Basics Tools

Houdini has two main complementary ways of interaction: creating nodes directly in the network editor, and using tools that inspect, edit, render, etc. the scene, in many cases also creating nodes.

There are three places to access tools in Houdini:

• Down the left side of the viewer pane, the toolbox contains very commonly uses tools for

  • selecting objects and components.

  • Moving, rotating, scaling, and editing the current selection.

  • Rendering in the viewer.

• The shelf across the top of the main interface contains both tools (states you enter into and work with in the viewer) and one-off actions that run when you click the icon.

• The tab menu that appears when you press Tab in the viewer or network editor contains the tools that apply to the network context of the pane (for example, the Scene network or the Geometry network inside a Geometry Container object) as well as nodes you can put down (in the network editor pane).

While you are using a tool, the operation controls toolbar displays options for the tool. If the tool puts down a node, the options in the toolbar are the most important subset of the node’s parameters.

You can create custom tools and actions and have them appear on the shelf and in the tab menu.

• Click the tool. The status line at the bottom of the main menu prompts you with how to use the tool.

  While you are using a tool, the operation controls toolbar displays options for the tool. If the tool puts down a node, the options in the toolbar are the most important subset of the node’s parameters.

• Many tools create nodes. For example, the Sphere tool on the Create shelf tab lets you click in the viewer to place a sphere. Once you click, the tool creates a new Geometry Container object with a Sphere surface node inside.

  Other tools, like the selection tools, may make selections, change parameters, or otherwise alter the scene without creating nodes.

• Most tools will use the current selection if possible. Some tools will prompt you for one or more selections if the current selection is not relevant, or if it needs more information. For example, the Parent tool on the Modify shelf tab prompts you to select the child and then the parent.

  After you make a prompted selection, you finish the selection by doing one of the following:

  • Press Enter or

  • ⇧ Shift + or

  • and choose Accept Selection from the context menu.

• See also brush tools.

• Note that some items on the shelf and in the toolbox are more “actions” than “tools” – they do something immediately when you click them, and don’t enter into a “tool state” or show options on the operation controls toolbar.

• Note also that some tools have alternate action-like behavior when you hold Ctrl and click them. For example, when you ctrl-click the Sphere tool, it immediately creates a sphere at the origin instead of entering a tool state where you can place the sphere in the viewer.

The toolbox is located on the left side of the scene view. It provides selection, transforming, viewing, and rendering tools, as well as snapping options and menus for starting renders.

• The selection tools let you select objects or components in the scene view. For more information, see selecting objects and components.

  

• The editing tools let you transform, rotate, and scale objects or components in the scene view.

  The Handles tool gives you specific handles for the selected node. For example, the Torus has special handles that allow you to change the radius of the hole and of the cross section. The Camera has handles for focus distance and frustrum.

  

• The snapping options let you snap to the grid, a primitive, a point, and multi-snap. For more information, see snapping.

  

• The View tool lets you tumble, track, and dolly the scene view without holding Space . For more information, see viewing the scene.

• The rendering tools and menus provide different rendering options.

  The Render Region tool lets you drag a rectangle in the viewer to render that area directly.

  The Flipbook and Render menus let you create a flipbook or start a render.

  For more information, see rendering.

  

The shelf is a customizable set of commonly used tools and actions. See the shelf help for more information.

See how to create custom tools and actions.