SOP
See Category:SOPs for a full list of articles related to SOPs.
Surface Operators, also known as SOPs, are operators that can generate, import, modify and combine 3D surfaces (also called geometry). The surface types include 3D points, polygons, lines, particles, surfaces, spheres and meatballs. Particles and point clouds are now done primarily on the GPU using TOPs - see particlesGpu
in the palette and components in the PointClouds
folder of the palette.
See also: Geometry Detail, Point, Point List, Point Class, Primitive, Prims Class, Polygon, Vertex, SOP Class, SOP to DAT, Script SOP, Point Groups, Primitive Groups, Attributes.
Sweet 16 SOPsedit
The following 16 SOPs are commonly used, we recommend familiarizing yourself with them.
SOP | Purpose | Related SOP |
---|---|---|
Circle | Circle, sphere, torus primitives. | Sphere, Torus |
Grid | Grid, box, rectangle. | Box, Rectangle |
Merge | Merge and delete. | Object Merge, Delete |
Copy | Copy or replicate. | Limit |
Switch | Switch or blend multi-inputs. | Blend, Sequence Blend |
Texture | Apply texture coordinated to points or vertices. | Material |
Noise | Apply noise, twist and deform. | Twist, Deform |
Transform | Transform point positions. | Script |
DAT to | DAT table to SOP points. | Add |
CHOP to | CHOP channel samples to SOP points. | Line |
Trace | Trace a TOP image to polygons. | File In |
Clip | Clip and carve. | Carve |
Facet | Facet, subdivide, convert. | Subdivide, Convert |
Particle | Particles. | |
Sweep | Sweep, skin, rails. | Skin, Rails |
Sort | Sort and reorder. |
Using SOPsedit
- 3D geometry data, processed on CPU
- FBX Import: .fbx importer, File In SOP - recommend importing geometry from more mature modelers
- FBX Export: Right-click and select Save Geometry... In the File Browser that opens, change the file type to .fbx to create a FBX file of that geometry.