The menu bar on macOS isn’t part of the main Houdini window. It’s integrated into the desktop title bar like other macOS applications.

By default, Houdini installs into /Applications/Houdini/HoudiniX.X.XXX. You can launch the applications from within the HoudiniX.X.XXX folder or you can drag the icons into the macOS Dock for easy access.

You can also launch Houdini applications from the Houdini terminal app, which is in /Applications/Houdini/HoudiniX.X.XXX/Utilities/Houdini Terminal X.X.XXX.app. For example, in the terminal you can enter houdini to launch Houdini, mplay to launch the Image Viewer, or gplay to launch the Geometry Viewer. Launching applications from the terminal is useful when an error or crash occurs. Error messages and crash reports appear in the terminal.

Most hotkeys that use ⌃ Ctrl on Windows instead use ⌘ on macOS.

The meaning of the ⌫ Backspace (large Delete key) and ⌦ Del keys are swapped from their mappings on Windows.

Some Houdini functions use the MMB, which doesn’t exist on macOS. The following is a workaround to using the MMB:

1. Navigate to your Houdini user preferences folder: $HOME/Library/Preferences/houdini/X.X.

2. Open the houdini.env file in a text editor. Create the file if it doesn’t exist.

3. Add the following text to the bottom of the file and then save your changes: HOUDINI_MMB_PAN = 0. This turns off the MMB.

4. If Houdini is already running, exit and restart Houdini so it loads your changes.

   With this update you can do the following:

   • Tumble: Space + LMB

   • Track: Space + RMB

   • Dolly: Space + scroll

   • Screen pan: Space + ⌃ Ctrl + ⌥ Option + RMB

   Note

   You don’t have to use Space when in the viewport’s View state.

   Note

   As an alternative solution, you can use a macOS keyboard customizer (such as Karabiner-Elements) to map the MMB functionality to another key.