Python Classes and Modules

The following list of important Python classes and modules is roughly grouped together by subject.

Python Reference has an alphabetical list of all TouchDesigner Python pages on this wiki.

Operator Related Classes

The following classes are Python interfaces for operators and objects that operators use. Individual operator classes (e.g. TextTOP Class and RampTOP Class) are not listed but do exist in the td module, and links to each can be found here or by clicking on the Python Help button in their parameter dialog. These classes are found in the td module so do not need to be imported.

• OP Class - a TouchDesigner operator.
  • Connector Class - a wire connector for an OP. Lists of these can be found in OP.inputConnectors and OP.outputConnectors. Components also have COMP.inputCOMPConnectors and COMP.outputCOMPConnectors.
  • Page Class - a parameter page. Lists of these can be found in OP.pages and, on components and script operators, OP.customPages.
  • ParCollection Class (OP.par) - holds all the parameters for an OP.
    • Par Class - an individual parameter.
      • Sequence Class - sequential parameters will have a reference to one of these objects in their sequence member.
  • CHOP Class - subclass of OPs defining CHOP operators.
    • Channel Class - a channel object. Accessed through a CHOP index or other CHOP members such as chan, chans etc.
  • COMP Class - a subclass of OPs defining component operators.
    • ObjectCOMP Class - a subclass of COMPs defining Objects, used to create and render 3D scenes.
    • PanelCOMP Class - a subclass of COMPS defining Panel Components, used to create 2D UI elements.
      • Panel Class - a member of panelCOMPs containing all associated panel values. Accessed through panelCOMP.panel.
        • PanelValue Class - individual panel values. Accessed through the panel member of panelCOMPS and also in callbacks in the Panel Execute DAT.
      • ListAttributes Class - a collection of list attributes used in a ListCOMP.
        • ListAttribute Class - contains attributes defining a cell in a ListCOMP.
      • Bodies Class - a collection of bodies used in an ActorCOMP.
        • Body Class - a single body (physics object) used in an ActorCOMP.
  • DAT Class - a subclass of OPs defining DAT operators.
    • Cell Class - defines an individual cell of a DAT table.
  • MAT Class - a subclass of OPs defining MAT operators.
  • SOP Class - a subclass of OPs defining SOP operators.
    • Attributes Class - a collection of SOP attributes
      • Attribute Class - information about an entity such as its color, velocity, normal, and so on.
    • Points Class - a collection of points.
      • Point Class - a single geometry point.
        • InputPoint Class - a special point object used in Point SOP parameters.
    • Prims Class - a collection of primitives.
      • Prim Class - a single geometry primitive.
        • Poly Class - a subclass of Prim defining a geometry polygon.
        • Mesh Class - a subclass of Prim defining a geometry mesh.
        • Bezier Class - a subclass of Prim defining a set of Bezier curves.
        • Vertex Class - a member of Prim defining a single geometry vertex.
  • TOP Class - a subclass of OPs defining TOP operators.

Helper Classes

The following helper objects are part of the td module and can thus be accessed anywhere, including expressions, without imports (e.g. absTime.frame).

• AbsTime Class (absTime) - information about absolute time
• App Class (app) - information about the TouchDesigner app, including version, installation folders, etc.
• Project Class (project) - information about the current TouchDesigner session
• Tdu Module (tdu) - generic utilities for TouchDesigner not relating directly to TD objects.
  • ArcBall Class (tdu.ArcBall) - encapsulates many aspects of 3D viewer interaction.
  • Color Class (tdu.Color) - holds a 4 component color
  • Dependency Class (tdu.Dependency) - used to create Dependable Python data.
  • Matrix Class (tdu.Matrix) - holds a single 4x4 matrix for use in transformations. See ObjectCOMP Class for transforms of 3D objects.
  • Position Class (tdu.Position) - holds a 3 component position
  • Quaternion Class (tdu.Quaternion) - holds a quaternion object for 3D rotations
  • Vector Class (tdu.Vector) - holds a 3 component vector

• Licenses Class (licenses) - information about installed license objects
  • DongleList Class (licenses.dongles) - list of attached dongles
    • Dongle Class - an individual dongle connected to the system
• MOD Class (mod) - access to modules located in TouchDesigner DATs
• Monitors Class (monitors) - access to information about all connected display devices
  • Monitor Class - an individual display device
• Runs Class (runs) - information about all delayed run objects
  • Run Class - an individual delayed run object
• SysInfo Class (sysInfo) - current system/hardware information
• UI Class (ui) - information about application ui elements
  • Colors Class (ui.colors) - application colors
  • Options Class (ui.options) - configurable ui options
  • Panes Class (ui.panes) - collection of all panes open in the editor
    • Pane Class - an individual pane object
      • NetworkEditor Class - subclass of Pane that displays a network editor
  • Preferences Class (ui.preferences) - collection of TouchDesigner preferences
  • Undo Class (ui.undo) - tools for interacting with the undo system, including creating script-based undo steps

Standard Python Modules

The td module also automatically imports a number of helpful standard modules, allowing them to be accessed in expressions through their namespace (e.g. math.cos(math.pi)):

• collections - container datatypes
• enum - support for enumerations
• inspect - inspect live objects
• math - mathematical functions
• re - regular expression operations
• sys - OS specific data and functions
• traceback - stack utilities
• warnings - warning control

TouchDesigner Utility Modules and Python Utilities

The following contain extended Python utilities for use with TouchDesigner.

• TDFunctions - A variety of utilities for advanced Python coding in TouchDesigner.
• TDJSON - JSON utilities specific to TouchDesigner.
• TDStoreTools - utilities for use with TouchDesigner's Storage and Dependency system.
• TDResources (op.TDResources...) - not a module, but does contain system resources that can be accessed via Python. It includes system pop-up menu, button pop-up menu, pop-up dialog, and mouse resources.

3rd Party Packages

The following 3rd party packages are automatically installed with TouchDesigner. They are not in the td module, so must be imported explicitly to be used in scripts. The name in parentheses is the actual package name used (e.g. to use OpenCV, write this at top of script: import cv2). For information on adding or installing other Python modules, see Importing Modules.

• asn1crypto (asn1crypto) - Parsing and serializing ASN.1 structures
• Authlib (authlib) - Library to build OAuth and OpenID Connect servers.
• Certifi (certifi) - Root Certificates for validating the trustworthiness of SSL certificates while verifying the identity of TLS hosts
• CFFI (cffi) - Interaction with C code
• Chardet (chardet) - The Universal Character Encoding Detector
• Cryptography (cryptography) - High level recipes and low level interfaces to common cryptographic algorithms
• idna (idna) - Support for the Internationalised Domain Names in Applications (IDNA) protocol
• jsonpath (jsonpath_ng) - JSONPath tools for accessing and altering JSON structures
• MWParserFromHell (mwparserfromhell) - An easy-to-use and outrageously powerful parser for MediaWiki wikicode
• NumPy (numpy) - Fundamental package for scientific computing with Python
• OpenCV (cv2) - Open source computer vision.
• packaging (packaging) - Package tools including version handling, specifiers, markers, requirements, tags, utilities. Used for version string comparison.
• ply (ply) - Parsing tools for lex and yacc.
• pyparsing (pyparsing) - A library of classes that client code uses to construct parsing grammar directly in Python code.
• Requests (requests) - The only Non-GMO HTTP library for Python, safe for human consumption
• Requests OAuthlib (requests_oauthlib) - Easy-to-use Python interface for building OAuth1 and OAuth2 clients
• urllib3 (urllib3) - HTTP client
• PyYAML (yaml) - YAML parser and emitter

Installing Custom Packages and Modules

You can also install your own Python packages that are not included with TouchDesigner. For instructions, go here.

Any of the procedural data operators. OPs do all the work in TouchDesigner. They "cook" and output data to other OPs, which ultimately result in new images, data and audio being generated. See Node.

An Operator Family that contains its own Network. There are sixteen 3D Object Component and ten 2D Panel Component types. See also Network Path.

An Operator Family which operate on Channels (a sequence of numbers (Samples)) which are used for animation, audio, mathematics, simulation, logic, UI construction, and data streamed from/to devices and protocols.

A Operator Family that reads, creates and modifies 3D points, polygons, lines, particles, surfaces, spheres and meatballs. Particles and point clouds are now done primarily on the GPU using TOPs.

Absolute Time starts counting from 0 when the TouchDesigner process starts, and is always increasing. It will pause if the Power 0/1 button at the top of the UI is Off.

is the Procedural mechanism in TouchDesigner, where if one piece of data changes, it automatically causes other operators and expressions to re-Cook.

TouchDesigner is a hierarchy of components. "root" is the top-most network in the hierarchy. The Network Path or Path for root is simply /. A typical path is /project1/moviein1.