InstaLOD features a powerful rules engine with which data can be prepared and cleaned up for further processing. The traditional PLM workflow features a lot of manual changes where hierarchies need to be modified, geometry configured, tessellation changed on a per-part level, shading corrected and materials set up.
Using the rules engine in InstaLOD Studio, this workflow can be automated. Once rules have been established, they can be saved in a JSON profile and applied whenever the source data changes.
¶ Setting Up Rules
With InstaLOD Studio rules can be added manually or recorded automatically. To add a rule manually, select Add Entry within the Scene Rules tab. Select a Predicate to specify an action that should be taken by the rule. Additional predicates can be added using the Plugins System.
Use an Attribute to match and add a Value or RegEx. Values are set up using expressions, which are made up of a relational operator followed by a value. Multiple expressions can be combined with the logical operator AND. The following relational operators are supported:
<: less than<=: less than or equal to==: equal to>=: greater than or equal to>: greater than
Examples of match value expressions:
>15 and <=30
==0
A large variety of attributes can be used including custom (user-defined) attributes. More information, including a full list of available attributes, can be found here.
¶ Scene Rule Recording
To automatically generate rules while interacting with the scene, the Record button can be used. When enabled, InstaLOD Studio automatically generates rules for every change made to a scene.
Scene rules can be automatically recorded using a defined set of attributes. The attributes to match during recording can be added in the Recording Attributes panel. When recording a user action, InstaLOD Studio goes through the list and tries to find the first attribute that is set on all selected objects. If no common attribute is found in the list, it defaults to Path.
To finish recording, the recorded rules must be applied to the current profile by pressing Finish or discarded by pressing Cancel.
Scene rules can be edited after they have been recorded to match a broader amount of input files if needed.
¶ Enabling Automation
Once set up, rules can easily be reused in situations where the input data changes frequently and needs to be reprocessed. After storing rules in a JSON profile, they are automatically applied to the input data whenever the profile is executed.
¶ Scene Rule Predicates
Scene Rule Predicates are the different operations InstaLOD can apply when the rules are evaluated. A list of all predicates can be found here.
You can find a detailed listing of all Scene Rules here.