Panes - Houdini online help

Pane paths, Pinning and Pane linking

Viewer panes and the network editor show the nodes at a certain network level, designated by a path shown in the path gadget.

Click any of the components of the path to jump to that network level. Right click the path for a menu of options. Click the menu button at the right end, or click the arrows at the left end to navigate through the history of locations.

	Drag the sync icon to another pane to match that pane’s path to this one.
Ctrl + L	Lets you type a path to go to. This lets you instantly jump to another network if you know its path.

Pin icon

Clicking the pin icons toggles whether the pane follows the selection or stays on the currently displayed information.

Normally the panes follow the selection.

Click the pin icon to push it in. This “pins” the pane to the current place, so it won’t change as you select different objects/nodes.

It can be very useful to have multiple network editors and/or parameter editors open in separate tabs, with one unpinned and the rest pinned to important locations in the scene hierarchy.

Pane linking

Users of versions of Houdini prior to 9.0 may find pane linking natural or essential to their established workflows. New users will probably find that pane linking is more complex than simply using normal pinning and unpinning.

Right-click the Pin icon shows a list of numbers.
Choose a number from the menu. This links the pane to all other panes sharing that number. All linked panes update to follow the same path.

“No link” is equivalent to the pinned icon: the pane is pinned to its current location. “Last selected node” is equivalent to the icon: the pane follows the selection.

If you have a layout with four panes, with two panes assigned to 1 and two panes assigned to 2, when you change the path in one of the 2 panes, the other 2 pane will change to the same path.

Tabs

To create a new tab, click the new tab icon and choose the pane type to put in the tab (see below). Right click an existing tab to change its pane type.

Ctrl + Tab	Next tab.
Ctrl + PgDn
Ctrl + ⇧ Shift + Tab	Previous tab.
Ctrl + PgUp

(These keys only work for the pane the mouse pointer is over)

Resizing, hiding and maximizing panes

Drag the divider line between panes to resize them.

The arrow controls at the center of the divider let you quickly maximize the pane on one side of the divider and hide the other. This is useful when you have a pane you need to refer to or work in at some times (such as the channel editor in the layout above) but can be put away at other times when you're working purely in the viewer.

Click the arrows to move the divider all the way up/left or down/right. This maximizes the pane on one side of the divider and hides the other.
Click the grip at the center of the divider to swap the contents of the panes on either side of the divider (as opposed to dragging to resize).
Alt-click the grip to switch the divider between vertical and horizontal orientation.

Pane menu

Set pane tab type

Choose a pane type for the current tab. You can also right click a tab to set the pane type for the tab. See the list of pane types below.

Previous/Next pane tab

Switch to the previous/next pane tab. Use the keyboard shortcuts to move between tabs.

Tear off pane tab/Tear off pane tab copy

Move or copy the contents of the current tab into a floating window.

Close pane tab

Delete the current tab.

Maximize pane

Make this pane take up the entire window. This is the same as clicking the maximize icon.

Close pane (all tabs)

Removes the entire pane, and all its tabs, from the pane layout.

Split pane left/right, Split pane top/bottom

Split the current pane into two side-by-side panes. This lets you add new panes to the pane layout.

Pane Interface

Pane Tabs	Hides/Displays the pane tabs.
Network Controls	Hides/Displays the network controls.
Move Main Menu Here	Moves the main menu to the top of this pane instead of along the top of the entire main window. Only available on Windows and Linux.
Move Shelf Here	Moves the shelf to the top of this pane instead of along the top of the entire main window.
Move playbar Here	Moves the playbar to the bottom of this pane instead of along the bottom of the entire main window.
Move Status Bar Here	Moves the status bar to the bottom of this pane instead of along the bottom of the entire main window. Only available on Windows and Linux.

Pane Types

At the far left of each Pane menu is the Pane type icon that indicates what kind of content the Pane is working with.

Scene view	A 3D viewer showing the objects in your scene.
Particle view	A 3D viewer for viewing particle simulations independent of the scene.
Network	Shows the networks of nodes that create the scene.
Parameters	Lets you edit parameters of the selected node, and set keyframes on specific parameters.
Tree View	A hierarchical list of all nodes in the scene. This view does not show you how nodes are connected like the network editor, but it gives you quick access to them by path.
Take list	A hierarchical list of takes. This pane gives lets you edit the list of takes. It can also be easier to select takes from the list in this pane than from the takes menu in the top right.
Textport	A command-line console that lets you enter HScript commands and see the results.
Python Shell	An interactive shell that lets you type python expressions and commands and see the results.
Channel Editor	Lets you view and manipulate channels using animation curves, dope sheet, or table views.
Channel List	Lists all “scoped” parameters for the selected objects. Lets you quickly edit animated parameters.
Motion View	A viewer for channel operator data.
Render Scheduler	A pane that shows all active renders, and allows you to pause or kill them.
Composite View	A viewer for 2D compositing.
Material Palette	Lets you assign materials to objects and primitives interactively.
Shader View	Allows you to view and rotate the selected shader ball.
Render View	A viewer for interactive rendering.
Light Linker	Lets you link objects to lights as well as do other types of linking. See lighting.
Bundle List	Lets you create and edit the contents of bundles. Bundles are collections of objects, such as lights, that let you assign them as a group in various places, such as in the light linker.
Details view	Shows a list of geometry points belonging to the selected modeling node.
Handle List	The list of persistent handles (handles you have specified should stay visible even when the handle’s node is not selected) and HUD sliders (parameter controls you have dragged into the viewer).
Parameter Spreadsheet	A table view of nodes and their parameters, letting you view, compare, and edit the settings for multiple nodes at once.
Context View	Displays a specific context view depending on the selected node.
Help Browser	Displays the online help. The help browser is also a completely functional embedded Web browser you can use to view your own Web pages.