2021-05-25 Geometry Nodes sub-Module Meeting

Meetings
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Attending: Dalai Felinto, Fabian Schempp, Hans Goudey, Himanshi Kalra, Jacques Lucke, Pablo Vazquez, Simon Thommes.

Agenda

  • Planning for the week.
  • Getting to know the geometry nodes GSoC students.
  • Discuss curve nodes and design

Design Discussions

  • Discussion about curve sampling.
    • The compromise was basically: Make most scenarios possible via options but be strict with the defaults.
  • Does “Point Separate” on curves create a spline with 1 point, or create a point cloud?
    • Single point splines
    • Point cloud
  • D11265: Mesh to Curve Node
    • Node naming: “Curve to Mesh”? “Edges to Curve”?
      • “Curve to Mesh” is simplest and most consistent.
      • If we ever add a new way to convert meshes to curves we could add a mode or rename this node.
    • This brings up attribute copying topic again, similar to the point distribute node. Add it to the list of places to change when we do that.
  • Inputs in sidebar
    • #87009 - Compact Nodes - blender - Blender Projects
    • This supports a more granular hide/unhide of parameters.
      • Ctrl+H simply expose/hides all of them, using the same system.
    • Nodes should have at least some properties already exposed from the beginning.
      • Subdivision Surface starts with “Level”, but other options are hidden (use crease, boundary smooth, smooth uvs).
    • Context menu should not encourage blocking editing (e.g., not show all the advanced options in a popover).
    • Sidebar can be a full option to work with all the options in a node
      • Don’t gray out parameters only because they are exposed in the node.
      • Linked sockets should be grayed out/invisible though.
    • Where to allow users to change socket type is unclear.
      • It can be in the context menu, in the context, in the side menu.
    • Design challenges:
      • Clear definition of what should be exposed/hidden by default.
        • The solution is in a case-by-case, but we need an overall design guideline.
      • How to show that some parameters are hidden.
      • How to change the socket types.
      • How to expose/hide parameters.
  • Selection workflow discussion.
    • Good nodes that can showcase the solutions:
      • Cylinder
        • Output: top_face, bottom_face, side_faces.
      • Triangulate
        • Input: selection.
        • Output: new_edges, new_faces, new_vertex.
      • Edge Split
        • Input: selection.
        • Output: new_edges.
      • Point Separate
        • Input: selection.
      • Geometry Delete
        • Input: selection.
    • Follow up:
      • Use cases for procedural modeling (and more nodes).
      • Talk with Erindale to see if he can come up with a nice procedural modeling asset, and which nodes he would need.
  • Switch node “condition/switch” name
    • Since the contributor is taking too long Hans will tackle it.
  • Index per domain
    • Give access to index in attribute processor.

Next planning meeting: 2021-05-31 at 14:00 CEST on geometry-nodes on blender.chat.

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