houdini.pref

sdugaro · Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2009 7:42 pm GMT Post subject: houdini.pref

Hi wondering what the load procedure is for houdini.pref.

how can I set certain preferences for all licenses on the
network, and still allow users to have some semblance of
customizing their own preferences...

I tried creating a houdini.pref.nosave to setup values for
our external help server. But then noticed as a result of
this file, i was unable to save personal preferences such
as pane coloration, startup desktop, etc...

Do all houdini.pref get read in the path? which order?
does the final one read trump any previously set prefs,
or is it more like the first one read is used and the
any subsequent houdini.pref are ignored...

I then renamed houdini.pref.nosave to houdini.pref and
got back my pane coloration and startup desktop... but
lost the facility wide houdini.prefs that setup the
external help server port

thanks!

sdugaro · Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 5:26 pm GMT Post subject:

got this working with the help of jlait + the docs. cheers!

1) you need to define the $HSITE environment variable
2) the $HSTIE environment path must have (end with ?) houdini10.0.
3) create a houdini.pref.nosave in $HSITE
4) the first line of the file should contain the following directive to pull in user preferences

sdugaro · Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2010 8:21 pm GMT Post subject:

spoke too soon, that directive doesnt work. when i

sdugaro · Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 5:32 pm GMT Post subject:

ok, got this working.
The value of the include directive must be in quotes to avert the cpp error.

the $HSITE houdini.pref also needs to be a houdini.pref.nosave in order
to overrides the included user options. else the last houdini.pref in the
path will win (in my case the user houdini.pref)

Turns out that having an $HSITE variable isn't a requirement.
You just need a houdini.pref.nosave to be found at the top
of the list of paths in $HOUDINI_PATH. The first houdini.pref.nosave
encountered is the one read and all subsequent houdini.pref(.nosave)'s
are ignored.

So in summary, #include "$HOME/houdini10.0/houdini.pref" in the first line
of a houdini.pref.nosave then override some houdini.pref with site prefs
and ensure that this houdini.pref.nosave is at the top of your $HOUDINI_PATH.

Wolfwood · Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 6:20 pm GMT Post subject:

Wow, thanks for the tip. I was about to jump into something along these lines.

And you just saved me a bunch of trail, error and whining.

sdugaro · Posted: Mon Jan 11, 2010 6:55 pm GMT Post subject:

cool, glad to see a posting of mine having the potential to be put to some good use!

you might also try to define an environment variable ($HVER) when houdini loads
so that you dont need to hardcode the houdini10.0 in the houdini.pref.nosave
(#include "$HOME/houdini$HVER/houdini.pref")

You might not want to force the user to use his houdini10.0 options when
using a different version of houdini (ie. $HOME/houdini10.5/houdini.pref)
since its possible that the houdini prefs and values could be different.

amilne · Lurker Joined: 26 Oct 2009 Posts: 7

This has been very helpful! I've been trying to do something similar, but I've run into a few problems.

We want a site-wide setting to disable the "Open Help Browser at Startup". This setting is in hcommon.pref I tried creating a hcommon.pref.nosave containing

#include "$HOME/houdini10.0/hcommon.pref"
startupHelp := 0;

And then I put the directory containing this hcommon.pref.nosave in the front of the HOUDINI_PATH. This all works fine, except that now if I change any of my preferences in Houdini which would go in the hcommon.pref file, it doesn't save them to my $HOME/houdini10.0/hcommon.pref anymore. This is no good if the user can't save any of their other preferences. Did you run into this?

Also, we wanted to change some display settings which are found in display.pref. This file seems to be a different format and I can't get it to work. I put the following in display.pref.nosave, but it never seems to get picked up:

#include "$HOME/houdini10.0/display.pref"
near ( 10 )
far ( 1000000 )
adjustlimits ( 0 )

I put the display.pref.nosave in the same location as the hcommon.pref.nosave, which does get picked up.

fxrod · Posted: Fri May 18, 2012 5:38 pm GMT Post subject:

When you say you need to add the houdini.pref.nosave to the 'top of the Houdini path', do you mean at the beginning or the end?

My path structure is like this.
<user>:<shot>:<show>:<site>

If I add the .nosave to the <site> would this not work?

fxrod · Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2012 9:54 am GMT Post subject:

Just following up on this for posterity.

The correct way is:

<config dir>:<user>:<shot>:<show>:<site>

It most definitely has to be at the top of the Houdini path.

Hope this helps somebody.