rewriting aur. files to vdb

[teddude75]

Hello, I've looked at other posts about changing the cached file format from aur to vdb and can seem to get any results. There was a post called VDB interface and seem to be get the same errrors about the velocity channel and the input path. What I'm trying to do is export my particles into a format that I can render in Arnold. I'm using Maya 2017 and the education version of phoenix fd. I don't think I have access to the nightly builds with the education license. Can someone give me details and a step by step to convert aur. files to vdb?
TED

[George Barzinski]

Hi,

currently, you can not convert aur to vdb files. You have to simulate again and export the files as vdb. Go to Output roll-out, click on the yellow folder next to the Simulation Save Path field which will open a new window. And from Files of Type drop-down menu select VDB.

[teddude75]

What about exporting the nparticles some how? It seems phoenix is easy to work with, compared to bifrost and it seems like I'm only a couple of steps away from exporting the particles. I can't seem to figure it out.
TED

[teddude75]

I get this error. "Please make sure the simulation was run with the 'Velocity' channel checked under the 'Output' rollout, and that the cache files in the Resimulation Input path exist. //" . The guy who posted "VDB and interface" had the same problem but he ended up getting a nightly build that fixed the bug. I don't have access to the nightly builds because I have an educational version. Can you guy update the educational? Is there a workaround?

[Svetlin.Nikolov]

Hey, sorry for the late reply!

Currently you can't convert Phoenix particles to nParticles - in Max it's the same with pflow, so we need to implement this. Right now the closest thing you get is the Phoenix nParticle Emitter which would create nParticles depending on conditions based on the grid temperature, smoke, fuel etc for the fire/smoke solver.

Nightlies are ADV only, I'm afraid they won't work with the EDU license anyway. We need to do a new release in order to update the EDU builds on the website and this is going to take at least a couple of weeks at best. Maybe instead we could prepare a command line tool for conversion between aur and vdb caches, will that work for you?

[Svetlin.Nikolov]

Hey, here it is - CacheConverter.zip

You provide a path to the aur caches with ### signs for the frames, an output path for vdbs, and a frame interval.

The tools is built just for Windows for now and it's not yet a part of the installation. Please check if it works on your side.

Cheers!

[teddude75]

Totally Awesome. You guys are great. On a side note, I found a work around for Arnold Render. The Phoenix FD particles can be converted to Arnold .ass file and imported in as a stand in. I have been trying to do this for a couple of months now and finally found a solution. I think there is a work around with VDB also and your converter is greatly appreciated.
Thanks
TED

[Svetlin.Nikolov]

Sweet! You gotta make a tutorial about these