surfacedist

Since	17.0

float  surfacedist(<geometry>geometry, string ptgroup, string P_attribute, int search_pt, int &closest_pt, string distance_metric)

float  surfacedist(<geometry>geometry, string ptgroup, string P_attribute, int search_pt, float max_radius, int &closest_pt, string distance_metric)

Returns the distance from the search point to the closest point in the point group.

<geometry>

When running in the context of a node (such as a wrangle SOP), this argument can be an integer representing the input number (starting at 0) to read the geometry from.

Alternatively, the argument can be a string specifying a geometry file (for example, a .bgeo) to read from. When running inside Houdini, this can be an op:/path/to/sop reference.

ptgroup

The name of a point group or a pattern to generate a point group. Uses the same semantics as a SOP group, so empty strings will match all points. Attribute groups like @Cd.x>0 can also be used, but note that the @ may need to be escaped with a backslash in a Snippet VOP.

P_attribute

The name of the vector attribute to use to measure distance between connected points. Using “P” will give the world distance along the surface, but a custom attribute can be used to measure along a different metric.

search_pt

The point to measure the distance for.

max_radius

The maximum distance to measure the surface distance. This can speed things up by allowing the search to quit early if the point is not within the radius. Points outside the radius will return a value of -1 for both the distance and the lead point.

&closest_pt

Index of the closest point in the source group.

-1 if no closest point was found.

distance_metric

The method to use to measure distance. Accepted values are edge and surface. Edge distance is measured along the edges of the model, while surface distance is measured along edges and across single polygons. Surface distance is a better approximation of the true geodesic distance, but is also more expensive to compute.

Returns

The distance from the search point to the closest point in the point group.

Returns -1 if no closest point was found.