Houdini 20.5 Nodes TOP nodes

Service Create TOP node

Creates a PDG service.

Since 19.5

This node registers an instance of one of the available PDG service types with the PDG Services panel. Once a service has been registered, it can be used by the PDG graph.

Tip

You can also create PDG services directly in the PDG Services panel.

Parameters

Service Create

Open PDG Service Panel

Opens the PDG Services panel.

Generate When

Determines when this node will generate work items. You should generally leave this set to “Automatic” unless you know the node requires a specific generation mode, or that the work items need to be generated dynamically.

All Upstream Items are Generated

This node will generate work items once all of the input nodes have generated their work items.

All Upstream Items are Cooked

This node will generate work items once all of the input nodes have cooked their work items.

Each Upstream Item is Cooked

This node will generate work items each time a work item in an input node is cooked.

Automatic

The generation mode is selected based on the generation mode of the input nodes. If any of the input nodes are generating work items when their inputs cook, this node will be set to Each Upstream Item is Cooked. Otherwise, it will be set to All Upstream Items are Generated.

Create Service During

Determines when the service is created.

Cook (In-Process)

Creates the service during the cook stage in the same process as the Houdini session.

Generate

Creates the service when the work item is generating.

Service Already Exists

Determines how the node operates when the specified service (as defined by the Name parameter) already exists.

None

The node does nothing and the work item will successfully cook.

Report Warning

The node reports a warning and the work item will successfully cook.

Report Error

The node reports an error and the work item will fail.

Copy Inputs to Outputs

When on, work items in this node copy input files to their output file list.

Service

Owner

Determines which type of service to create. A service can belong to either the Houdini session or to a scheduler.

Session

The service belongs to the Houdini session.

Scheduler

The service belongs to the scheduler specified in the Scheduler field.

Scheduler

The scheduler that the service belongs to. When creating a service scheduler, you are required to provide a value for this parameter.

This parameter is only available when Owner is set to Scheduler.

Type

Determines the type of service to create.

ROP Fetch Service

The service is a ROP Fetch service.

Python Service

The service is a Python service.

HDA Processor

The service is an HDA Processor service.

Name

Specifies the name of the service. The service Name is used as the service’s unique identifier. As such, there cannot be any other registered services with the same name.

See also Service Already Exists.

Pool Size

Specifies the number of clients that are created by the service. Each client can process one work item at a time.

Persistent

When on, the service definition will be saved to the pdgservice.json files, whic will make the service available in new Houdini sessions.

Automatically Start Service

When on, if the service is not already running, then the service will be automatically started before it’s required by a PDG cook. Services are automatically started during the pre-cook step.

Connection

Port

Determines which port the service will use for communication between Houdini, the MQ Server, and the service clients.

Automatic

Use the automatically determined port.

Manual

Use the custom port number specified by the integer field.

Connection Timeout (s)

Determines how long service clients should wait when starting up before timing out.

Logging

MQ Server Log Level

Controls what type of information is written to the MQ server’s log file.

None

No information is written to the log.

Errors

Only errors are written to the log.

Warnings

Warnings and errors are written to the log.

All

General status messages, warnings, and errors are written to the log.

MQ Server Log Directory

Specifies the logging directory in which the MQ server will create its log file.

Client Log Type

Specified whether the client should log to standard output, a file on disk, or supress log output.

Client Log Directory

Specifies the logging directory in which clients within the service pool will create their log files.

Schedulers

TOP Scheduler Override

This parameter overrides the TOP scheduler for this node.

Work Item Label

Determines how the node should label its work items. This parameter allows you to assign non-unique label strings to your work items which are then used to identify the work items in the attribute panel, task bar, and scheduler job names.

Use Default Label

The work items in this node will use the default label from the TOP network, or have no label if the default is unset.

Inherit From Upstream Item

The work items inherit their labels from their parent work items.

Custom Expression

The work item label is set to the Label Expression custom expression which is evaluated for each item.

Node Defines Label

The work item label is defined in the node’s internal logic.

Label Expression

When on, this parameter specifies a custom label for work items created by this node. The parameter can be an expression that includes references to work item attributes or built-in properties. For example, $OS: @pdg_frame will set the label of each work item based on its frame value.

Work Item Priority

This parameter determines how the current scheduler prioritizes the work items in this node.

Inherit From Upstream Item

The work items inherit their priority from their parent items. If a work item has no parent, its priority is set to 0.

Custom Expression

The work item priority is set to the value of Priority Expression.

Node Defines Priority

The work item priority is set based on the node’s own internal priority calculations.

This option is only available on the Python Processor TOP, ROP Fetch TOP, and ROP Output TOP nodes. These nodes define their own prioritization schemes that are implemented in their node logic.

Priority Expression

This parameter specifies an expression for work item priority. The expression is evaluated for each work item in the node.

This parameter is only available when Work Item Priority is set to Custom Expression.

See also

TOP nodes