BlackRedKing Blog

Drag and Drop for ICE caches

CM_ICECacheDragDrop is a plugin that adds support for dragging and dropping of ICE caches into a Softimage scene. Hopefully it removes a little bit of the monotony of importing ICE cache files back into your scenes.

After installing the plugin, you may simply drag and drop .icecache or .PC2 files or sequences from a Softimage browser or OS file explorer into a Softimage session.

By default each cache file/sequence will be hooked up to a cache on file node in a new pointcloud. However, by using the shift and alt keyboard modifiers you may append all the cache files together in a single ICE Tree or apply the cache onto an existing geometry. This makes it possible for example, to drag and drop a .PC2 cache straight onto a polygon mesh.

Drag and Drop a cache file into the viewport or scene explorer with these keyboard modifiers:

No key pressed – each cache file or sequence is placed into its own pointcloud.

Shift – the selected cache files are appended into a single pointcloud.

Alt – brings up an option page that allows the user to choose into which construction region the new ICE Trees should be placed.

Alt + selected object – same options as above but if a valid scene object is selected during drag and drop, then optionally the cache may be applied directly to that object.

Combinations of the above modifiers may be used. e.g. shift + alt will append selected files together with an option menu.

Download:
CM_ICECacheDragDrop.xsiaddon. Tested in Softimage 2012 and 2011.5

Updated to version 1.01 – Fixes issue with frame padding
Updated to version 1.02 – Updated post Drag&Drop Selection behaviour

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