Attribute¶

In Hakowan, an attribute specifies a specific "column" of the data (i.e. mesh attribute) that will be used to encode various visual channels and textures. Each attribute consists of a name and a scale. The name is the name of the mesh attribute used as data, and the scale defines a "column"-specific transformation applied to the attribute before mapping to visual channels.

Creating Attributes¶

The hkw.attribute() function is a convenient alias for creating Attribute objects:

# To specify an attribute from name alone.
# By default, scale is identity.
attr = hkw.attribute(name="normal")

# To specify an attribute from both name and scale.
attr = hkw.attribute(name="normal", scale=hkw.scale.Uniform(factor=2))

# hkw.attribute() is equivalent to hkw.scale.Attribute()
attr = hkw.scale.Attribute(name="normal", scale=hkw.scale.Uniform(factor=2))

Attribute-Like Objects¶

Many Hakowan functions accept "attribute-like" objects, which can be either:

A string: Automatically converted to an Attribute with the given name
An Attribute object: Used directly

This allows for convenient shorthand notation:

# These are equivalent:
ch1 = hkw.channel.Position(data=hkw.attribute(name="position"))
ch2 = hkw.channel.Position(data="position")

# These are also equivalent:
tex1 = hkw.texture.ScalarField(data=hkw.attribute(name="curvature"))
tex2 = hkw.texture.ScalarField(data="curvature")