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My goal is to instantiate objects on the points of a particle system.

Right now, my workflow is:

  1. tweak the parameters of the particle system
  2. export it as an Alembic cache (point cloud?)
  3. import it back into the scene
  4. in Geometry Nodes, convert Alembic data to points, to be used for instancing

I'm wondering if there is a way to access the cache/point data of the particle system, directly through Geometry Nodes, rather than exporting+importing.

I have experimented with simulating the particles themselves with simulation nodes, but much prefer the speed of the native particle system when editing large numbers of particles. I also prefer to be able to use the built in force fields etc.

Anything to point me in the right direction would be much appreciated! I have not delved too much into scripting yet, but feel there may be a solution there. Will keep digging in the mean time.

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  • $\begingroup$ i doubt that geometry nodes in the present state can do that. But for sure animation nodes can do what you want. But i don't know whether you want to use animation nodes. If yes, let me know, then i can present an answer. $\endgroup$
    – Chris
    Commented May 5 at 19:43
  • $\begingroup$ @Chris Thanks for the response, I would be interested in an answer using animation nodes - I haven't used it much, so unsure of its capabilities $\endgroup$
    – andycepi
    Commented May 5 at 20:02

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enter image description here

Animation nodes has particles nodes, with which you can read the particle data like locations. With the object instancer you duplicate objects and with the object transform output node you can set locations to your duplicated objects.

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    $\begingroup$ Thanks for the animation nodes solution! Will try it out, appreciate you pointing me in this direction as the plugin seems very powerful. $\endgroup$
    – andycepi
    Commented May 9 at 0:01
  • $\begingroup$ you are welcome. It is indeed very very powerful! And just one node makes it much more powerful than geometry nodes and this is the script node: so you can add python code and make your own nodes by this. So you can do anything (!) with animation nodes what an add-on can do or what the Blender API provides. $\endgroup$
    – Chris
    Commented May 9 at 5:06

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