ARCHIMATIX PRO Node-based Parametric Modeling for Unity [Unity Awards Finalist]

Sorry you missed the sale, @TITAN_MIK, but hope to see you as an AXer soon! Thanks for the nice comment!

 

WOW can't believed I missed this . Never seen this before. I looked at the store nearly every day.. Anyways I'm a 3D modeler, for over 10-15 years as I use MAYA, Modo. etc.. I will keep my eye on this, and pick this up during a sale in the near future.

Very nice work Roryo, impressive work. Love to add this to my work flow, I can see this being very useful for buildings, and runtime.

Can the model be exported out to a program like Modo ,Maya as a FBX ?? Incase we want to edit further.. and possible not be able to get 100% what you want?

Modo has procedural modeling . wondering if it works like Modo.

 

Thanks, @recon0303! Hope to see you in AX soon!

 

Any way to make gothic like this?

 

Now you are speaking my language, @LightenFor, since I work with Gothic structure in my academic research! I would like to create a library item for this, since groin vaulting is generally useful. For now you can create this by doing a PlanSweep of the GothicArcOpen shape around the pier plan. To do a canopy like this, the plan would only have two lines, a corner, to make a quadrant. Then the quadrant can be PairRepeated and then that PairRepeated, then into a GridRepeater to make a hall.


Reusing the same GothicArcOpen as a plan in a PlanSeep with the Quatrefoil as the Section, the RadialRepeating that and adding to the Group gives transfers arches:

 

@ippdev - Techinically Runtime AX works... there is just no documentation, and node parameters are not accessible from the root AXModel object, you have to know your way around things to make it work.

@roryo - While it is great to see new ideas talked about, and collaborations worked on, and new features and such. I was wondering what the status of the 102 Bugs that have been found in AX that are documented on the trello site. https://trello.com/b/ndENgNHC/archimatix. I see a lot of fanciful talk in ideas and improvements... not so much on broken things.

 

You've called that a "slider" several times…. and everytime I went and looked for it and said to myself there is no "slider" there just a number, it must be an upcoming feature.

*currently click+dragging every square millimeter of the AX interface looking for Easter eggs*

 

If you click on the label, next to the number field, and drag, it is a slider . This is true of most the number fields in Unity.

 

Yeah, I'm kicking myself for receiving the info loud and clear, then looking at it and deciding it meant something else….

 

Hi guys, Is it possible to make as on this video but with the vertical cylinder? I do not manage to merge a horizontal shape with a vertical shape.

 

Hi @Dithernet - do you mean to make a solid piece where the vertical and horizontal are fused together?

 

If i understand you correctly. What you are actually looking for would be a 3D boolean operation. AX operates in 2D an extrudes to 3D. If one shape is on one plane, and another shape on a different plane, they can not be merged in anyway as shapes only exits in 2D, and since they are not on the same plane, do not interact.

 

I would want to cut a mesh with an other one.
Is it possible to make the same mesh by cut rather than not assembly of 3 meshs?

 

Unfortunately, AX does not have 3D booleans at the moment, which is what such a cut would require. AS @RuinsOfFeyrin mentioned, AX only has cutting ability in 2D.

Once you assemble objects as you have in the image above, you can build relations between the parts. For example, you could make a parameter for the overall length of the object and the size of the notch in a Grouper and then link those parameters to the various extrudes.

 

Hi, before I buy what looks like one of the coolest new assets in the store, I gotta know: how steep is the learning curve for Archimatix for someone with almost no background in modeling? Thanks.

 

Hey RuinsOfFeyrin

It would be great if we could have a simple example, and some code how to access the parameters

Thanks
Michael

 

This is a great question! It is a little complex in the sense that there are really two learning curves at work. One is the AX interface and workflow and the other is learning to model buildings and environments in any medium. If you are already a modeler, then the challenge is to temporarily forget brush-based techniques. If you are not a modeler already, then learning to think logically and spatially about 3D environments will be the steep part of the curve.

While AX is a fairly unique parametric modeler with a lot of power in its ability to create the logic of architecture, it won't make a building for you (much as a word processor won't write an essay for you). As a content creation tool, it is also quite different from brush-based polygonal modelers such as Maya or ProBuilder. For example, you can't simply extrude a plan and then push a single polygonal surface this way or that. However, you can freeze the AX model, once it has generated a fairly complex set of meshes, and then ProBuilderize it when you are ready to make idiosyncratic changes.

If you watch the GrayShip tutorial (the second video on the asset store page), I think you will get a good sense of the parametric workflow.

Archimatix does come with some pretty easy to use example models that don't require you to learn the node graph editor. They are listed in the first several slides on the asset store page. For example, there are a couple of parametric staircases, a ramp, several mutable columns, etc. Also a palace or two! To be able to rig a node graph together to make objects like this may take some time. Archimatix is like a river broad and deep, but it is fun to wade in at the shore too! And yes, as a young asset, there are some bugs in these waters!

 

How do you export the mesh or edit in probuilder? Thanks

 

@roryo, thanks for a helpful and concise reply!

 

If you click the Stamp button in either the scene view or the the upper right of the Node Graph Editor Window, AX will make a GameObject hierarchy stripped of all AX metadata and behaviors. At that point the Stamped version is no longer parametric, but behave as any other Unity GameObjects. If you select that hierarchy and choose the ProBuilderize option in Probuilder, it should be ready to edit.

Note that the stamped version of the AX model can not be made into a Prefab. For that, choose the Prefab button in AX instead of Stamp, and then Probuilderize.

 

Hey,

I have not actually gotten in to playing with AX at run-time yet, i just know from looking at the code and speaking with @roryo about it.

Here is what i can tell you.
You will need to create a GameObject, and add an AXModel component to it, from there everything is feasible by referencing the AXModel component and its various methods to do what you need to do.

I know that is not very useful, but with a little playing around and experimentation it should be pretty straight forward to figure out, though probably not as easy as whatever rory has planned to for the "official runtime" interface.

 

I'm so excited by all of this. I saw the decimator in the tutorial videos, and it is just absolutely insane!

You literally have added everything i could think of as i watched it.

The fact that you start from such atomic components means this could, in theory, be used to build a host of structures and beyond - from chairs to rugs to walls to cities. All we're bound by is computer power, time, and imagination.

The decimator is extremely helpful. To me, this is really what procedural/parametric is all about - changing one thing in the root propagating those changes everywhere. It's so powerful and as far as im concerned it is definitely the future

What really ties it together is your interface is so clean and logical too. That helps because sometimes an amazing asset is bogged down by an unprofessional interface or one that hasnt been well thought out. I see none of that here - just polish and a very stable workflow. I have no idea how you have managed to put all of this together.

Thank you and keep up the fantastic work.

 

Thanks, @protopop!

You are are right about the heart of parametric programming, but conceptually, we can't call it a decimator. It is a generator that can be tweaked to generate less.

I am glad you like the interface. It has been a long time in the making. I am guilty of having waited too long to release, but that being said, as a 1.0 thing, we still have work to do!

I really appreciate your comments and enthusiasm - it gladdens a developer's heart!

 

Ok, thanks @roryo and @RuinsOfFeyrin .

 

Hey RuinsOfFeyrin,

Thanks for your explanation!
Then we just have to wait for runtime to materialize, hopefully soon.

Cheers Michael

 

I just submitted an AX update to the Asset Store with some important bug fixes.
- Scene save lag time is gone.
- Material inheritance bug has been stopped.
- An editor call in the core was blocking project builds.
- Middle mouse button in Windows no longer selects AX objects in the scene (for instance when panning the scene).

The update should be approved in the next couple of days.

 

Also bought your asset at the last 24h sale. Still learning it. It is nice to see an asset that is so well thought through. It's the small bits and pieces that makes the UI easy to use. Thanks for making this asset. Hopfully I will have the time to create something nice the next time .

Btw.: Update is live at the store. They are really fast.

 

1.0.2 update was available yesterday in the asset store.

 

Any chance you can add a stamp + convert to .obj? I'm going to look into manually doing this (shouldn't be hard in theory), but the ability to automatically export a .obj would be the first step in my Quixel workflow hopes .

 

You might want to wait on a 1-click solution…. My meager experiments suggest I'll usually need to export selectively, depending on what I've built in AX and whether I've used repeaters (also what I need to do with it in the other software).

Not trying to be a party pooper, and of course YMMV. 1-click means I need to prep the export as a standalone AX object, and so far that's not what I've needed to export (I've needed a few bits out of a bigger AX noodle-sprawl). The freebie I linked to a few pages back allowed me to cherrypick the stamped object (I suppose I also could have deleted unnecessary bits of the stamped object). Anyway, just food for thought, if such a feature is being considered.

 

Hi @roryo,

Really like the software.. I'm running into an issue though where I get 92 warnings over an over again.

I'm using unity 5.6.0b6, Archimatix v 1.0.2

The warnings are all about obsolete functions. ex:

Assets/Archimatix/Scripts/Editor/GeneratorHandlers/ToolHandlers.cs(705,15): warning CS0618: `UnityEditor.Handles.Button(UnityEngine.Vector3, UnityEngine.Quaternion, float, float, UnityEditor.Handles.DrawCapFunction)' is obsolete: `DrawCapFunction is obsolete. Use the version with CapFunction instead. Example: Change SphereCap to SphereHandleCap.'

I've attached the editor log to this post.

Can you have a look when you get a chance please?

What version of Unity do you recommend for Archimatix?

Thanks !

 

Wow @roryo I hope you up end sharing this in the library in an update!!!

 

@haskins 5.5 works fine with AX. The warning you are seeing is just that, just a warning nothing major. Its because Unity changed some of their API. Though I'm sure the console spam is annoying, and probably eats up memory if you just leave it running.

 

Hi @haskins - welcome aboard! Will take a look first thing in the morning...

 

Ok - I upgraded all the deprecated references that were generated the warnings in 5.6. As @RuinsOfFeyrin mentioned, the warnings are annoying but they should not get in the way otherwise. The changes will be in the next update build (should be the middle of next week).

 

Thanks, I look forward to it!

 

So far i am loving AX. I have just scratched the surface but it is one of those plugins that everytime you learn something new, its added to your toolbox and its like "wow"

Right now i have the AX object at 0,0,0. To place a generated object i created a cylinder and feed its transform to other nodes so they all generate from that spot. I can drag the cylinder around and move the whole generated object. But im wondering is there a null transform or something i could use instead of the cylinder?

 

Hi @protopop - welcome aboard! Glad yo are enjoying AX!

The to work about a new origin, so to speak, the best thing is to create a Grouper node and translate it to your new center of production. Open the Grouper by double-clicking on it and then any nodes you create from there on out will be centered at the Grouper's center.

About 10 minutes into the GrayShip Tutorial is a pretty good example of this:

 

Thank you roryo I find myself saying "wow" a lot with AX. This is even better than what i was looking for. I'm going to watch the whole thing -i see some path editing inside the video too - looks like it would be great fr making different shaped floor plans.

 

Hi,

I experienced a problem while using AX while following the GrayShip tutorial:

• Whenever I make a group I can't move the object that the group represents because I don't see any gizmos, i.e. I can't make this (GrayShip at 15:10)

Please see the attached picture and/or the video.

I don't know if this happens to me because there is a difference between the product version used to make the tutorial and the current release, or because I'm missing something.

My Unity version is 5.5.3xf1Linux and I'm on Ubuntu 16.04.

Thank you in advance!

 

Hi @fernandobraz - thanks for uploading the image. It looks like you have the Group selected and the mode transformation mode is set translate, so the handles should be in the scene. Could you try clicking on rotate and then back to translate? Alternatively, in the hierarchy view, try clicking on another object in the scene, like the camera, and then back onto the Grouper. Please let me know if either of these get the translation handles back.

 

A small issue - I'm using Unity 5.2.2 - where im not sure exactly what triggers it, i think it might have to do with zooming the view - but pretty much eventually the Graph window stage starts sliding on its own without any intervention, towards the left and the top, just really slowly, and if i leave it unattended it can speed up and/or slide right out of view.

Closing and reopening the window stops the behaviour.

Not that this has stopped me from loving this app. I just learned you can instance prefabs too (cool!) - im using it to add grass and trees to my stone citadel

 

No, that doesn't work. Initially I thought that maybe this is a Linux's thing, but I have this problem in Windows 10 too (same version of Unity). Do you know a workaround for this? A keyboard shortcut maybe?

 

Would love to get to the bottom of this quickly. I will invite you to the AX Slack where you can upload your scene, etc.

 

I am glad you are not finding this bug too annoying, but it will be fixed in the next update (later this week). It does not happen in 5.5 or higher. Also, 5.3.4 is the earliest Unity version officially supported by AX

 

Just realized I have the first edition! Will take a looked at the 4th...

 

Thanks you, and sorry i gave the wrong version number by habit: Im using 5.2.2 for my main project but experimenting in advance with AX in 5.3.7

That brings me to another question. Eventually ill upgrade my main project to 5.3.7, and i'd like to import my AX model into it. It will have all the same assets as my experiemntal project. Can we get the AX into another project? Maybe export the node list somehow and then open it in AX in another project?

EDIT: I think i might have figured part of this out.

I clicked the tiny dropdown on my grouper node, which is at the root of my object, and chose Save to Library. I see this create an .axobj with the same name.

I'm guessing if I had another project, same Unity version with the same resources and AX installed, could i drag the file in that that AX library using the mac finder, and then open it from the library into AX and it would recreate the object that way?

EDIT #2: It worked

I saved my node group in the library. I dont remember if i clicked save to library or save to library folder, but it created a folder called Archimatix Library with the .axobj inside.

I created a blank project, no assets at all, not even unity default ones. I installed Archimatix.

I copied the whole Archimatix Library folder into my project, and then my object showed up in the library. I added a cube before to the scene to make sure the AX object was being added (it was) and not overriding any scene content (it didnt)

What's neat is when i opened it, i dodnt have any of the materials or prefabs i had used. But it still recreated most of it, just sans textures, which are easy to add back in, or I imagine if i had the same resource folder structure, it would have found the prefabs and textures and added them too.

Anyways thats enough to put my mind at ease. Archimatix and World Creator are the two specific reasons i am upgrading my main commercial game to unity 5.3 This way while i prep that upgrade, i can keep making the AX asset, knowing i can bring it in when the time is right.

BTW nice folder structure - i think i was able to find this because it makes a lot of sense.

 

Thanks for posting this, @protopop - its great to see your learning process and I think it will help others too!

 

Thank you. That is a very good book by the way. Thanks again for recommending it.

 

I am working on the Roman Theater. Will make a great parametric example. Also, it is helping me knock out some bugs from the trello list.