| On this page |
This dialog appears when you right-click an subnetwork in the network editor and choose Digital Assets ▸ Create New, or when you right-click an existing asset and choose Digital Assets ▸ Save As to create a copy.
See how to create a new digital asset for more information.
Name Construction ¶
These options combine together to build the internal name of the new asset.
The internal name is how Houdini references the asset, not the human-readable label that shows up in the tab menu. The asset’s internal name should be unique: if two nodes have an identical internal name, only one can be created by the user through the tab menu. The namespacing and versioning features help you prevent accidental overlap of internal names.
The most common way you’ll interact with the internal name of a node is when scripting.
Tip
We highly recommend that an asset’s internal name and Label match up (for example, threelightrig and Three Light Rig), to avoid confusion.
Type Name
This is the basic “name” part of the internal name of the asset. For example, threelightrig.
This string must start with a letter or underscore, and can contain only letters, numbers, and underscores. For example, threelightrig.
You can change the label later, but you can’t change the internal name without recreating the asset.
Branch
This adds some extra text to the namespace, marking what part of the development cycle the node is in. If you turn off the checkbox next to Branch, the dialog will not add a branch to the namespace string.
Some people may find useful, especially in large studios with shared asset libraries. It can help distinguish versions of the same asset in different phases, so for example artists can ensure they're using the “main” version of an asset, while TDs are working on a “dev” version.
The drop-down menu to the right of the Branch field has some suggested values, for example “dev” (in development), “test” (limited release for testing), “main” (tested mainline version).
Version
This adds a version number part to the name, for example threelightrig::2.0.
If you turn off the checkbox next to Version, the dialog will not add a version to the name. (An “empty” version is considered the earliest version when Houdini decides which is the latest version.) It’s up to you whether you want to start your assets with a version like 1.0, or no version.
The version number lets you have multiple versions of an asset with the same name loaded at the same time, so scene files with older versions of an asset still work. Houdini ensures that the Tab menu puts down the latest version (by default).
Tab Menu ¶
Save To ¶
These options control the library file the asset is saved into (the parent directory and the library file name).
Note
Remember that asset library files can store multiple assets. If you specify an existing library file as the destination for a new asset, it adds the asset to the existing file (it doesn’t overwrite the file with only the new asset).
Library Path
Choose the parent directory in containg the library file to save into.
User Preferences Directory
Save the asset in your personal prefs directory. This makes the asset available across projects, but only to you.
Hip File Directory
Save the asset in an hda subdirectory next to the current scene file. This makes the asset available to the current “project”: the current scene file and any other scene files in the same directory.
Site-specific Directory
Save the asset into your site (studio) shared hda directory. This only works if someone (you, the studio’s IT department, or someone else) has set up $HSITE environment variable to point to a site-wide network share.
From Preferences
You can set up a commonly used directory in the Save Asset Preferences dialog, and then choose this item to use it.
Embedded in .hip File
Embeds the asset definition as part of the current scene file. This makes the asset only available in this scene file. This can be useful when testing an asset.
Custom
Enter a custom directory path by hand.
Note
Some of these save locations ($HIP/hda, $HSITE/hda, often the custom values) are not scanned for assets by default. If you save to these locations, the asset will automatically be installed in this scene file, but you will need to manually install the assets when you want to use them in other scene files. Or, you can add the directories to the $HOUDINI_OTLSCAN_PATH so Houdini does automatically scan them for assets.
Library Name
Choose how to build the library filename.
Everything
Use the namespace, internal name, and version to build the filename. For example, matt.dev.threelightrig.2.0.hda.
Type Name
Use the base type name to build the filename. For example, threelightrig.hda.
Node Name
Use the name of the node instance you right-clicked to turn into an asset to build the filename. If you created the asset from a subnet that had already been given a meaningful name, this might be useful. For example, three_light_rig2.hda.
From Preferences
You can set up a template string in the Save Asset Preferences dialog, and then choose this item to use it.
Custom
Enter a custom filename by hand.
Prefix Type Category
This adds the network type to the library filename as a further guard against filename overlap.
If you keep a lot of asset files in the same directory, there’s a possibility you could have two assets of different network types (for example, a geometry asset (SOP) and a Solaris asset (LOP)) with the same name, namespace, and version. If you want to keep assets in separate files, you can turn this on to make sure assets of different network types but with the same internal name are saved into different files.