Is it possible to replace maya geometry cache with alembic cache?

Question

I am researching the way to improve efficiency of using cache in Maya. For wide use, Alembic Cache is a good choice as I know. So, I try to use it as replacement of Geometry Cache(mcx). But Alembic Cache has a limitation of matching names of targets. On behalf of Geometry Cache, is there any aid for using Alembic Cache?

Answer 1

I just answered this in a previously asked question.

To overcome the non-matching name target problem:

When you import the abc file into Maya, it creates an abc Node in the Maya scene. If the object name doesn't match your scene's object name, you can connect it manually.

The way you do this is as follows.

The alembic node has a bunch of output plug Arrays, like outPolyMesh, outNSurface etc. These contain the outputs. If your render object is a mesh, you will be able to find the corresponding output plug inside the outPolyMesh array. In your connections editor, just connect the corresponding outPolyMesh[i] plug into your inMesh plug of your render model's shape node.

Hope that was useful.