Property Set Reference for the SDK

What Is Available?

Parameters are the atomic elements of property sets whose values determine behavior. This reference provides a list of parameters defined in the factory-installed SPDL files and the shader definitions provided with Softimage. The information is grouped by major type:

... and further classified according to its use. Only Constraints have no subclassification.

The TOC is organized according to an item's type and classification, so you can see how the reference pages are broken down if you expand the nodes in the TOC. For example, if you expand the Shaders nodes, you will see the names of the standard types (shader families) of shaders supported in Softimage:

This reference is particularly useful to find information about how to navigate through the Softimage property sets in plug-ins. Some of the information this reference contains includes the various names of parameter (for example, the scripting name that corresponds to the label that appears on the property page or the way it appears in the scene explorer). Another very useful piece of information for script and plug-in developers is the list of valid values and their descriptions.

The kind of information varies by major type, so that you will see distinctions between inputs and outputs and between ports and parameters and information about the supported renderers for shaders, whereas operators and constraints will display a count of port groups.

How to Read the Reference Pages

Hints about Names

Name popup information

When reading the Parameter tables, you will see one column containing the Parameter Name with the UI Label in parentheses, and another column containing the Scripting Name. This is the difference between these names:

    • The Scripting Name is the official name of the parameter, it's what you use as a key in the ParameterCollection, and what the parameter is officially registered with.

    • The Parameter Name is the name that appears in the Scene Explorer, which is why it's sometimes called the Display Name.

    • The UI Label is literally the label assigned to that parameter via the PPGLayout for either a render tree node or the property page editor.

Cross-references to Other Guides

Cross-references to Related SDK Reference Cross-references to User Guide and Preset Reference

Where relevant, each topic includes one or more links to related reference pages. For example, many shaders have links to the corresponding topic in the user guides, whereas may of the property topics have links to the scene objects they are associated with (nodes, object model interfaces and C++ API classes, etc.)

Recognizing Structure Sub Parameters

Recognizing sub-structure parameters

Parameters of type Structure encapsulate a set of parameter definitions known as sub parameters which are only available via the structure parameter.

To identify them easily in the parameter tables, they are presented using a special color and indented slightly from the structure parameter that owns them.