Houdini 20.5 Nodes Geometry nodes

Unix geometry node

Processes geometry using an external program.

This operator lets you write an external program/script that reads in .geo or .bgeo formatted data|/io/geo] (Houdini automatically detects the format), manipulates the data, and writes out modified .geo or .bgeo (set using the Output format parameter).

Note

Despite its name, the unix command works on non-UNIX operating systems.

Houdini includes a number of standalone utilities in $HFS/bin (starting with g) that process geometry data and support all geometry types.

Often the standalone utilities included with Houdini follow a convention where filenames prefixed with stdin or stdout will read from standard input or write to standard output, instead of reading from/writing to a file. For example, you can use gconvert with this node by calling it as gconvert stdin.geo stdout.geo.

Tip

You can use an external process to generate geometry rather than filtering it by ignoring the input and simply having the external program write out the geometry you want to generate.

Parameters

Command

The command string to execute.

Output format

Controls the format Houdini sends to the external process, .geo or .bgeo. This is not the output format written by the external program (Houdini automatically detects that).

ASCII

Write out .geo data to the external process.

Binary

Write out .bgeo data to the external process.

Force Recook

Click to force the node to recook and execute the command.

See also

Geometry nodes