Removing locators from imported alembic cache

[arcon76]

I've got a bullet simulation that I exported as alembic cache. It imports fine however all of the objects have a locator attached, so there are hundreds flying around which is very distracting.

I can select the bullet shape nodes one by one and turn off the visibility to hide the locators.... not helpful obviously. So I thought I could easily select them all with MEL:

select -r "**bulletRigidBodyShape**";

however there is no option to change visibility in the channel control editor... what to do?

This doesn't happen when I export MASH as alembic... not sure why bullet does it. I'm using Maya 2022.5.1

[animatewithabhay]

Removing locators from imported Bullet Alembic caches in Maya

This is expected behavior when exporting Bullet simulations to Alembic in Autodesk Maya.

Why this happens

When Bullet simulations are exported to Alembic, Maya writes transform-driven rigid bodies. On import, Maya recreates these as locator-based transform nodes that drive the cached geometry. These locators are not regular transforms, which is why:

• They appear as many “flying” locators

• They cannot be hidden via the Channel Box

• Visibility attributes are often locked or unavailable

MASH Alembic exports do not create these helper nodes, which is why you don’t see the same issue there.

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Correct way to hide Bullet Alembic locators Option 1 (Recommended): Hide locator drawing globally

This is the safest and fastest solution.

• Go to Show → Locators in the viewport

• Turn it OFF

This hides all Bullet locators visually without breaking the cache or hierarchy.

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Option 2: Hide via Object Display (if selectable)

If the locators are selectable as transform nodes:

1. Select all Bullet locator transforms (Outliner is easiest)

2. In the Attribute Editor → Object Display

3. Disable Visibility or Drawing Overrides

This works only if the locator transforms expose display attributes.

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Option 3: Remove locators only for final render

For rendering:

• Locators do not render

• They are viewport-only helpers

If they’re not affecting performance, the best practice is to leave them untouched and hide them via viewport display.

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Why MEL selection doesn’t help here

Your MEL command:

select -r "**bulletRigidBodyShape**";