it is not immediately obvious. Remember also that the version of 3D that ships with XSI does not come with any printed documentation. I had to purchase my printed doc seperately.

Anyway, I'm not trying to get in an argument, just wanted to point that out

Cheers,

Dave

In reply to:
@@matt - picture someone laughing as they said "what the hell was that" - the only time i reach for the fukking manuels is when i run out of cigarette papers!!!!!!!!

This is what separates the real animators from the wannabe's - discipline. That is, putting effort into looking for a solution rather than waiting for it to be handed to you. When you refuse to look in the manuals, you're making the statement that you're not going to try. I don't know about you, but I refuse to work with people who don't give their best effort all the time.

@@i meant the poor guy obviously doesn't have the manuals - or is running a cracked version - either way i think he's entitled to some help

Softimage|3D ships with two versions of the manuals - printed and electronic. If you don't have the printed, then should certainly have the electronic form as their on the same discs as the software. If you don't have electronic manuals, you're definitely using pirated software.

My position is and always will be that crack users do NOT deserve help. I paid for my license as have most other users, why should we dish out free help to those competing with us for the same work when they don't have the overhead? It only undercuts the bottom line and is a dis-service to all.

Regardless of what you may or may not know - whenever a question arises related to usage of software, the very first place you should look for answers is the manuals as that's the official word on how things are supposed to work. If that doesn't answer your question, THEN you ask around. It's a good habit to practice, makes you more independent, and saves the patience of your co-workers.

Matt

-------------------
Matt LInd
Animator / Technical Director
Softimage certified instructor:
Softimage|3D
Softimage|XSI
speye_21@hotmail.com

[devdoka]

I agree that the examples for the PatchFormula aren't the best, but it's also a very old tool that rarely gets touched (was originally a Minerva plugin). It's been a few years since I've looked that the docs for that tool, but I do remember it's cousins CVformula and Animated__formula also have examples using similar syntax. This is where the user has to put some effort in.

As for the electronic docs, the first thing I do after installing the latest version of the software is to dump the PDF's into a shared folder on a networked machine so all can see. On the desktop go a number of icons/shortcuts:

• SI3D (my own custom bat files for setting environment variables)
• SI Shell (ditto - but for command line stuff and access to my own scripts 'bin' directory)
• SI docs (link to PDF documentation)
• LicTools FlexLM (license managment)
• Dial (for plugin GUI development)

Doing it this is much easier than using the start menu or the CD's which can be cumbersome. It also allows me to uninstall/reinstall SI3D without worrying about having to setup all my links and bat files all over again (assuming the links and custom bat files are on a separate partition). The electronic docs come with a pretty good search utility so you don't have to manually page through the documents even if you have to find Appendix C.

Matt

---

Matt Lind
Animator / Technical Director
Softimage certified instructor:
Softimage|3D
Softimage|XSI
speye_21@hotmail.com

[vanhitchcock]

Agreed, but searching on 'Appendix C' gives no results. I forgot to mention that in my earlier posting Anyway, I think the real reason I posted it was because, having got very quick and helpful responses to my questions in the past (i'm a fairly new user of Softimage|3D myself), I saw an opportunity to help someone else. But you're right, in most cases the electronic doc (and it's search engine) is usually all that is needed to find what you're looking for.

Cheers,

Dave

In reply to:
I agree that the examples for the PatchFormula aren't the best, but it's also a very old tool that rarely gets touched (was originally a Minerva plugin). It's been a few years since I've looked that the docs for that tool, but I do remember it's cousins CVformula and Animated__formula also have examples using similar syntax. This is where the user has to put some effort in.

As for the electronic docs, the first thing I do after installing the latest version of the software is to dump the PDF's into a shared folder on a networked machine so all can see. On the desktop go a number of icons/shortcuts:

- SI3D (my own custom bat files for setting environment variables)
- SI Shell (ditto - but for command line stuff and access to my own scripts 'bin' directory)
- SI docs (link to PDF documentation)
- LicTools FlexLM (license managment)
- Dial (for plugin GUI development)

Doing it this is much easier than using the start menu or the CD's which can be cumbersome. It also allows me to uninstall/reinstall SI3D without worrying about having to setup all my links and bat files all over again (assuming the links and custom bat files are on a separate partition). The electronic docs come with a pretty good search utility so you don't have to manually page through the documents even if you have to find Appendix C.

Matt

---------------------
Matt Lind
Animator / Technical Director
Softimage certified instructor:
Softimage|3D
Softimage|XSI
speye_21@hotmail.com

[evatucek]

10x a lot, Dave!

sorry, friends, I didnt want to begin a new war with my question, but i really didnt found "appendix c" in my electronic manual.
peace